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Shelter in place activity: Build a house of art pencils!

The pencils are at it again: reproducing when I’m not looking. They’re hiding in dark drawers. In every nook and cranny. And even in the so-called “pencil holders” (that don’t seem to hold them) on every desk and counter in my house.

For more than 7 years, the growth of the pencil population in my house had gone unchecked. But then I was on to them. We were getting ready to move, and that meant opening all those dark drawers and rarely used cabinets and shelves, and every other place that might be harboring them.

I found long pencils with plump, fresh pink erasers. And little “half” pencils with no erasers that looked like what golfers use to keep their scores. But we don’t play golf, so I could only guess that they were the offspring of the larger “parent” pencils. And finallly, there were the medium length pencils with half worn-off erasers. You know, the “senior” pencils. 

Almost all the pencils I found had one thing in common: They were not sharp. Their points had seen better days. They were languishing in the dark recesses of the house, hoping they would be chosen for some use to make them feel important. And while they waited, they were reproducing out of boredom. 

I actually found more than 200 #2 pencils. Although I sometimes “embellish” my stories, this time I am not exaggerating. Why oh why (said with a moan) did our pencil population get so out of hand? I don’t even like to use pencils for writing notes!

I prefer to use one of the 160 ball point pens I found hanging around waiting for their chance to shine.

Some #2 pencils enjoy a rare day out cheering for the Gators!

A small sampling of the hundreds of pens lounging around our house.

I heard their desperate cries: “Pick me!” “Pick me!” 

Since my dogs don’t have opposable thumbs, or money to spend on buying anything, I sought out the only other possible culprit in the proliferation of our pencil population: my husband Richard. “Why do you have all these pencils in your desk drawers?” I asked. “Do you just buy more when you can’t find a sharp one?” His answer: “I’m not good at sharpening pencils.”

Truly, that was his actual answer. But I spotted a dusty, electric pencil sharpener within his reach.

Perhaps a few lessons in pencil sharpening were in order?

While I was bundling pencils to take to a local elementary school and thinking about how Richard did not appreciate my lectures, I decided to write about artists’ drawing pencils — but I used a keyboard instead of interrupting the everyday pencils still doing who-knows-what in the dark.

Pencils with a mission: to draw

The bright yellow pencils that populate my house have a #2 stamped on the end. They all have graphite encased in wood, even though we call them “lead” pencils. Graphite’s a type of carbon that’s safe to use.

Most pencils made specifically for artwork also have numbers on one end, but some simply have “HB” stamped there. That’s the same degree of graphite softness as the #2 pencils we use for writing. But other artists’ pencils have different letters and numbers on them. 

Drawing pencils are organized on a scale based on how soft or hard their graphite is. An "HB" (#2) pencil is in the center of the scale. The rest of the drawing pencils have a number plus either an “H” (for hard) or a “B” (for black) stamped on them. Below shows the variety available:

If you start in the center of the diagram and move to the right, you see the designations for increasingly hard graphite pencils. If I want to make very light marks on a drawing, I might choose a 9H pencil. It works well for a beginning sketch because the marks are easy to erase without leaving a trail. When I want somewhat darker marks, but still lighter than a regular writing pencil, I would use a lower-numbered H pencil.

Starting again from the HB pencil in the middle of the diagram and moving to the left, are pencils with increasingly softer graphite. Those make darker marks with little pressure needed. I might use these to fill in some areas of a tree trunk or a dark shadow without having to use a lot of pressure. But the graphite is used up much faster than with harder grades of pencils. And I have to sharpen them more often to keep their points. 

And speaking of sharpening, if Richard was an artist, he might have learned to sharpen pencils. On the other hand, I would not have had hundreds of them to give to a school. And fewer pencils in my house might mean you would not know a 9H pencil from a 9B. Draw your own conclusions!

A few years ago, on the heels of being slammed by two hurricanes in North Florida, I had a great idea: “Let’s get a place in North Carolina to spend summers,” I told my husband, Richard. It seemed to make sense, given that my daughter had been blown out of her residence in Key West by Hurricane Irma and had relocated to North Carolina, near Asheville. “Stacy could be our House Manager!” I added enthusiastically.

Long story short: For the second year in a row, we are now in North Carolina.

So here is the challenge: How do I keep up with art supplies in both locations? Believe me, I’m trying. I actually wrote down a list of paints, paper, canvases, etc. in my NC studio before we returned to Florida last November. And miracle of miracles, I found it about a week before we left for NC. I reviewed it carefully. Then I crammed what was needed into our car’s trunk between luggage and behind a giant mirror Richard managed to squeeze onto the back floorboard so the dogs could amuse themselves during the drive by watching their reflections.*

Now that I’m in NC, I’ve found that my notes were lacking, to say the least. Some paints I listed were in tiny tubes, and of course those were the colors I immediately needed. And paper? I forgot to detail that I needed several types that are not here. And then the canvas issues. I had used a number of sizes that I forgot to delete from my list. Frames? Oh, that was the worst! I forgot that I’d stored some in the garage, so they weren’t on the list. And, like the canvases, I had used some that were still on my list. 

Richard keeps reminding me that we are not on some island in the middle of the ocean. There are certainly art supplies in Asheville! But with my impaired sense of direction — even with a GPS — replenishing my supplies is challenging.

Of course, there are always the online markets — Amazon,  Jerrysartarama and Blicks. But we have a “container” problem. Our neighborhood has no trash collection. Weird, huh? There is a giant trash compactor for everyone to use, but you aren’t allowed to throw cardboard boxes in it. The penalty for noncompliance is death by firing squad — or by hanging if they are out of bullets. We are supposed to drive our boxes to a landfill about 5 miles away. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather watch my boxes disappear in a trash-collector truck than witness what they are doing to our environment first-hand. 

I could go on with this fascinating topic, but It’s time to finalize my art supply list so I can go shopping. And I’m sure you have better things to do with your time. 

Have a great summer wherever you are!

Gotta Gogh!

Paula

* Not really. They just sleep in their cages. I needed the mirror here, and I was sick of storing it in Ponte Vedra. Richard managed to haul it up the stairs to the studio without having a heart attack. What a bonus!