Liquid centres

Baby and doll
coloured pencil on Canson sketch pad 11 x 14
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I'm feeling virtuous tonight. I've just put in a couple of miles on the treadmill, deprived myself of leftover mince pies, ate salads all day,downed 2 litres of waters during the course of the day and found a liquid graphite pencil at Walmart.

Some things are meant to be. At work this morning it was quiet, peaceful, then punctuated by what sounded like firecrackers going off. Close enough. It was the power bar that the printers and router were plugged into. It decided that it was time to stop and wanted to do so in a dramatic way, with sparks and loud bangs.

After my heart stopped racing, I unplugged the thing, then headed off to find a new powerbar - or two. These things never go alone. So I headed to Walmart and picking up a few more things for the office I passed the pencil aisle. Well, I figured I'd have a quick look while I was there and found liquid graphite mechanical pencils. Are these new only to me? The brand name is Pentech under the trademark Liquiphite and are produced by Jakkspacific in California.

I grabbed a package and will give them a test run over the next day or so. A quick try showed that they apply like pen but are erasable. The graphite line is dark and feels a bit greasy to the touch - perhaps the binder that is used for the graphite - but it erases very easily. Online reviews are mixed, so it will be interesting to compare and see how it performs.

At Pencil Things there is a huge selection of pencils of all types for sale, some of which I'd never heard of before like the Chattahoochee pencil.

You can use it to write, draw and mark on most surfaces. You can erase. Yet it's not like any pencil you ever held. The unique composite won't suspend in paint, so you can sketch and paint over the lines. It won't smudge or rub off on on your hands, either. Builders' marks won't smear or wash away. The unique shape and different planes allow you to make lines of varying widths, while the curved back lets you do shading and rubbings.

On the same site, I found another form of liquid graphite pencils under the same brand name - Pentech, called Ultrasharp. These have liquid graphite cartridges enclosed in a wooden casing, so they look like ordinary wood pencils.

In yesterday's post, I had discovered liquid graphite from an Australian company and have found out that it is available in the USA from Jerry's Artarama only it seems. I can't find a Canadian stockist (surprise, surprise...) and haven't heard anything back from my email to Matisse Derivan, the Australian manufacturer.

Perhaps these will satisfy my curiosity for the moment til I can get the real thing.

Liquid pencil

I read about a newish product today (it was available summer 2007) and am intrigued with it and would love to try it. Liquid Pencil. this is produced by an Australian company - Matisse Derivan.

The video above shows Sue Raccanello using the product in a drawing/painting.

Matisse Derivan describes the Liquid Pencil properties:

Derivan Liquid Pencil is an innovative new product that allows you to create authentic graphite pencil effects and pencil sketches using a liquid. It has been formulated to be easily thinned with water or MM9 Acrylic Painting Medium (to maintain permanency) and allow for the softest of colours to be applied with a brush, nib, or other art tools. With a consistency of cream, and a different rheology, artists now have a wider scope for creating sketches.

Derivan Liquid Pencil is available in six graphite shades each with a permanent or rewettable formula.

Due to a precisely balanced formulation another great benefit of the Permanent liquid pencil is that it will “burnish up’ in a similar manner to traditional graphite but it will not smudge.

The rewettable formula will also allow you to remove areas using water – in a similar manner to watercolour techniques, or it is possible to use with a traditional eraser. Another advantage to using Derivan Liquid Pencil is that large areas can be built up and covered quickly and easily.

Each of the shades have a definite graphite colour, however, there are distinct undertones such as blue, yellow red, sepia and neutral in two different strengths to allow a great range of options for artists.

Free samples of the product were being distributed worldwide, but the offer has now ended, as I presume there was high demand, as there often is when samples are provided. I wonder what the success rate of samples are in terms of buyers of the final product. I'm sure that there are lots of 'freebie' seekers with kitchen drawers full of samples that are never used.

You can view the colour chart for the liquid pencil here.

I have emailed Matisse Derivan to ask if there is a Canadian distributer or if I can buy directly from the factory there. According to their website, it seems there are only Australian distributors so far.

If anyone knows any North American distributors of this product, please let me know.

Portrait

Woody
Derwent drawing pencils, 11 x 14 on Canson
copyright Jeanette Jobson

Today I did a sketch of Woody who is 90 years old. He married 10 years ago at the age of 80 and is currently nursing his 88 year old wife who has Alzheimers.

There is such character in an older face and it is such a pleasure to draw an older person. The faces of youth, while lovely to look at, really hold little interest to me in terms of drawing. They present challenges to define smooth skin and that bloom of youth. It is a fleeting moment and gone in a blink of an eye. Just as well you don't realize it at the time.

However, it is replaced with something much more valuable.

I dug out my set of Derwent drawing pencils as I hadn't used them for awhile. They are the perfect pencils, in my opinion, for portraiture. They have such soft earthy colours and lay down so well and quickly on paper, that they are pleasure to use.

Alone

I am alone almost all of the time, but I am rarely lonely... it is those days where I do not paint or write or create something, that I am lonely, when I've generally been too busy with people of unlike mind and interests... (Vicki Easingwood)

Because I like sharing ideas and seeing what other artists are producing I have a list that I share on my blog of other artist's blogs and websites that interest me and which I read regularly.

Blog shelf life seems to be dwindling in some areas lately, so I've been whittling my list and shopping around for new artists to add to the list. If I have taken you off my list, it isn't a personal thing. It is because you haven't posted to your blog regularly i.e., at least two or three times a week. I know we all get blog fatigue from time to time and life also kicks in which makes posting difficult, but I need my fix of art from other sources and if you're on my list, then you're it.

If I've missed a great blog or you are willing to admit that you know me and would like to be added to my blog roll, please leave me a comment.

Its too big a world to be alone in.

Art and stress

The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

As and artist and a herbalist, I find holistic approaches to life have a deeper meaning to me than to some others sometimes. Now I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool lobbyist for alternative practices, but I do believe that they have a place in life alongside Western medicine and consistantly debate the use of herbal remedies against Western pharmaceuticals whenever I see my own doctor.

Its a natural progression to look to art for a calming influence and see how its original origins can spill over into the 21st century in the form of mandalas. The creation of a mandala is a class that I will offer later this year for adults. It will be an exploration of self, almost a symbolic self portrait for each individual and to serve as a stress reducer and relaxant.

Representing the universe itself, a mandala is both the microcosm and the macrocosm, and we are all part of its intricate design. The mandala is more than an image seen with our eyes; it is an actual moment in time. It can be can be used as a vehicle to explore art, science, religion and life itself. The mandala contains an encyclopedia of the finite and a road map to infinity.

Carl Jung said that a mandala symbolizes "a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness." It is "a synthesis of distinctive elements in a unified scheme representing the basic nature of existence." Jung used the mandala for his own personal growth and wrote about his experiences.

It is said by Tibetan Buddhists that a mandala consists of five "excellencies":

The teacher • The message • The audience • The site • The time

An audience or "viewer" is necessary to create a mandala. Where there is no you, there is no mandala. (from: You Are the Eyes of the World, by Longchenpa, translated by Lipman and Peterson).

Have you created a mandala? If so, what was the experience like and how to you and others view the completed mandala? I will be creating my own personal mandala and look forward to the process of drawing and adding colour to it.

Here is a good starting point to learn more about mandalas

The Mandala Project

And a great sample of the relaxation factor in this virtual mandala or labyrinthe.

Online Finger Meditation

Visualizing with words

Peppers (in progress)
Coloured pencil, 9 x 12 Canson paper
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I have to go back to work tomorrow so I'm fitting in some of the things that I still need to do to keep my mind at rest. One of those is a demo for a class, so I've made a start on it over the last 24 hours.

One of the things that I want to achieve this year is to put my lessons and tutorials in written form for possible use as lessons/kits for sale. I'm just not quite sure of the format at this early stage, but I'm making myself start as I mean to go on. I will put the drawing processes down on paper, at least in a basic format for my use, and perhaps expand some.

It really is much easier to just draw than to put the process of drawing into words. The steps in choosing colours, pencil pressure, layering, etc., etc. is monumental at times and sometimes I find myself skipping scans as my hand continues to add colour to the paper without thinking about it. Then I realize what I've done and its too late to turn back then, so I try to make up for it in additional word pictures and hope the reader can understand what I'm trying to say.

I'll do a 'test drive' on some artist volunteers once I have this process in place to see how it reads, if it's understandable and the user can create something pleasing to them using the instructions and images. If there are readers out there who are interested in being testers of this process, please let me know. Once I develop testing criteria and the final draft of the tutorial, I will contact a number of testers to try it out.