In 1998, Eberhard Faber stopped making the Blackwing 602 pencil, and its cult users have been pining for them ever since. An unsharpened Blackwing can sell for $40 on eBay. One person told me his eBay auction for a box of Blackwings went to a “song writer/composer who’s worked with Barry Manilow and on feature films, and chooses to only write music using the Blackwing 602.”

Today I received in the mail two pre-production Palomino Blackwing pencils, made by California Cedar. Keeping in mind these are pre-production pencils, here are my impressions after using the pencil for a few minutes.

• The color of the new Blackwing (NB) is flat black. The color of the original Blackwing is (OB) is a lustrous charcoal gray.

• NB has a gold band painted near the top of the wood, OB does not.

• OB has a black band painted on the ferrule, NB does not. 

• OB has stamped motto HALF THE PRESSURE, TWICE THE SPEED, NB does not.

• OB has pink eraser, NB has white eraser.

SMELL OF WOOD

• NB has a stronger, spicy smell. Reminded me of Indian food. Not unpleasant. OB’s smell is faint, but this could be due to its age (at least 12 years old).

• NB is softer and darker than OB.

• NB is quieter on the paper.

• OB holds a point longer than NB.

• I also compared the OB and NB to a Palomino HB, one of my favorite pencils. The Palomino actually seems closer to the OB than the NB does!

• A cheap pencil I found in my daughter’s desk was so close in quality to the OB, NB, and Palomino HB that I found myself wondering why I was caring so darn much about pencils.

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION

I like the OB for sentimental reasons. If the NB ends up looking almost exactly like the OB and costs under $2.00, I will buy it. Otherwise I will use any HB that ends up in my hand.

Yes, her name is Florian, but you can call her Neo. French virtual illustrator, graphic designer, but in the spirit of the Matrix, I think simply “artist” will suffice.

For those who like reimaginations of the classics. Check out this chic magazinesque version of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece.

Oscar Wilde’s classic book – his only novel – follows the fortunes of a young man of leisure in fin-de-siècle London after he makes a deal with the devil: that he will always stay young, while his portrait grows old in his place. For this new edition of the book, artist Gareth Jones re-imagines the story as a costume drama set in 1970s Paris, in a large format edition that returns the book to its origins in a magazine.

The typefaces used in this edition are:
Cover and headers: ITC Benguiat
Preface: Times New Roman Italic
Body text: Garamond

DEPth Magazine is focused on becoming a premiere urban cultural arts periodical. We intend to appeal to a wide demographic, ranging between the ages of 26-45 years of age. We will offer a print publication as well as digital publication but we also want to offer our readers dedicated information on our website. Anything pertaining to the art world. We want to showcase, not just the art itself, but also the tools word artists and visual artists use. The apparel we buy; the bags we carry; the inspiration we hold dear. These are the things that DEPth would like to showcase and explore.

 We are looking for passionate contributors who will blog about their art as well as happenings and updates across the art world in general.

Please check our submissions page above.

DEPth Magazine is currently looking for word and visual artist to post their work and articles on our website. We are looking for intuitive, serious, dedicated individuals who take their craft to heart. We want to help you showcase your talent as well as provide an inspirational, resourceful and informative environment for the creative community.

If you are interested please email submissions@depthmagazine.org.

If you are not interested in being a regular contributor but you would like to be featured on our website or in our premiere issue, please click Submissions on the navigation menu for our submission guidelines and questionaire.

Spoken. Written. Seen. Felt.