In addition to the pens, though, I also bought a cheap set of mechanical pencils. It had been a long time since I'd used a mechanical pencil and couldn't remember what size I preferred so a pack with three different sizes, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm, made a lot of sense. For reasons that now elude me I mostly used the 0.7mm pencil.
I want to point out here that the world of mechanical pencils is roughly divided into technical pencils and pencils intended for everyday writing. Most of the very cheap pencils are intended for writing. This is not to say you need to spend a lot of money on a technical pencil or that you can't use a cheap writing pencil with Wild Gears. I'll write more on this topic at a later time.
My primary reason for starting with pencils was economy. I wanted to create a catalog of the patterns possible with my initial Compact Gears set and I knew that would involve making a lot of drawings where all I cared about was the form. Color would not add anything here. Little did I know going in how quickly my Wild Gear collection would expand or what a vast number of patterns were possible. (The catalog was just to contain simple patterns, but there are still an enormous number of them.)
More recently I began to wonder what effects could be accomplished with various levels of darkness of the pencil lead. If you've never gone beyond those #2 pencils used in school, you should know there are an array of lead hardness grades that impact the amount of graphite left on the paper and therefore the darkness of the mark left behind. There are different scales used but the most common basically separates leads into "hard" or "soft".
Hard leads are designated by 'H', with degrees of hardness indicated by a preceding number. Levels from H to 10H are available, though beyond 4H the mark is so light it's very difficult to see unless you have a very heavy hand.
Soft leads are designated by 'B', with degrees of softness indicated by a preceding number. Like with hard leads, levels range from B to 10B. B lead is preferred by some writers who like a very dark line, but beyond B or 2B is primarily the realm of artists. 3B and up are extremely soft and tend to leave a lot of loose graphite on the page. They really aren't suitable for use with Wild Gears.
In between these two ranges lie HB and F. HB is roughly equal to that standard #2 pencil of school days. F is said to indicate the lead sharpens to a Fine point (or maybe Firm as opposed to hard or soft). F is harder/lighter than HB but softer/darker than H.
For use with Wild Gears, after a fair bit of experimentation, I feel 4H is the extreme on the hard side and 2B on the soft side. You wouldn't miss much if you stopped at 3H and B.
Using pencil has pluses and minuses. On the plus side, once you've gone beyond the one-time expense of buying the pencil(s), it's very economical. A supply of lead that will last most people many years costs just a few dollars. (I should add that you do need to shop carefully. Some vendors will happily charge you $12 for a tube of 12 leads when that's about what you should spend for a box of 12 tubes of 12 leads.) Collections of various hardness leads can be had for about what a set of pens would cost and will last much, much longer than the pens. (I'll probably talk more about leads in a subsequent post.)
You will most likely never wear out a decent mechanical pencil or splay the tip to the point it's no longer usable. I know that despite using care when drawing I've worn down the tip of many a pen and most certainly rendered them useless for normal writing long before they ran out of ink. Of course, since the mechanical pencil is infinitely refillable, on a long term basis there is almost zero waste when using one.
Very dense drawings that with ink would saturate the paper and result in tearing, with pencil will just result in a lot of graphite on the page. With the softer leads there is a significant risk of smudging when the pattern gets too dense and the gear moves over drawn lines again and again. This is one of the reasons I've come to prefer F lead when I'm experimenting with new combinations. It's dark enough to show up well but hard enough that it doesn't leave a lot of excess graphite on the page to get smudged by the gear.
Here's an example.
The center of this drawing would have certainly become saturated with ink and quite possibly torn through. While even pencil leaves it quite dark in the center there's still a discernible pattern. It may not show up in this reduced image but the original does show some sign of smudging in the center. Still, I was able to complete the pattern without tearing the paper.
From a marginally artistic standpoint I like the effect of shading that's possible when using a succession of different hardness leads. Here's a simple example.
Here's another fairly simple one.
And one where the shading is a bit more complex.
There was nothing fancy done on any of these. No purposeful smudging or smearing of lines. Just the use of a succession of leads of decreasing hardness. I try to start with the hardest leads and work toward the softer ones to minimize the smudging.
On the minus side, there is the smudging I've already talked about. This can be reduced by using a brush on the underside of the gear and on the paper to remove any loose graphite. I'll typically do this at each change of drawing implement. Saving the softer leads to use toward the end will also mean fewer passes of the gear over those lines and less opportunity for smudging.
Unfortunately, the only practical way to use multiple leads is to have multiple pencils, one for each lead you intend to use with any frequency. You can change the lead used in a particular pencil but it's not something you'd want to do regularly.
Another drawback is that to maintain a consistent line requires a fairly steady hand. Increased pressure, like when moving the pencil around a sharp turn, can result in a significantly darker line. You can see a few instances of this in the first, very dense drawing above. Starting can also result in greater pressure and a darker line. The outermost loop at the twelve o'clock position on the last drawing above shows this rather clearly on a couple lines.
In addition to increasing pressure on sharp turns, a change of direction can also cause the lead to catch an edge and lay down a much darker line for a few inches. In extreme cases it can also gouge the paper. This can be worse if you hold the pencil perfectly perpendicular to the page and wear a flat surface at the tip of the lead. This leaves a sharp edge that can be easy to catch if the pencil is tilted a bit. Ironically, the solution is to always slightly angle the pencil into the direction of motion. This keeps the sharp edge from forming since direction of motion changes regularly and provides wear all around the lead.
Of course, varying pressure to obtain lines of different intensities may be exactly what you want, so this can be a minus or a plus depending on whether it was an accident or on purpose.
The biggest negative to using pencil is the lack of variety. Even with eight hardnesses of lead there's still limited contrast and this can get a bit boring. But pencil isn't meant to completely replace all those lovely colored pens. It's just another tool that can be used when it fits the purpose at hand. If you're just experimenting with patterns the pencil can be a practical and economical way to go.
Another aspect I've not yet experimented with to any extent is using various lead sizes. I mentioned the three sizes of pencil I bought originally. You can also get 0.35mm pencils/leads. Some of the sizes aren't available in as many hardnesses, but there's still some variation available. So you could experiment with size in addition to lead hardness.
In parting today, here are a couple variations on the same drawing using different leads.
And again, this time ending with darker lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment