BLACKWING PENCILS!

Back before we had all these fancy Cintiqs, tablets and stylus thingies
we used to draw with good old-fashioned pencils!

Yup... PENCILS.
They were these longish pieces of wood with an even
thinner piece of lead inside.
You sharpened one end to a point and then scratched it all over a piece of paper
(which is another discussion entirely)
until you had yourself an honest to goodness real live drawing in your hands.

And the king of these pencil thing-ama-waffles was the Eberhardt Faber BLACKWING!

Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed, baby.


I loved these puppies.

They were like spreading black butter across the paper.
So smooth.
And with just enough jagged texture to make your line interesting.

Yeah, they were a bit smeary.
And nigh impossible to erase.
Especially with that useless eraser it came with.

But that LINE!

I used Blackwings to clean up ALL my drawings back in the day.

And then they were gone.

Just... GONE!

They disappeared from my local art store.
Then they disappeared from EVERY art store.
Rumors spread that Blackwing pencils had been discontinued.
I figured it was just a horrible, mean-spirited lie until I actually called the company and asked if it was true.

It was.

Ugh.
Over the years I found some stray Blackwings here and there.
Mostly just stubs, but I did save one unsharpened Blackwing for posterity.


But recently I've heard rumblings...
Faint voices in the ether whispering about a resurrection.
Could it be?


Aw yeah... They're BACK!

I've got two boxes on the way,
but to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to DO with them.
Blackwings are a bit too soft and smeary for sketchbook doodling.
And most of my artwork is done on a Cintiq nowadays.
And who knows... they might not even feel the same as my old friends.

But trust me.
I'll find something to do with 'em!

Welcome back Blackwings!