I remembered last night that I have a Derwent drawing pencil. I bought those 24 colors from Amazon in September 2021 for 4331 yen. Now it sells for 9788 yen. Compared to before 2019, all art materials have risen in price by 1.5 to 2 times. I am lucky to be able to buy at the right time.

This morning, I started drawing on three small sheets of paper (Strathmore’s Bristol).

My hobby has been collecting drawing materials since I was a child. When I was a child, my father bought me some of his charcoal pencils at the art supply store in the basement of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno. It may have been two black and one red sanguine. I will never forget the joy I felt at that time. Since that time, nothing has changed, and I feel that it is a waste to use it. It’s such a shame to sharpen these pencils while drawing. My father also said something like this and sharpened the pencil with his knife. He said, “If you try to sharpen the lead of a pencil, most of the lead will be scraped off and thrown away.”

For me, the pencil has a special meaning because of this memory of my father. I feel a strong sense of mission that I must prove through my drawings on paper that the lead of a pencil that is scraped and lost is never wasted.

For me, the pencil has a special meaning because of this memory of my father. I feel a strong sense of mission that I must prove through my drawings on paper that the lead of a pencil that is scraped and lost is never wasted.