The Blackwing is Extinct!

[egypturnash]

Found this amusing story via boingboing.net.

The Blackwing was a pencil that went out of production in the end of the nineties; I'd discovered them only a little earlier and was sad to see them go. This, however, is about people who have virtually turned it into a fetish object.

I'm not entirely guiltless; I still have one unsharpened Blackwing in my box of assorted fresh pencils. At Spümcø, Jim Smith stuck the stub of his last one (or one of his last ones) up on a bulletin board with a note reading 'The Blackwing is Extinct!'.

Things like this are why one friend of mine set out to learn to use the dirt cheap pencils you can buy ten for a dollar at the drugstore. And why I do so much of my color work digitally. What artist in the furry community, with the cultural love affair with art markers, doesn't have a horror story of their favorite markers vanishing?

Oh, my current favorite drawing tool is the Dixon Ticonderoga, in 2.5B ("medium") and 1B ("soft"). Maybe I should stock up in case of corporate nonsense.

Comments

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

For me, it's crayons. I have this one set given to me by a friend that picked them up at Olive Garden. They're perfect. They blend like a dream, are just the right shades of red yellow and blue and are now barely usable, they're so small. Of course, Olive Garden has since switched brands, or some such. Crayolas are second best, but are second to these. I have exhausted every restarant and cheesy brand in search of another set of these. Recently, someone gave me one of those Crayola crayon 'makers,' so now I'm making my own. Perhaps that's the next step past the 'use only something that's available forever' step.

-T'

[mandrill.livejournal.com]

There's all sorts of art supplies that have gone extinct. All kinds of lovely ink pens and nibs. Certain paint colors you can't buy any longer because the minerals used to make particular colors are too toxic. People will buy even dried up tubes of certain oil paint colors (the paints can be reground and oil added to make them usable again).

Prismacolor changed the formula for their colored pencils after the company was purchased by Sanford a few years ago. I recall that some people were rushing out to buy the stocks of older Prismacolor pencils which were slightly softer and easier to blend.

[martes.livejournal.com]

I always used the Sanford 6B when doing paper animation. For comics I use an old mechanical pencil I got at a now-extinct art store, using the "B" softness leads. Other than soft leads, I'm not particularly wedded to any particular pencil type. I do hate those nonphoto blue pencils, however, and have never used them.

[electricgecko.livejournal.com]

Finally, someone agrees with me about the horrors of blue pencil!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I've never liked non-photo blue. By the time you get it dark enough to actually see what you're drawing, you've got nasty waxish buildup (even with col-erase) that repels ink, and shows up in reproduction anyway.

On the other hand, I've quit caring about dropping out pencil from beneath inks anyway, since most of the time when I work in ink I'm going direct.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

One's favorite art supply brand going defunct is a good excuse for artistic experimentation, I would think. Clinging to one particular tool and never wanting to change is kind of, you know, unchallenging....

I've noticed that marker brands don't really go away; they're just reincarnated in ever more expensive variations.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Good point.

This article also seems to have a little of the 'if I get the same tools the pros use, then I will be just as good!' attitude to it... They were, admittedly, very nice pencils, but I wouldn't pay twenty bucks for a box of them.

[tabriscoonz.livejournal.com]

hey! I have 3 of those pencils in my pencil box... I stole them from school in 9th grade.
Going for $20 ay? hrmmmm :)$$$$$

I use Staedtler lead holders... because every graphics or drawing class I've ever taken has insisted on them. Why? I dunno. They are a bitch to sharpen and I have lead ashes all over my everything.

I did have a minor heartattack when Rapidograph changed their pens to the easily refilled type. So now my ancient rapidos will never be used again. Those F-in' things cost $27 when I was 13, that was like 2 weeks allowence for one damn pen!

Markers, pfah...

[thphilster.livejournal.com]

Hoka hey,

Markers bite, real atrists use watercolors! ;D

Blending in with the crowd,
yer pal,
Phil!

Re: Markers, pfah...

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Pre-stretching paper... laying down washes... slowly building up tones...

Re: Markers, pfah...

[uhusted.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! And galvanized aluminum, rod steel, tin plating, pure oxides, poplar, cobalt glass...

Back on topic- I like the drafting lead holders with any kind of 2F or above regular old graphite lead. It's all pretty much the same in the end.

[synnabar.livejournal.com]

On a semi-related note, do you remember when Crayola dropped/replaced some colors from it's line? They got rid of "maize" - the color I used for lions when I was little! My mother got me a set with the "retired" colors in a little box; I haven't used them yet.

I know there are "maize-alternative" crayons, but still....