Graphite pencil drawings in my new sketch book

"It takes 25 years to learn to draw, one hour to learn to paint." 

 Jean-Auguste-Dominique-Ingres

Last month when I was travelling I decided to carry a "Small art stationery travel kit". This kit consisted of  my routine blank sketch book, HB pencil and a 10B pencil along with a kneaded eraser. The plan was to get back to sketching and drawing in graphite medium. 

Did the plan work? Absolutely. In fact I have realised that for any plan to work, we have to make it work. It won't ever happen on its own. At times I have to push myself . Once I get started, the momentum picks up and then I start enjoying the whole experience. I am getting back into graphite medium after a long long time and no regrets. I am loving it.

I started off with a landscape and then went on to do few more interesting subjects using both the Camlin HB and the 10B pencil. The travel kit was small and convenient and and getting back to graphite drawing was a rejuvenating experience. 

Pencil drawing and sketching
in sketch book with 4" X 5.5" cartridge sheets

Tree trunk

Snow capped mountains in the distance

A pear in sunlight

A garlic clove

The sketch book 
with 40 cartridge sheets.

The sketch book is small, lightweight and easy to carry. It has forty cartridge sheets sized 4"X 5.5". After every sketching and drawing, ( Each drawing takes roughly fifteen to twenty minutes ) I make it a point to mention the date and a little remark underneath so that some day in future when I browse through this book it will remind me of my little experiments and stories connected with each work.

By now I have a big collection of these small books and each of them is specifically for a different kind of artwork. Like there is one exclusively for my portrait studies and there is another purely for my water colour works. Therefore as and when I take a break from my "Normal daily painting routine" I turn to one of my sketch books to try out some new idea, some new medium or simply drawing and sketching.

I have been working a lot in charcoal medium lately and some of my "Soft pastel works" have been left unattended. They are half way through and so next thing I am planning is to focus on completing them. My "Two days soft pastel workshop" is coming up this weekend and I am pretty excited about it as I will get to meet new participants. Interacting with others who are as passionate about art as you are is very inspiring. I always look forward to having my workshops.

Working with Cretacolour 8B water soluble graphite pencil

Water soluble graphite pencil

Adding new art stationery has become a norm. It is exciting and challenging at the same time. It adds to a change in the otherwise day today routine work which in my case is "Working with charcoals and pastels". 

I purchased Camlin water soluble sticks in March 2016 and enjoyed creating a few study works using the same. I am a big fan of "Black and white works"  and the art created by using these water soluble sticks gave the feel of water colour painting.

In order to work a little more on this medium, I went ahead and ordered 8 B Cretacolour water soluble graphite pencil from Amazon so that I could use it in combination with Camlin water soluble graphite sticks. These days before ordering stationery online I make it a point to read the reviews about the same. It helps a lot as it saves a lot of disappointment later.

Given below are the six small 4"X 5.5" landscape paintings ( Using water soluble graphite ) which I created in my  new sketch book that I purchased recently. In most of these works I started off with the initial drawing and shading with the 8B Cretacolour pencil and after running the wet brush at places, I let it dry. In the second stage I picked up the dark tone from 8B Camlin stick using a wet brush to apply it at places where I felt needed darker values. I am enjoying these water soluble pencils and am even contemplating buying the DERWENT brand which is available online at a very competitive rate.

Cretacolour 8B watersoluble pencils.

Camlin water soluble

graphite sticks 2B, 4B, 6B.

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine." Ralph Waldo Emerson