In my last post, I previewed a cover illustration. The sketch is multi-colored, but would it surprise you to know I used a single pencil to make the whole thing?
Enter the seven color pencil, which to my mind is one of the quickest and easiest things to lug around with you and still introduce a little color to those random ‘on the road’ sketches. If you are anything like me, ideas take a whack at you out of the blue at the most inconvenient times. It’s much easier to throw one pencil and sharpener in my purse than to try hauling around a set.
I was introduced to these lovely pencils by a rather excellent friend of mine in Japan. I’ve received quite a few now with different patterns and illustrations on them. Unfortunately, I can’t read Japanese, although it does appear that they are made by several companies. So far I’ve found the names: Crux corporation, San-x, Kamio Japan Inc., and Mind Wave Inc.
I’ve searched online for these particular seven color pencils for a very long time and I’ve only found a few places to buy them bcmini.com and pencils.jp are two of such places.
I have found a version of this pencil in America.They are most often in the kid’s arts and crafts section and I seem to stumble across them pretty randomly. While these pencils do have multi colored lead, the downside is that the lead colors are swirled together. (The Japanese version of this pencils separates each of the colors so that when sketching you can turn the pencil slightly to introduce a new color.) The swirled lead makes the sketching effect much more random. You can take a look at this variety here.
If you decide to give these pencils a try, please share a link to one of your drawings. I’d love to see!