Pencilled In
You know I love pens. Whenever I travel I like to pick up a pen as a souvenir. In face, I usually come home with two: A ballpoint from the hotel and a fountain pen from the local stationers (in Europe they are still widely used and therefore available on the cheap pretty much everywhere.
Since I haven’t travelled in quite sometime and because the shops that would sell me ink refills have been closed since November, I haven’t been able to get my ink fix. But thanks to Mr. Andrew and my friends at Rolex, I have been able to explore the possibilities of the pencil.
The mister has been cleaning up his office of late. On the weekend he gave me these eight pencils from cult brand Blackwing (don’t worry, he still has plenty of his own). I haven’t tried them out yet but zi do have a concept that would make good use of their ample erasers.
Earlier he gave me a set of pencil crayons that I had given him a couple of years ago. They in turn had been a gift from NOMOS, a watch company. I have been making good use of them this month as I signed up for a group art show at the local ARTiculations Gallery. It’s been quite a journey relearning how to work with pencil crayons. The biggest challenge, however is working with cheap Dollarama sketchbooks. They were the only sketchbooks I had in the house — even Dollarama is not allowerd to sell these non-essential items at the moment. The paper is okay for markers, but it doesn’t have enough tooth for pencil crayon to hold. The surface feels slippery and the colour of the lead transfers onto the opposite page. I do not recommend.
I am still using the NOMOS set for the time being, but I’m also itching to bust out these Caran D’aches pencil crayons that Rolex sent over after Watches and Wonders. These are the kind of crayons that I dreamed of owning in art school so my expectations are high. I realize that all of my artistic endeavours probably deserve finer tools and materials. I am grateful that Dollarama provided accessible and affordable paper during the pandemic, I am going to order some fancier sketchbooks from ARTiculations once the lockdown has been lifted (hopefully in two weeks).