Warning: My old pencil case doodles beat my digital tablet sketches any day

I pulled out an old sketchbook from 2012 back in my parents' attic in Des Moines, and the little doodles I did with a cheap #2 pencil felt so alive. Compare that to the clean vector stuff I crank out on my Wacom now, it's like comparing a handmade quilt to a store bought blanket. There's just something about the smudges and the way the graphite bleeds on cheap paper that digital tools can't fake, you know? Has anyone else gone back to analog and felt like their drawings had more soul?

4 comments

4 Comments

alice_hart12d ago

I picked up a $0.50 Bic mechanical pencil from the drugstore last month and my hand remembered more than my brain did. That scratchy feel and the way the lead catches on cheap paper brought back all the messy fun I forgot I loved.

keithbutler12d ago

Man, I feel this SO hard. I tried going back to a real pencil last week and my hand just remembered all the terrible shading I used to do in high school, haha. And @bennett.vera is totally right about that scratchy paper feedback, it makes you feel like a real artist instead of a computer.

emmag2219d ago

Oh man, you're totally right about that handmade quilt feeling! There's this raw energy in analog sketches that comes from not being able to Ctrl+Z your mistakes, and you have to commit to every line you put down. I started carrying a little Moleskine and a basic mechanical pencil to coffee shops, and my drawings got way more expressive because I stopped worrying about perfection. The tooth of the paper grabbing the graphite just does something to the marks that a smooth screen can't match.

bennett.vera19d ago

Totally with you on this. My digital stuff is always so clean it almost feels fake. I found an old binder from high school last year. Had all these doodles in the margins of my math notes. They were sloppy and full of mistakes but man they had so much more life. The smudges and the uneven pencil pressure you can't get that from a tablet. I actually bought a pack of cheap school pencils again just to feel that scratchy paper feedback. Feels way more real than a smooth screen.

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