An interesting piece on the power of the pencil in the age of the machine (I’ve had several conversations about the growth of the hand-written when we so often just get bills through the door):
However, I still come back to pencil or ink line drawings as my favoured technique. Hand-drawing (from sketching to technical drawing) became an essential tool in my professional career – before I turned to academia – as a means of conveying ideas to a client or contractor. This was around 15 years BC (Before Computers) and of late, many people have reverted to a leaded pencil on lined paper to return to the skilful artistry that they sense has been lost because of the ubiquity of the PC. As such, last year’s figures revealed a 7.5 per cent growth in year-on-year pencil sales (although in 2006, The Independent noted that the 700 per cent rise in sales seen that year corresponded with the advent of sudoku, so maybe the relationship is not that straightforward).
Read full story.