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Show 421 As the light in the room increased he was able to work with his face a little farther from his pad, and eventually to kneel upright, which relieved him, because he had felt like a toad in the earlier position and had developed a cramp in his elbow. He could hear cars beginning to go past, and knew that soon his alarm clock would go off again and he would have to eat something and dress and go to work. He raised up once to ease his back and realized he had gone hard. He paused long enough to pour another cup of coffee, knowing he was going to regret it later in the morning, and went around the room straightening books on the table and sorting through neckties draped over their hanger until he was normal again, and then returned to the bed. He turned to the next page, determined to do as much as he could before he had to leave, and already preparing his plans for tomorrow's lines. Tomorrow maybe he'd use a brush and ink again. It was important to alternate your media, because they determined the character of your line and the whole way you went about producing it. Soft pencils left a track that turned to mush across the paper and it was tempting to let them do all the work for you, so from time to time you worked with hard pencils, number threes or harder, that had no forgiveness to them and forced you to create the illusion of nuance where in fact there was none. He liked charcoal too. Charcoal left a dusty residue like a soiled ghost on either side of the line you were drawing. Ball-point pens didn't give you back anything, they felt inert in your hand, but you sometimes found they had left an interesting line that degenerated into gaps and hyphens and then dropped an ugly clot of black paste to harden on the page. Fountain pens made your whole arm feel unstable as you drew, and that was exciting, like being just on the edge of control all the time. Lettering pens with India ink and a variety of nibs gave you a hearty |