If the Blackwing is the king of animators' pencils, then what would this be?
Well, as much as I admire and revere Blackwings, I'll reconsider: this is a serious implement meant for serious animation; drawings of a gutsy, exuberant nature. No indecisive artists need apply.
So, okay, I'll call the Blaisdell Layout king.
Aren't you jealous of the artist this belongs to? I know I am. It's in good hands, though. Somewhere I too have a Blaisdell...so small that it can't be sharpened electronically, almost too small to hold. Why is it that if there's a classic, fabulous instrument that artists discover and love the company of origin will be certain to discontinue production at the first opportunity?
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I have one somewhere too, in a box I haven't opened since calArts...
Is that Will Finn's Blaisdell? I know he has one 'cause I tried it out when we were working on the Cow Movie.
I prefer the Blackwing.
Still, it's a cool pencil. Very smooth..weighty,. Better than most things on the market today. Especially that crappy Prismacolor 935 black. They sure screwed that up!
Anyone have a pencil they like as much as the Blaisdell or the Blackwing? Me, I go for the Faber Castell Polychromos when I want a big line. A Tombow HB, B ,2B, when I want something finer.
What about everyone else?
I used to use carpenters pencils as a kid to get close to the feeling of a blaisedell- then i met Craig Maras who ever so graciously gave me one! I used it very sparingly on Looney Tunes: Back in Action. One day i left it on my pegs and went to lunch, when i came back i couldn't find it. It's still a mystery. I don't know whether to think i lost it or someone, well, i liketo think better of people than that. I heard the company that made them has the formula locked away in Mexico somewhere or something like that.
Still, it's rather sad thinking of the things you find out sooner or later, and to also learn they no longer bother making them at all, for any number of reasons. I felt a bit upset a while back learning Kodak decided to discontinue the Kodachrome K-40 Super-8mm color reveral film (as well as a lab in Switzerland that has been handling the processing for a long time), and the people who went out of the way to obtain as much of this as they can.
After having read up on the Blackwing 602, it's rather sad thinking someone out there isn't bothering to try replicating that design/formula if that's the only way to keep the rest happy at buying the pencils. You'd think with today's technology, such interest would've been able to make that a reality (unless Sanford doesn't have a say in it, I'm already wondering about boycotting them in the process since I could do better with other companies, still a shame thinking of the many brands they've grabbed onto in the process I've used my whole life, I generally have a distain with congomerated business).
I would love to get either pencil personally, but much like a collector, I'd be TOO scare to even bother using it if it's that big an investment (if any). It's like being a geeky fanboy who can't even open up a package an action figure's in because he/she doesn't want to devalue said item. Seemed like all my life I've been that way, even with packages at a store that has a design that's no longer used, I collect the entire box! That way I would never have to forget what a product used to be like when it was once sold that way (like the switchover from metal/glass to plastic I cried my eyes at).
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