A Tidy Drawing Kit

Inspired by a Kolby Kirk, I've become a bit more consistent in maintaining a written journal. You may note I have not used the word "journaling". It just irks me a bit, like chalk screeching on a blackboard. I write in a journal. I try to keep at it every day. I draw pictures, too. In the past these have been sketches of ideas or plans for cabinetmaking, remodeling, or landscaping projects. Inspired by Kirk, I've begun to add little maps and sketches. Like this one.

As the drawings have become incrementally more sophisticated, so have the tools. To a fine-point india ink felt tip and my treasured Pelikan fountain pen, I've added a few graphite pencils of varying hardness, a set of Prismacolor Watercolor pencils, and a water pen.

What the heck is a "water pen" was my reaction when I read Kirby's blog about one. Turns out it is a nylon brush attached to a barrel that serves as a water reservoir. A squeeze of the flexible plastic barrel moistens the brush. It can then be used to pick up color directly from the tip of a watercolor pencil, or to smooth out and enhance the color of watercolor pencil that has already been applied to paper. Very fun. To me it kind of feels like those fun children's coloring books where the color was already on the page in the form of water soluble ink dots that you brought out with a brush dipped in water.

Why does a photographer write about drawing and watercoloring? It turns out that, in my brief association with a group of artists, that it is not unusual for photographers to be closet painters, or the other way around. And I find a sort of meditative experience comes about through spending more time with a subject, and seeing it a bit more deeply.

Anyhow, the drive to create doesn't need an excuse, so this is how I've organized my drawing stuff.

So there is all of my stuff - the colored pencils, graphite pencils, pens, and the nifty water brush. There are a lot of colored pencils. To apply some organization I grouped them into warm colors and cool colors and corralled them with a pair of asparagus rubber bands. It's the season, so we have been enjoying a lot of them lately. The asparagus, not the rubber bands. The pens and graphite pencils all go into another pair of asparagus rubbers.

And there you have it. And the whole thing (including the little pencil sharpener that came with the Prismacolor set, altho I think I will add a single edge razor blade as well) fits right back into the tin that the pencils came in, minus the flimsy plastic trays.

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Hey - did you know that you can click on an image in this blog to see if full-screen in all of its glory, then forward arrow through the whole set?