I was inspired to purchase these pencils from last year’s portrait drawing thread over on WetCanvas – done by moderator Al for his “portraits in three part harmony” class last year. It wasn’t much of a “class,” per se, but it was interesting to use a new medium for portraiture! Some people had a hard time finding the right pencils but I got mine from my local JoAnn Fabrics (your local Michael’s should also have singles – you can also get them at DickBlick.com).

To be fair, the set does contain other drawing/sketching materials but I’ve hardly used them. I tried the graphite that you can get wet (“graphitone”) and I found it less than satisfactory. I’ve always found that wetting my drawing surface ruins it for later drawing. Your mileage may vary. I don’t understand how the three “wash” pencils differ from the graphitone; however, like I said, no thank you when it comes to getting my drawing surface wet.

The “pastel pencils” are too chalky for my tastes. I think the white pastel pencil would work well in conjunction with the black charcoal pencils, though, and I plan to try a portrait using said combination. Tony Ryder seems to like white pastel with black charcoal, so it must be good (Tony’s book is FAB-U-LOUS).

A real gem that I’ve come to really enjoy are the 4 sticks of charcoal – sticks, no wood (though there are three charcoal pencils surrounded by wood). When I get going in charcoal, I really get going and I like to have the medium all over my hands. Call me crazy but that’s how I like my charcoal. The charcoal isn’t as good as the vine charcoal made from pure willow that I also have and doesn’t erase as neatly as vine charcoal, but there’s a lot there and it’s a lot sturdier than vine charcoal. Pick your charcoal according to your goals.

CONs:
-Graphitone is lame
-would be better with more Derwent drawing pencils

PROs:
-good variety for experimentation
-relatively inexpensive for the quality

I’m not going to start a religious war about Windows vs. Linux vs. MacOS or anything like that. I’m just going to lay out what I do in hopes that you will also be able to live freely, knowing full well that artists aren’t exactly rolling in money.

First, you need an operating system. I heartily recommend Ubuntu. This is coming from an IT guy (that’s my day job) that has used all the major distributions and I’ve only moved to Ubuntu a few months ago – until then I was a die-hard Slacker. I still like Slackware, but with a full time job, a wife, a house, a boy, and trying to fit this blog in there, I just don’t have the time to tinker on my Linux box like I used to. I still use Slackware for my NAS (network attached storage) and it’s still on my webserver (until I migrate entirely to a hosted environment).

Anyway, I digress. The important thing is that I recommend Ubuntu.

Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff:

• Photo editing: The GIMP (similar to PhotoShop – get the GIMPShop package if you can’t give up your addiction)
• Vector graphics: Inkscape (similar to Adobe Illustrator – though Illustrator’s layer handling is superior)
• Desktop publishing: Scribus (similar to Adobe InDesign, though I actually prefer Scribus and I’ve used both)
• Web browsing: Firefox, duh
• Simple photo alterations (cropping, lightening, etc.): Google Picasa. Works fantastically in Linux. ‘Nuff said.
• Blogging: WordPress – it’s free, it’s open source, it’s written in PHP, it’s extensible, it’s themeable – what’s not to like?
• Google Docs: you could use OpenOffice.org, but why restrict yourself? I wrote my business plan in Google Docs and now I can access it from anywhere, share it instantly with friends, even export directly to a WordPress blog (see previous post on that subject). Web-based apps are where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned

I have some customizations that are due to some limitations. My scanner (Canon Lide 80) is not supported in Linux (Canon, why have you let down countless Linux users? Do you not want to make money?). Fear not, brave Linux Artist, for there is an answer: VirtualBox. A lot has been written about VirtualBox, and a quick Google search for “virtualbox feisty” will get you what you need. Suffice to say that you can take that copy of XP that you’re not using any more and relegate it to a safe, virtualized haven on your Linux box. From there, I *can* run my scanner; simply install XP in VirtualBox and then download/install the Canon WIA driver, make sure the scanner is plugged in to a USB port, ensure that the scanner/USB device is enabled in VirtualBox, and then use your favorite image software – I recommend Irfanview. Next time I’ll be sure to specifically research a scanner that has a working Linux driver to avoid the middle man. (UPDATE 7/28/07: I found some scanners that work well in Linux, including relatives of my Lide 80 (Lide 25 and 60), on eBay for a decent price and this could potentially eliminate even my virtual Windows environment.)

**If you’re reaching this page from a Google search for getting your LiDE 80 working in Ubuntu, then I recommend either swapping for an LiDE 25 or 60 or using Windows 2000/XP inside VirtualBox**

Set up Samba file sharing in Ubuntu to share files between your virtual Windows and your Linux powerhouse (remember, Google is your friend), and you’re set. Now I can fire up XP, scan in my stuff, drag it over to Ubuntu, and then brutally kill Windows (bwahahaha!). Your mileage may vary.

I could also use my Canon EOS Digital Rebel (this time, Canon did NOT let me down – I absolutely LOVE this camera) and plug it in via USB instead of scanning, but scanning is much easier.

So there you have it – a quick run-down of using Linux for your art needs. Had I purchased the scanner with Linux in mind, I might be totally free of Microsoft but I’ll take the workaround until I stop being too cheap to buy another scanner.