How to Shave a Pencil

*Special Sketch Note for Discovering Drawing students*

Isn't this a delicious picture?
Look at all of that color!
Does your desk sport such brilliance?

Now, as we all know there are several ways to skin a point. Your first thought might be to poke it into that sleek electric pencil sharpener in the corner over there. And that is great for detail work and has a specific feel that is pleasing to the hand as well as the eye.

Another way might be to use an Xacto knife and shave the wood off to carefully reveal the lead as they did in this picture. I recommend that you try this method just for the fun/experience of it. It is a great way to BOND with your points, feel the wood, smell that new pencil smell, see the wealth of color and contrast, hear the sound of the shaving... (Employ almost all of your senses, except for tasting... Never, ever eat any part of a pencil it might be worse than running with scissors. Grin!)

Last weeks class focused on bonding with your points and tho we are mostly working with black and white, I encourage you to try the third "Daily Draw" with colored pencils. Besides being fun, you can experiment with carving the point on your pencils. Try crosshatching with a blunt tip and a very pointy one. Try smudging and doodling, try meandering touch and holding the pencil in a tightened fist!

*ALWAYS use care with sharp objects! I have several finger scars from pocket knifes, Matt knives, xacto blades and other slicing tools!*

Play! Enjoy the week, Li

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