Ferocious Kindness - 2026 01 01
Self portrait in progress - graphite, pencil crayon, acrylic ink wash on paper - 9" x 12" I sort the pencil crayons. Out of their numbered slots in the storage box and into cups from the cupboard - one per colour and then one each for the brown tones and the black, greys, and whites. I pick up the collection of blues and mix them around in my hand. I look at the colour of the pencil leads and select out three according to tone - a dark blue, mid-blue and light blue. I'm not looking at the temperature of the blues, just the transition in tone from dark to light in three stages. The electric pencil sharpener is jammed. I empty it and clean out the grinding face. It works fine after that and I sharpen each blue pencil to a long, fine point. The fireplace is glowing warm in the cool winter afternoon. The first day of the year. I set up my drawing station beside the fire and set to work adding three layers of blue to yesterday's ink wash over graphite. Last night I fear...