Playing with a Carbon Pencil

I have various pencils but wasn't familiar with a carbon pencil (at least not to my knowledge).  A dear friend from our sketching group was working a sketch using her carbon B pencil and gave it to me to play with.

I'm trying it on various papers..............

Handbook by Global Arts (Mixed Media).  The man and the bear were sprayed with a fixative.  Then learned the carbon pencil is water soluble so I tested it at the bottom of the page.

This quick little sketch was worked on Strathmore Visual WC paper.  The pencil picks up the tooth design of the paper surface as noticeable in the tail feathers.

Before and after taking a damp brush to sketch.....

This one was worked on a piece of Stonehenge 90lb paper.  Also sprayed with fixative.

Monthly Challenge Between Friends - February 2018

I have a friend who's more like a sister to me, who lives in the United Kingdom.  We met through Peter Saw's Paint Doodles forum many years ago.

She sets herself yearly challenges similar to what I do for myself.  Well this year she suggested we set monthly challenges for both of us to accomplish.........each taking every other month to come up with a task we must complete in the month.

Our first challenge for January 2018 was the Indirect Self Portrait.  This month, Clare set a challenge where we choose a poem, a story, a play, or song, and come up with at least six doodles/illustrations that fit the source we choose.

I had a hard time with this as I don't listen to music and when I do, I only "hear" the melody and beat.  I don't pay attention to words.  And most often songs are about people and feelings or actions anyways.  I don't get into poetry or plays either.  And as for reading, I'm a visual reader where I pay more attention to illustrations than words......especially the older I get and the difficulty in seeing.  So this felt impossible at first.

I spent hours pouring through poems, quotes, and song lyrics.  Nothing grabbed me.  Then I thought about children's nursery rhymes and songs.  I found that they often dealt with things......people, animals, etc. 

After searching various children's rhymes and songs, I settled on one that I could relate with and with subjects I love............animals. 

Throughout my life I've always been attracted to barns and farm lands.  Maybe because my grandfather was a farmer and the fond memories of visiting him and Grandma Cain.  And, it hasn't been long ago that I made two trips to Heather Oaks Farm here in Florida with animals so this made things a little easier for me........more personal.

Do you recognize the song?