Pencil and Paper Rocks

Today, at my part-time day job, I edited and critiqued about 70 proposals, down from about 100 last week. I’ve streamlined the process enough that my stress level has stabilized at a simmering boil.

The sketch is one of my morning warmup experiments. Sometimes I get an itch to go against the grain of working in a predominantly digital environment. Getting my hands dirty with graphite dust feel good. It’s down to earth and has taught me that there’s no way that a digital pencil can replace a one dollar lead pencil. I’ve tried pencils in Photoshop, Corel Painter, Krita, Procreate, blah, blah, blah, and none of them, even if they’re running on a $3,000 computer, can equal the effect of a humble graphite pencil.

All the same, for doing comix, I’m all in for digital. When you need to crank out 48 pages and you have limited time, it’s Clip Studio Paint EX all the way. But for drawing and getting the feel of graphite in your life, it’s hands down the lead pencil.