Twice as nice...
The arrival of the latest package from Clare (the "Q" of Nero's Notes) reminded me that I haven't done any sketching in AGES!
I used to sketch quite a bit, but then Life seemed to happen, and although I take a sketch book and pencils out with me when we're walking on holiday, I rarely actually do any real sketching. I must remedy that. (In my defence, I'm usually plotting books!)
So, what was in the package that made me reminisce, and long for the great outdoors, with pencil in one hand and sketchbook on my knee?
Well, it was an odd beast in some ways. It's a pencil with an HB end and a 4B end. The Viking Verso GS150 Double Grade.
At first glance, the two ends seemed unlikely bedfellows, but then I thought of a notebook I have with lined pages on one side and plain opposite them (much like the Waverley Commonplace books Nero used to have in stock). It used to come on my travels with me and I wrote notes about locations on the lined pages and drew sketches or pasted in tickets or other ephemera on the plain pages.
With the sketching pencil at one end and the more standard writing pencil at the other, this would be the perfect pencil to tuck into the elastic closure around my notebook.
I've reviewed Viking pencils before and like them. Scrib (who is far more of a graphite-guru than I am) would be able to give you a better opinion perhaps, but I like the concept of the Sketch'N'Write pencil (so you only need to tuck one into the notebook) and the two grades themselves are good quality. Just be sure that the notebook is longer than the pencil, so that the tips don't get broken off (or put them in an actual pencil case...).
