How to Choose the Correct Art Eraser©
Posted: Saturday, September 24, 2011
by Arlene Wright-Correll
http://www.learn-america.com
This week’s “Art Only Spoken Here” email question asks, “I have been told there are lots of art erasers. I want to know what they are used for besides erasing mistakes and which one you recommend.”
You are not alone with this question and though erasers are often used to erase mistakes you may have noticed that artist drawing pencils do not have erasers on them and most of today’s writing pencils that have erasers do not do much successful erasing except for leaving pink smudges on one’s paper.
The most common one is the Pink Pearl eraser and a good one is made by PaperMate. This is a “bulldog” eraser because it tears into your drawing and tears up the graphite and if you are too vigorous it may well attack your paper. So use caution when using!
My favorite is the Kneaded eraser is #1224 made of rubber by Design as it is soft and pliable and I can wad it up into a point to get into tight place on my drawing and not disturb the rest of my drawing. I can also easily use this type of eraser to lighten up any drawing that I may have made too dark without destroying what I all ready have there simply by pushing the eraser down and quickly lifting it off. Also one of the best things is I can clean this eraser by simply stretching it and folding it back onto itself. Speaking of Kneaded erasers there are some good ones that come in red, yellow and blue by Faber-Castell and these will not mess up your work either.
When you want to do general clean up then I recommend the white plastic or vinyl eraser # 2000 by Design. Leaving no residue they are gentle on your work and do not disturb the paper.
The one I like the least since it is terribly messy is Designs Art Gum eraser.
For those who are on the cutting edge there are now Electronic erasers and I have used the Sakura one finding it is easy to use and does not tear up the paper. You can use this one to “draw with white” simply by making fine lines in your shaded area with the tip. You can also sharpen you eraser tip by rubbing it on old sandpaper or an artist’s sandpaper block.
I do hope this information helps you and I thank you for a great question.
May the Creative Force be With You….
Arlene Wright-Correll
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Thanks for the infoyou are very welcome Jack.
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