Counted them today while I was stalling on a big figure piece. 41 stubs. Some of them are just a smear of black dust in the bottom of the tin and I still won't dump it, because that dust is what I use to push the deepest shadows on a face. You can't buy that. You have to make it by grinding your knuckles down for months.

Ordered two boxes of Nitram last week like a responsible adult and then went right back to the nubs. There's something about the last half inch of a stick that makes me draw better. Nothing left to lose on it I guess.

Meanwhile this figure has been staring at me from the easel since Tuesday and I've redrawn the left hand eight times. It's not the hand. It's that I know once the hand is right I have to actually finish the thing and then I have to look at it. Classic.

Anyone else keep a tin of trash they'd fight someone over