Each Native American tribe had a name for the crow. The Lakota tell a story of how a white crow used to warn buffalo of approaching hunting parties. The buffalo would then stampede, and the hunters would be left hungry. Finally, the angry Native Americans threw the bird into the fire, which turned it black.
This was an experiment, trying to work with coloured pencils instead of graphite. Meh. It's okay, I guess; it was not nearly as enjoyable to do. And I am not at all well-versed or even very good with coloured pencils, so there were no grand hopes for the outcome, anyway. I may revisit the whole idea another time.
I did learn that Primacolor's reputation for breakage is well-justified. I bought only 3 pencils (#914 Cream, #941 Light Umber, #946 Dark Brown) and each one broke during the first sharpening. (The cream broke during the second, as well.) They all broke during subsequent sharpenings. Someone wrote to Sanford to complain about the breakage and the response they got was all about using the "right" sharpener*, blah blah, blah. (*People using their suggestions still report breakage.) My favourite part was:
If you are still having difficulites [sic] with your pencil crayons, please return them, to my attention, in a padded envelope along with a short, explanatory note. We will sharpen them, test them for breakage, and return them to you.
Gee,
thanks! They have a product with
a known breakage issue and after blaming other tools, they offer to sharpen, "test" and
return them. Uh huh.
"Let us do it because, clearly, you poor, feeble-minded person can't even sharpen a pencil 'properly'." I'm hardly going to mail them my pencils only to have them mail 'em back. And just exactly how do they test them? By sharpening them down to little finger-length stumps? "
Nope, no breakage issue here!" Colour me unimpressed. Yet, these are still the most popular "high-end" coloured pencils! I
know not everyone has the same problems with them; I know that in the hands of some artists they can be used to create jaw-dropping works of beauty. But even some of these artists complain about the quality issues. I guess I'm still puzzled by their continued popularity.
What is the allure of using a brand of materials that frustrate, cost more, show inconsistantant quality, or are ill-suited for the chosen technique or media? (I don't just mean Prismacolors.) Does the price tag dazzle people into believing certain materials are the "best"? Does their popularity convince people that these materials will magically bestow talent?
I've had a couple questions, here and on Flickr, about a couple of the things I use. I failed to consider that they aren't necessarily universal. So, here they are:
