Even though Derwents and Lakelands were not big
with my generation in our schooldays, I do feel
brought into your old coloring culture, Bill.
So specific! names especially, whereas
my efforts to recall class mates flounder and founder.
Grade one, for heaven’s sake! Eleven cents,
those were the days! (sure they weren’t pennies?)
The layout in quatrains mostly convinces,
despite some lines being ever so long.
Your vocabulary of ‘nuance’ etc reaches a peak
at ‘covenant’, a sort of benign grandfatherly retrospect.
Max
On Sep 13, 2016, at 15:33, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Peter 'Mouse' Milsom in grade one
> had 36 Derwents, pencils of nuance
> to which my dozen Lakelands
> could hold no candle.
>
> John Link had a dozen Derwents
> most in pretty good nick except
> for one, a real fire engine red
> worn down to a stubby inch or so.
>
> All those post boxes, phone booths
> and rich red outfits to adorn
> his created characters with. No
> muted tones, just full lead pushdown.
>
> Andrew Kingsford outlined upper case
> project headings in greylead before
> splatting them with two or three bold
> Derwents, not caring that he went over the edges.
>
> I'd borrow where I could so at least parts
> of my drawings had lustre. But it pushed
> friendships. Once I deepened an aqua sea
> with a borrowed Derwent from Michael Kent
>
> who shook his head at the result,
> seeing correctly that I had overplayed
> my hand, the unwritten covenant:
> shading only with a borrowed tool.
>
> After earning enough from a paper round,
> I bought individual Derwents at 11 cents
> a pop from the newsagent and slotted them
> into my haggard Lakeland cardboard pack.
>
> But how could it be predicted what colours
> would be needed for future page spreads?
> And anyway, those best equipped -
> some girls even moved up to 72 Derwents -
>
> produced the lamest art, so intent were
> they on wearing down lead evenly,
> retaining six shelves of possibility.
> Linky's red outclassed the lot of us.
>
> bw
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