#6: Eraser Pen
If the leadholder is Yang, the eraser pen would be Yin! They’re practically the same device, but with different ammo! While the leadholder holds lead, the eraser pen holds molten lava! – Or erasers, that would work too. Unlike the leadholder though, eraser pens are gaining popularity significantly and can be now found manufactured by several brands with several different holding mechanisms ranging from a pump button to a spring clutch to a sliding grip. They are still not all that widely known, however, they are incredibly useful for artists who like precision erasing but without the financial ruination that electric erasers have as an added bonus. Sizes vary from fairly thick to relatively small and are very inexpensive in general as an added benefit, so refills are easy to find and buy. My only criticism is that I wish they would make them even thinner or make a method for sharpening them to a point that doesn’t require gratuitous knifing. The only thing I could recommend over an eraser pen is a good electric eraser, however, it’s not easy to find one that’s easily within budget and for the most part, eraser pens allow for the same results with a little good old fashion manual labour.
#7: French Curve & Flexible Curve
Having clearly the sexiest names for any drawing tools around, the French Curve and Flexible Curve tools are a must have when you absolutely, positively must have a smooth curve. Similar to the mysterious charm behind a lady, the French Curve set is beautiful, elegant device used to make wonderfully smooth curves only offset by the fact that few people actually have the patience to learn and use them in actual practice. Seriously, just look at those things, they’re freaking’ shurikens for crying out loud. If you give a person a set of these and tell them to draw with them, they’ll be more likely to stab you to death with one rather than even entertain the idea. On the flip side is the Flexible Curve which is everything the French Curve is not, easily to work with, easy to learn, easy to manipulate… unfortunately, half of the time it’s crooked and never stays where you want it to – that and cheating on you with your best friend.
French Curves typically come in a set of three known as the Burmester set. One of the templates is for Ellipses, another for Hyperbolas and the final one for Parabolas! Half of the fun is guessing which! The other half, probably looking up the definitions for those words to begin with. In theory, a French Curve set should be able to draw almost any curve possible and has traditionally been a tool for typographers, technical artists and architects more so than illustrators and painters. In recent times however, the French Curve has been experiencing declining popularity due to Vector based software such as Adobe Illustrator and CADD programs that utilize a pen/brazier tool which is comparably more versatile to use, albeit restricted to a digital environment which isn’t exactly a downside.
Flexible Curves are a great tool as easy to use to guide your pencil as a thick piece of string and much more intuitive than French Curves. The problem comes as a direct result of said flexibility. Although you can avoid the “bent wire” effect you get from freehand drawing, they have a tendency to never be as mathematically sound or as perfectly consistent as a French. There is also an issue of stability, you can’t afford to be heavy handed with a Flexible Curve as it’s very easy to accidentally push it out or lose your place. Also, there is a limit to how much you can really adjust them, particularly for small curves, they are generally most useful for broad sweeping curves that cover the page. Some flexible curves come with a measuring system though that can prove useful when trying to accurately balance curved areas however, so it’s always handy to have one on hand.
#8: Ames Lettering Guide
“What is this I don’t even know…” is usually the first reaction to the Ames Guide used for drawing text guides, particularly for comics. Truly, if you were to see one of these on an alien planet, your first reaction would be to unravel it’s mysterious nature, and if you found it on Earth, your first reaction would be to ignore it for years and let it collect dust in the bottom of a shoe box. Can’t blame you on the latter one, that’s pretty much what I did after trying to make sense of the instruction booklet. Every other item on this list is extremely self explanatory, “Leadholder?” it holds lead! “Paper Stump?”, why, it’s a stump of paper!”, yet here we are talking about the Ames Lettering Guide, a device so utterly counter intuitive you will probably be tempted to just say, “Screw this, I’m going to write the text in Photoshop”. I would like to give an extended metaphor on how this thing works exactly, but similar to Quantum Mechanics, there simply is no comparison to it in the natural world.
Okay then, I’m going to try and explain how to use an Ames Lettering Guide now. First of all, the thing creates lines to align letters, not the actual letters. Next, you glide it along a straight edge such as a ruler to the place where you want to place the text, then adjust the wheel accordingly to the size you want the letters to be, the more vertical the holes line up, the bigger the letters. Now that you have an idea how it works, draw the lines using the guide against the straight edge by placing your pencil instead the holes adjusted to the size you want. Finally, buy a copy of Photoshop, scan your artwork in and throw away the Ames Lettering Guide into the nearest trashcan in your immediate area. For more info on how to use an Ames Lettering Guide in a way that doesn’t involve complete and utter surrender, please check out Doug Patt’s therapeutically educational video “How to write like an architect”.
#9: Drawing Glove
Are you tired of messy smudges when trying to clean up your pristine line work, maybe it’s time for a drawing glove! Why “Drawing Glove” and not “Drawing Gloves?” you may ask? It’s because you’ll only need one to make you look totally badass. In terms of obscurity, a proper artist’s drawing glove is quite possibly the most exclusive item of them all, for the most part; they appear to be a specialized item that is only available by order from the internet. To some degree, you can make your own simply by buying a set of nylon gloves from the local dollar store and cutting it diagonally from the back of the thumb to the point right below the middle finger with a pair of scissors. It will prevent smudging and for the most part be functional, although something has to be said for how long it will generally last.
An artist’s drawing glove has two different purposes depending on if you’re a digital artist working on a tablet or a traditional artist working with graphite or other easily smudged mediums. In the first case, the glove would prevent friction on a graphics tablet, generally a Wacom Tablet, and allow for smoother gliding. This is especially true if you have just washed your hands or are perspiring in which case friction becomes a very real inhibiting force when drawing digitally. For traditional artists, gloves are incredibly handy when doing clean line work as it prevents smudging without having to resort to the old “Place scrap paper under your palm” school of methology. The reason the fingers of the glove are cut and exposed is so that you will have the flexibility to use your grip fingers to draw.
One company gaining popularity among artists is SmudgeGuard. I personally haven’t had the chance to try one of their gloves as of yet, but have been following them for some time as they have grown. They seem to know just how fickle artists can be with the details more so than any other competing product and have certainly thought out their product’s advantages through the eyes of an artist carefully, as such I would recommend trying them if homemade gloves just aren’t cutting it anymore… okay, technically, you cut the gloves, not the other way around, but I digress.
#10: Eraser Shield
Originally I was going to write about the Pen Gun as #10 for this list, but then it just occurred to me that you don’t really draw with a pen gun as much as shoot another human being to death, which is not really big on my wish list at this point in time for mostly altruistic reasons. So instead of a gun, we have a shield, an eraser shield no less, for when you need to defend against being erased! Perhaps even by a pen gun! Okay, probably not, you’ll probably just be viciously mowed down by the incoming projectile. Moving right along, an Eraser Shield is essentially a stencil, commonly made of thin metal or plastic that has the power to allow you to cleanly erase stuff it’s on top of, but in fancy shapes like tear drops, circles and triangles, oh my! It’s actually quite amazing when you give it a try because the erased areas are sharp and distinct. Eraser shields are light weight and handy for when you want to clear out very, very specific areas of graphite without nuking the surround areas, but can also be great for making negative area shapes and the like and are always handy to have when cleaning up your line art.
Well, that’s it for the “10 Unique Drawing Tools They Never Gave You at School!” You can find many of these at your local office supply store, but outside of that, the art store nearest to you is always a best place to look if the insanely high price mark-up doesn’t instantaneously terrify you first. So go out there and buy yourself some new drawing toys that confuse and befuddle onlookers and clients alike!
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