This little sketch was such a relaxing one to draw for a couple of reasons. The scene itself was from a little watercolor sketch I found in one of my old books. ”Paris Sketchbook” is the book title. You’ll have to find it used but if you can, scarf it up. it’s a beautiful book full of watercolor sketches a fellow did in Paris.

Anyway, the scene was relaxing but this other little thing I stumbled on made the whole process totally immersive. It was the pencil! It’s an inexpensive mechanical pencil with a fantastic feature. It advances the lead automatically. No stopping every few seconds to click up more lead. And of course, being a mechanical pencil, no stopping to sharpen. No lead breakage either, as only a tiny bit of lead is exposed at any given time. This all translates to a totally uninterrupted flow from beginning to end of drawing. Not once did I pause to fiddle with the pencil, I just drew! You might not think that would make such a difference but it does.

The zone one enters when drawing is kind of a sacred place of peace with thoughts focused on intuitive mark making, comparing shapes, interpreting feel, light, shadow, tone…all intensely focused but totally at peace and relaxed. Nothing else enters the mind. Not even the passage of time. Noise is completely ignored as are concerns with anything. Not being interrupted with tweaking ones tools is the one thing left to eliminate and this little pencil does it. It’s simply brilliant!

I’m not an affiliate of Amazon so this isn’t a post to get you to buy one so I can get a little change in my pocket. It’s really a great pencil. I got two of them, one for the lead that comes with it which is likely HB, and one for to load with 2B lead. You can get one here: Faber-Castell Poly Matic mechanical pencil. It comes in 0.5 and 0.7 sizes. You can also search Google for it and perhaps save a buck or two.