Trial by fire

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to do a lot of drawing on big paper — very big paper. I was drawing on rolls of 48 inch wide colored paper, mostly black.  I made 7 foot tall drawings that I would then trace over onto other sheets and then cut out. Finally, the cut outs were glued to red roll paper that was stapled onto frames. The end products were used for a fund raiser and people loved them. People posed next to them and took pictures.

Of course I waited until the last week to do everything, from constructing the frames to settling on the designs, drawing, cutting them out, and then recreating them after some accidents with a certain dog and spray fixative. In the end, I made six figure drawings and put down a lot of lines.

The time crunch made me work with confidence and efficiency. I got everything together: paper, tape, and I prepped by sharpening dozens of pencils before I began a piece. Once I got started, I didn’t want to have to stop for anything. Well, the hours of drawing were a great test for the supplies I had chosen. I leaned on my tools and here are some results:

The vintage Eagle Verithin in Yellow Ochre (No. 736), of which I have many dozen, performed admirably. The color went down nicely and stood out on the black paper. I now feel vindicated in buying so many of these on eBay. When I had first bought them, I had some buyer’s remorse, wondering what the heck I was going to do with so many yellow pencils. Yellow’s not suited for white paper in general, but the pencils worked nicely on black paper. Random art supplies to the rescue.

The Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser did a good job of sufficiently erasing large areas and not tearing the very thin black paper even while I worked quickly back and forth. When I had to remove the yellow color completely, it did a great job of that, too. Eraser shavings piled on the floor.

I did have one miss, though. I tried using the white, modern Mexican-made Prismacolor and while great for indicating the final (preferred shapes) they were, ultimately, a disappointment. The colored core was not bonded properly to the wood, so the core got pushed out the other end. I wanted to continue using the white, though and fixed the problem by using painters tape on the exit end. I won’t be buying these anymore. Trust me. A real shame. The white was soft and bright on the black, and stood out in stark contrast to the black and rough yellow sketches. These pencils are typically a dollar a piece and are total junk.

In the end, the Verithin once again performed admirably and the Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser earned it’s place on my drawing table. But bye, bye, Mexican-made Prismacolor. Thank goodness for eBay, where old art supplies wait for their final destinies (to show up their modern would be successors). I’ll definitely be looking out for a box of American made white Prismacolors with a bonded white core to wood case — nice concept.

Eagle Verithin No. 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser

The Eagle Verithin No 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser is an old, no longer manufactured hard colored pencil that was made in the U.S.  I suspect mine came from some time around the late 1970s and early 1980s, based on the box design. In spite of having a hard core (lead), the pencil is not brittle. You can sharpen it to a long point and it won’t crumble under reasonable pressure. The 2745 is the eraser capped version of the old Verithin 745, which instead has a small metal cap — I think the eraser makes it more beautiful, personally.

I’ve used the 2745, now, for drawing and for correcting printed documents. It’s similar in appearance to the Eagle Black Warrior. Both are premium pencils, with the exact same brass ferule with painted band. The 2745 has a dark burgundy paint job, alluding to the red inside but not trying to duplicate it — it’s there for looks. When I throw together a bunch of pencils, the 2745 stands out. Contrast this to the Verithin of today, which has been stripped down to the basics — the paint job more closely matches what gets laid down on paper and there’s less ostensive design — there’s just letters, not even a metal cap. Hey, every penny counts and finishing-touches cost money.

I use the 2745 for both pre-drawing (which will later be finished with graphite) and for finished drawings where all I use is the red. This is an excellent hard colored pencil and I hope I have enough to last me for a while. I don’t know if I’ll ever catch another 2745 auction. Thankfully, the old 745 is common on eBay and if I ever need some, I can get them for cheap.