AN EXCITING NEW ART MATERIAL – GRAF ART TAILOR SHAPES
I first saw this product being demonstrated briefly by Denise Love, a wonderful artist whose YouTube channel I follow. After that, I kept tripping over this product and was intrigued, and knew I had to add it to my studio arsenal.
Background
The product is a most unusual graphite material in the form of square blocks which resemble traditional tailor’s chalk. Anyone who has done sewing in the past will know about this. The shape of it causes you to handle it in a different way from a normal brush, pen or pencil, and it will naturally create more organic, loose, sweeping gestures as a result.
It is made by a Portuguese family firm called Viarco. They were in the business of traditional pencil making but were finding it hard to compete with the pencil manufacturing giants such as Derwent, Staedtler and Faber Castell. The only way to survive was to diversify, and to produce graphite in a novel and intriguing way, to enable artists to enjoy the medium as a fresh adventure. Here is the description under a video I watched yesterday where the owner of the company was demonstrating it.
“Established in 1907, Viarco is a fourth generation, family-owned business producing high-quality pencils and ArtGraf drawing materials. It’s a place of learning for children, which teaches and transmits the basic human values, of influence and residence for artists, and at the same time an amazing industrial museum. Since 2007, Jose Vieira and his wife have led the Viarco team to successfully launch innovative materials on the world market, the fruit of many collaborations, experiences, and friendships. Viarco’s ability to preserve their legacy and pursue innovative materials that encourage exploration and “play with drawing” is only made possible because they are passionate about what they do.”
During the course of the video, he showed some intriguing “toys” – strange looking tools for holding drawing materials in an unusual way to reduce one’s normal control, and I was fascinated when he said that these could really help people who were unable to grip a pencil in the normal way. I spoke to an artist recently who asked me if I’d ever tried painting with the brush tied to the end of a broomstick! It certainly makes one think about art in a completely different way!
The product
The set of six that I have bought is the earth tones set. They also do a set of three primaries, and a set of black, grey and white, which I may get at some stage. They do not want to get involved in producing a huge range of colours, and if you’ve got the primaries and black and white, you can produce pretty much any colour anyway.
For now, it is the earth tones that attract me.
These graphite blocks can be used dry, and they are also water soluble. Unlike Derwent Inktense, they can be reactivated with water after they have dried, so if one wanted to layer over them, it would be necessary to apply some sort of barrier or fixative. As a result of this property, they are extremely versatile, and while you can do fine work with them, using the corner of the block, or applying the pigment with a brush, they can also be used to cover large areas with intensely pigmented backgrounds.
The colours
The blocks are kept in a most unusual and attractive cork container with a plastic sleeve to protect them. I removed the sleeve and put it on the other way up, to show the details and the list of colours.
Here is the set with the sleeve removed, ready for use.
I love how the logo is imprinted on both sides of the blocks – it gives them that authentic tailor’s chalk feel, and the presentation is just gorgeous.
The product in use
Using the blocks dry
The next photo shows how one instinctively handles the blocks. It is very different from most art materials and will naturally create a much looser, more gestural style.
My first marks! Drawing with the corner of the block.
Using the edge of the block. This is really exciting!
Introducing a different colour.
Some little scribbled swatches of all six colours.
Now for some fun – adding water
The pigment spreads beautifully with water applied with a brush, and the colour is intensified. It flows beautifully.
Blending some of the broader strokes created with the edge of the block.
Blending the second colour. This ochre is quite surprisingly bright once wet.
Blending the colours.
Activating the small swatches with water.
Different methods of applying the pigment
Here I am wetting the block with water from the brush. Painting it on, the colour is really intense.
Here, I have wetted the corner of the block with the brush.
Drawing direct with the wet corner of the block.
Again, you can see that the colour is intensified. I love how the texture changes as it becomes more dry as you move the block across the paper.
Here, I have wetted the edge of the block wth the brush.
This is the most dramatic result, I think. Dragging the wet block across the paper results in a large area of really dark intense colour, and if you don’t press too hard, you get some gorgeous texture too.
So much potential here!
Messy!
This stuff is a bit messy – my hand after this short session:
However, it rinsed off really easily under the tap.
Another product they make
They make another product which is extremely different and unusual – graphite putty! If you want messy, this is for you. It’s a lump of black clay-like stuff that you can mould into whatever shape you want. You can draw direct with it on wet or dry paper (I didn’t try wetting my paper first in my experiments above but that’s another way to apply the stuff), and you can break bits off and make them into a fine point for detailed work, and you can also press textures into it and stamp with it. It looks totally awesome!
