Introduction

John S. Gibb is a leading pencil artist whose work is to be found in collections throughout the world, particularly in the USA where he has been honoured with numerous top awards at prestigious Arts Festivals.

He was born in England's beautiful Lake District, which is where he now lives, spending five or six hours each day on the finely detailed drawings for which he is famous.

John's pencil drawings are issued as Fine Art Reproductions, mostly in Limited Editions. They are issued in one edition only and always in the original size. Several of these editions have sold out and have become collectors' items. The originals sell for thousands of dollars.

John was invited to film a documentary featuring his work on 'Arts Edition PrimeTime' for PBS television, which was broadcast in June 2006.

Technique

These are free hand drawings.

John uses a mechanical pencil with .03 leads, on Bristol board 'Plate' surface, with 90% of the drawing done using 3H. When the drawing is almost finished,, he uses a softer lead - HB - to enrich the dark tones.

He keeps the pencil sharp by rolling the point on fine sandpaper.

His other tools are a magnifier, a blending tool and three types of eraser:

• A cylindrical eraser repeatedly trimmed with a razor blade, used as a tool to remove graphite already laid down, leaving fine white lines.
• A pencil eraser used for lightening areas such as clouds, without making white lines.
• A standard eraser for mistakes, second thoughts etc., of which there are plenty.
• To keep the paper from accumulating graphite dust, John avoids touching the paper with his hands, using a sheet of clear acetate to protect his work.
• He does not use projection, light boxes or computer enhancement.