Pencil sharpeners and drawings, old and new.

For years I have bought and used pencil sharpeners I either 

chose myself or they had been recommended. 

All of those shown above worked perfectly for graphite 

and usually for my colored pencils.

They worked with battery, electricity, or were operated by hand.

However, I was always looking for the perfect sharpener 

for colored pencils. 

 Recently Jeanne Benson gave me a new hand manipulated 

sharpener, that came from England.

 The pencils at the bottom were sharpened with my old sharpeners

and those above with the new hand cranked sharpener from the UK.

 Over the years in planning my embroideries I would often 

draw the image first with colored pencil.

 The drawings were never complete as they were just 

a design for a future embroidery. 

Since I started using my new sharpener 

I looked back at the old drawings and reworked several.

 It is a pleasure to use these very sharp colored pencils 

on the textured papers, filling in the white that shows through.

 This lily was drawn fairly quickly in Gladstone, Australia, and 

the orchids, below, in Melbourne when on a teaching tour in 2001.

I have enjoyed adding contrast, fine lines, and definition 

to these old drawings. 

Although I am using up my pencils a little faster than before, 

it has been a pleasure to spend this past month 

with very sharp colored pencils.