Rainy Canvas: Sketchbook Review - DVD Sketchbook

Rainy Canvas: Sketchbook Review - DVD Sketchbook

Great review on one of Sketchbook Central's sketchbooks.

New Blackwing on sale June 8th to subscribers only

Head on over to pencils.com  and sign up for the newsletter to be able to pre-order the new (and more authentic) Blackwing 602 and get it before anyone else!

This version is designed to be a very close copy of the Eberhard Faber classic that was much beloved by writers and animators alike.  It's rumored that Disney ordered them by the case for the animation team.

Oh, just make sure to leave a couple dozen for me...

Timberlines: Reviving the Blacking: The All New Palomino Blackwing 602

I'm excited and eagerly awaiting these being posted to the site for purchase.
The new Blackwing is one of the finest pencils that I have ever laid my hands on and with the new changes that add longer wear and the "half the pressure - twice the speed" slogan returning makes this even better.

I really wish that they would ship them with the classic pink eraser but I guess that you can't have everything.

Head on over to the Timberlines blog for the whole story.

Timberlines: Reviving the Blacking: The All New Palomino Blackwing 602

Timberlines: Reviving the Blackwing: March Update

Timberlines: Reviving the Blackwing: March Update

Better late than never, here's my link to the newest update on the 602 Blackwing.

I agree with the other comments so far that the default eraser color should certainly be pink. If making it look like a classic Blackwing is the goal, pink is definitely the way to go.

What do you think?

Would you make pencils from Grandma?

According to this post at Mark Ecko's blog, designer Nadine Jarvis is working on a project that turns the cremated remains of your loved one into a large set of pencils (240).  You get one pencil at a time and sharpen the pencils into the container so that you keep some semblance of "ashes" to keep once it's all done.
 Your loved one's name  is stamped into the side of each pencil along with the start and end dates that you'd see on a headstone.

Here's the original post http://www.beingmarcecko.com/blog/2008/11/10/carbon-copy-rip.html

So what do you think, creepy or cool?

I just want to make sure I'm made into a nice 4B...

Video review of Neko Heavy Industries vintage paper notebook

Check out this great video review by Patrick over at Capitalist Bastards of the Neko Heavy Industries vintage paper pocket size sketchbook / notebook.



The single handed camera work kept making me afraid that he was going to drop it but thankfully any dropping was just the websites where you can buy them.

Solidly built and swanky cool books and a great review.

Great review of Neko Heavy Industries sketchbooks posted at Pencil Revolution

These sketchbooks are built like a tank wrapped in a silk glove.   Hand made, acid free and durable.
Check out the thorough review by the awesome editor over at Pencil Revolution.

Books available at www.neko2.etsy.com  and www.sketchbookcentral.com

California Cedar to offer Private Label

If you've ever tried a Republic of California Palomino pencil, you understand how exciting this is.
If you haven't then you owe it to yourself to order up a dozen.  Weather it's the original Palomino or new Blackwing, lovers of smooth dark high quality pencils will find these to be the new high water mark in your collection.

The original Palomino pencil

So with the news that they will be offering a private label option soon, I'm hoping to see more high quality private label pencils.  There used to be a time when companies and organizations wanted to make sure that their name only appeared on the best quality pencils and pens for fear of customers association of a poor quality writing instrument with the overall quality of their product or service.  More recently it seems that cost has won out over quality especially with many domestic companies no longer offering it as a service.

Preliminary private label concepts from CalCedar

My hope is that , if nothing else, this will remind casual users that pencils can be such a simple luxury and they don't have to be scratchy and poorly made.   I would love to see General and Musgrave get on board with this concept as well.

http://www.pencils.com/private-label-coming-soon

(I might also be looking to get a run of Sketchbook Central pencils run depending on the cost...)

What do you think, would your company benefit from these?

Happy Birthday Dave!

Daves mechanical pencils just turned five.  It's a great site for pencil geeks like me and a good resource for mechanical pencil reviews.

Here's hoping for many more!

Awesome tiny sculptures on the tip of pencils

See more at oddstuff magazine

I have a hard time just freehand sharpening pencils at times, doing something like this is just amazing.

It's so great to see the humble pencil used to create art in a way that keeps it in the spotlight.