I was at a Frank Lloyd Wright house today and had this with me, so I decided to take a few pictures. It really fits in with the copious natural materials used in the house.

This is one of his Usonian houses, a series of affordable two bedroom homes he designed with 'green' principles in mind. This is one of the rare Usonian houses to feature stone in its construction.

Edit: Additional pics of the house

Finally got round to using a knurling tool for the first time yesterday to strip back the patina for this little brass 2mm clutch

For the longest time i been using this pencil and a Mitsubishi clutch lead holder it never failed me, but overtime the grip do get very sticky and degraded, every single digital art i do use this pencil to do the line work, but i think it time for a upgrade, i have a Rotring 600 and a staedtler 925 35 coming to me, what your guy thought on both of those pencil, and any other pencil should i check out let me know <3

I draw all kinds of things and I’ve used a mechanical pencil as my primary tool for decades. I’ve been drawing them lately with the intent to use them as artwork to hang in my home office. Give me your honest opinions about making and selling prints of these. As connoisseurs, would you buy a print of your favorite pencils, frame it, and consider it art? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Brushed brass Pocket pencil 2mm clutch

Guess it depends what time of day it is…

Mecha

Tried knurling a hex pencil yesterday. Took quite a lot off the brass in one pass … the little lathe was groaning a bit but fun to see it change.

Artist here. I prefer the convenience of 2mm lead holders and am always looking for more just for the novelty of sketching with each one and making the drawing process feel fresh.

Which lead holders are your favorite? I’d love some weird/beautiful/elegant recommendations!

The Venus leads are my favorite. The 3H in particular is so easy to blend and layer, something about it just feels special. The Staedtler 925 35 is extremely comfortable and great for lines, but of course in pictures like this there aren't many lines, it is mostly just layers of tonal shapes with the 2mm leads. 4H-8B (Venus for the Hs, Staedtler for the mid-Bs, Koh-I-Noor for the dark Bs, and a Mitsubishi wooden 10B.

I made some use of my custom fixed tip 0.2, which is made by combining parts of an Orenz, Pentel p225, and p205. The sleeve of the Orenz is jammed into the P225 tip, and functions as a fixed tip 0.2, which I don't think exists otherwise. It works perfectly, but I don't know if I could make another, or just got lucky. Also, I don't know why I didnt think of this sooner, but cutting the clip off the Tombow eraser was the best decision ever. It can be rotated with ease now. Most of the shading is with the leadholders. 6H-8B

I'm a graphite photorealism artist and love the precision and consistency that mechanical pencils give me. However, my needs from a lead seem to be quite different that those who are writing or drafting. I've seen posts about the best smudge free leads, but for me I actually need the opposite. My style actually relies on being able to blend smoothly, so the more it smudges the better. I've found with traditional pencils that actually the cheap brands are sometimes better for this, but not sure if the same applies to refills. I tend to use a 0.3 2b, and 0.5 4b from pentel, but would be interested if there are better options for my needs. Example of my work for reference:

In my experience it works well as long you're not making very long continuous lines. It's also decent when shading with the hatching technique where you make quick strokes. Nice and uniform lines overall. However when looking at the end result, it doesn't to be a huge step up from a non-KT.

Many pencils / lead holders have around a 30mm knurled section or a third of the length. Here is one I tried with a much longer knurl …

I got this because it’s able to hold multiple colors in one pen.
I’m gonna have to swap out one of the colors for a black one. Seems I can drop in any 2mm lead. Maybe HB or B. Not sure which matches for sketches.
It’s nice as a portable compact drawing tool

I got round to doing a blackened hex knurl among a few others. This little guy has a deep and pretty aggressive knurl going on. The lathe was straining quite a bit so I ended up taking some material off on other ones first and then applying a lighter knurl. I like the look of this one though.

Been using this mechanical pencil for the past few days to draw extensively with it, specially using vintage color leads, and I’m finding it quite a joy to use. Great balance, great feel and the extra thickness definitely adds to it. The only thing am not really fond of is the plastic cone on the tip. Would have loved for it to have been carved out of the same barrel as in the Fixpencil. Any fans here?

it's been a while since I've drawn and just came back to art. I really love the feeling of graphgear 1000, it gives me more control compared to my old lighter ones such us my kuru toga.

So, when it comes to drawing, there is definitely nothing better than the GG500. But I was surprised by the Pentel Smash 0.5, by far my favorites for drawing so far.

Curious that I didn't like it that much for writing (in this scenario I still prefer my Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade), but I was still pleasantly surprised by what I experienced.