Friday 21 December 2012

A look down St Martin's Lane, London


I've been going through some older sketchbooks recently for something I'm working on, and came across quite a few drawings (unhelpfully not dated by me, but perhaps around 2000) that suddenly made me quite nostalgic about the good old 2B pencil.
I've gone on and on about my love for the humble, high fibre option pencil before, so I won't do it again, but... I just wish pencil drawings felt a bit more permanent when they are finished. Fixative or no fixative, they seem temporary in a way pen drawings don't.

4 comments:

Don McNulty said...

I prefer the black of the pen drawings, but this looks very nice too.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I was reading somewhere that graphite is actually amongst the most permanent of media - to get rid of it you have to physically rub it out. Store it adequately and it'll last forever - no chemeical reactionsto take place behind your back while your not watching! It is recommended for signing backs of oil paintings, for example . . .

Swasky said...

Very nice. I really like the way you use only line. There are some artist or illustrator that are praised by the people, because they use also color and they don't really appreciate the effort made drawing only with line. Congrats!

James Hobbs said...

Thanks Don, and thanks Swasky. I should probably break out of the line fixation more - the idea of being stuck in a rut isn't a good one. But this drawing is a few years old now, and it's a relief to see things have moved on.