The science of design, or of line-drawing, if you like to use this term, is the source and very essence of painting, sculpture, architecture... Sometimes... it seems to me that... all the works of the human brain and hand are either design itself or a branch of that art.

-Michelangelo Buonorotti

Michelangelo very strongly believed that drawing and sculpting were "sister arts" and that to become a good sculptor you must draw a lot. This is not a universally held opinion, as I know several phenomenal sculptors who do not draw much. But, I'm becoming more and more convinced that Michelangelo was right, at least for the way I learn. I'm sure that I need to learn to draw better if I'm going to continue improving as a sculptor.

Let me put this right out in the open: I'm not very good at drawing. Or, at least, I'm nowhere near as good as I'd like to be. I mean, I don't sculpt as well as I'd like either, but the differential is much more dramatic with my drawing. I have been working on it though: I've started attending a weekly open figure drawing studio, and have been forcing myself to do preliminary sketches before touching clay on any new project. I also keep a pad of paper in front of my keyboard along with a few pencils so that I can doodle if I'm on the phone or if my brain isn't functioning and I need a stress-relief break. Drawing is pretty good lubricant for my thoughts when they get stuck.

Anyway, I've had a hard time finding a type of pencil that I really like. I like doing sketches and the early stages of all drawings in an erasable medium and in a light color such as light blue red, or green. There aren't many erasable colored pencils on the market, but I've tried what I can find and until recently had kinda settled on the famous animator's pencil the Col-Erase as the best I can do. But I like a very fine point on my pencils, and the Col-Erases are awfully soft, which means I'm constantly sharpening to keep the point as sharp as I like; I like being able to draw a thin line of consistent thickness, and having to constantly stop to sharpen the pencil really annoys me.

Now, I really like 0.5mm mechanical pencils, especially the Pentel Quicker Clicker (of course this is subjective - not everybody share's my affinity for this particular pencil, though I will concede that the older version—of which I still have a few—was better than the current rubber-grip models).

But the pencil is only half the equation, and the only colored pencil leads I could ever find were Pentel Hi-Polymer red and blue leads that claim to be erasable, but, simply put, are not: They leave very noticeable images on the page no matter how much or how hard you erase, and the very act of erasing the marks from those leads causes the color to bleed all over the page creating a cloud of red or blue around your drawing area. Additionally, these leads just don't have a nice feel: The lead slides across the paper with a very artificial, plasticky texture. It's nothing like writing with regular graphite pencils or even with the regular black Pentel Hi-Poly leads, which I find to be quite acceptable in terms of texture.

My ideal pencil for sketching would be a .5mm mechanical pencil with a truly-erasable colored lead that has a nice smooth texture. This "perfect" sketching instrument has been eluding me for years and I had basically given up hope on finding such a thing.

But then, I recently stumbled across an academic paper about the Japanese and their love of mechanical pencils. According to this paper, there is much more innovation and generally better mechanical pencil products in Japan as compared to America.

"Hmmm....", I thought, "then maybe the Japanese have better colored pencil leads."

So I googled around and came across a few web stores that sell imported Japanese pens and pencils. Over at JetPens, I found a product from Japan called Uni-Color colored pencil leads, which were highly recommended by a few people over at the Polykarbon Art Forums.

As an import that is not generally available in the U.S. they are expensive, running $3.00 for 10 leads plus shipping, but they come in several colors including two shades of blue as well as red, orange, green and pink. They are supposed to erase well and have a nice feel, so I ordered a pack of all colors except the pink (I'm not being macho, they were simply out of stock), and when they came, I dumped all the old leads out of all my Quicker Clickers and loaded them up with these new leads, giving me a rainbow assortment of mechanical pencils at my disposal. I then anxiously started to draw with them.

Wow. These leads are truly awesome. They are smooth and feel like writing with an expensive graphite pencil. You can vary the darkness of the line quite a lot by varying how much pressure you use (something I've never found to be true with mechanical pencils), and you can even shade with them to some extent. They are soft leads, and I've yet to have one go through the paper, something that periodically happens with me when using other .5mm leads because I'm a brute and push down too hard.

I especially like the sky blue and the green, but the red is nice also, and all the colors are acceptable. No matter how dark a line I use, it's nowhere near as dark as a graphite or pencil line, giving me the option to go over and refine the drawing after doing my initial light color sketch.

The only downside to these is the cost. Being soft, they get used up pretty quickly, and at 30¢ each lead, they're considerably more expensive than buying graphite pencils, black mechanical pencil leads, or Col-Erases.

But, in the scheme of things, it's a small price to pay for a product that encourages me to draw and, in fact, makes me exited to draw.

I brought them to open figure drawing last night instead of using charcoal. Maybe I'll work up the nerve to pose a few of my sketches. Maybe.