My favourite pen or pencil is my B6 pencil, because I like to sketch a lot and this one gives me the liberty to do it without thinking about the final drawing. Probably, this love comes from my experience in 2D animation years ago. Most of my traditional illustrations are made with B3 to B6… Continue reading Interview with Monica Rondino
I like HB pencils as they are dark enough to make a nice definite line without indenting the paper so you can rub them out without leaving traces. I like to sharpen them with a craft knife; not a sensible option for aeroplanes or bag checks. Being predominantly an illustrator I buy sketch books, usually… Continue reading Interview with Heather Kilgour
My favourite pen or pencil would probably be a fat soft chunky graphite stick. I have quite a few, (5B to 9B), and coupled with random bits of crayon, charcoal, and scrappy brushes I use them to create messy lines and textures for my picture book characters. But the work-a-day pencil I can’t live without,… Continue reading Interview with Loretta Schauer
My favourite pen, which is a purple Sheaffer, was given to me by my best friend, Molly. “This, is for signing books at launches,” she said, and so that is what it’s used for. It’s deliciously heavy and posh-looking and even holding it makes me feel special. I always go for ‘cheap as chips’ reporter’s… Continue reading Interview with Della Galton
I use a lot of different types of stationary for my illustrating and writing process. My go to ones are my mechanical pencils and a coloured highlighter. When I get given a project the first thing I do is highlight and annotate ideas around words or sentences that I think have good strong imagery. For… Continue reading Interview with Poonam Mistry
When drawing I love a mechanical pencil, not bothered what make, but with a 2b or 4b soft lead for sketching. When it comes to final artwork it varies according to the piece, again sometimes a ‘no outline’ look requires a lightly lined outline to ink in, this again is with a 0.5 mechanical pencil,… Continue reading Interview with Emma Graham
Pens and pencils are at the absolute core of what I do as an illustrator, I use a variety of traditional dip pens and nibs and a bottle of india ink (old school!) for my finished book illustrations. Outside the art studio though, for everything else – doodling, sketching, writing, shopping lists – I’m completely… Continue reading Interview with John Shelley
While researching the pencils I use most often I found that one has been discontinued – Lyra Titan Woodless 6B. Thankfully my other favourites, Pilot Croquis 6B and Mars Lumograph 4B are still available but as soon as I have finished writing this post I will stock up. Lyra Titan, Croquis and Lumograph pencils all… Continue reading Interview with Amanda Lillywhite
