Leading the way(bop)

The official Zentangle site recommends using a wooden (non-mechanical) 2B pencil - but I couldn't really find anything online that says why or whether there is a clear difference between using a mechanical pencil vs. a wooden pencil. 😵 Thusfar I've been using the trusty blue and black Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencil - a staple in most children's pencil boxes I believe! 

So I went on pencil adventures ✏ over the weekend! 

This was done using a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. Observations on mechanical pencils v. traditional pencils? You had to be pretty careful "angling" the pencil to avoid hard scratchy lines that don't seem to "dissolve" no matter how hard you try to blend the little ^$@*^*😡 [please don't zoom in to check... but I can assure you there are particularly scratchy patches 😓]. It somehow seems less enjoyable using a mechanical pencil 😕- I missed the smoothness of tradition. The mechanical pencil was "scratchy" at times (although this may have been because of the pencil lead... I'm not sure what I had loaded but I've bought a new pack to play with😗). But the allure of mechanical pencils is clear - no need to carry a sharpener, your pencil will always be "sharp". 

I continued my pencil adventures into the tangle I undertook to try over the weekend - Waybop. 

It's always been one of those oh so pretty tangles that looked oh so complicated😰! But I'm glad I took the plunge and am loving this tangle. Both were done with the help of mechanical pencils, this time a 0.9mm. With the 0.9mm it was much easier to lay on the graphite and the feel of the application was more similar to that of a wooden pencil. However the feel of the plasticky pencil body (as opposed to the warm wooden feel) still left a little to be desired. Whilst the thicker lead meant that it was less "scratchy", I felt it made it more difficult to work the edges.

Does anyone else have adventures to share about using mechanical pencils?

I wasn't really sure how Waybop would look like in a full tile... so the only thing to do was...  

😆Grey toned Strathmore drawing paper (that I had hacked up), pink and black Microns, Grade 3 Koh-I-Noor white charcoal pencil, Sakura Gelly Rolls and another new pencil that I was trying out (queue dramatic fanfare🎉) - the famous / infamous Japanese Blackwing pencil.

It was substantially more expensive that a Staedtler Mars Lumograph💰. Purchased individually, it cost 3 to 3.5 times more. But OMG I think I'm in love😍. It's such a lovely soft pencil that literally GLIDES smoothly on to the drawing surface... blending easily (but not too much to be smudgy)... and this was the "balanced lead" version💖! I also got my hands on a "soft graphite" and I'm now dying to try it too! 😎I can't wait!