Some tools, over time, stop being just objects and begin to carry an aura of inspiration. Among artists, illustrators, and animators, one such symbol is the Palomino Blackwing—a pencil that has become almost legendary in the world of visual creation. Even in the digital age, it remains present on studio desks, in storyboard notebooks, and sketchpads around the world—and now, in the comic strips of AriêToy as well.
The Blackwing first appeared in the first half of the twentieth century, produced by Eberhard Faber. Even then, it stood out for its soft, dark graphite, smooth feel, and remarkable precision—ideal for gesture drawing, quick shading, and expressive notes. Within a few years, it became the pencil of choice for figures such as John Steinbeck, Chuck Jones (creator of Bugs Bunny), and many Disney illustrators. Its distinctive rectangular eraser and graphite quality made it such an iconic object that, when it was discontinued in the 1990s, many artists stockpiled boxes to avoid running out.
Decades later, the Palomino brand revived the Blackwing, preserving its iconic design and the performance that made it famous, now offered in modern variations. For those who draw, the pencil still delivers what it always promised: control, smoothness, and the feeling that ideas flow with less friction between hand and paper.
At AriêToy, this pencil enters the process at its most fragile—and most free—moment: the initial sketches of comic strips and characters. It is with the Blackwing that the first shapes of Ariê, Rina, the Rabbit, and other recurring figures begin to emerge. Before being digitized, colored, and finalized, many expressions, poses, and compositions start on paper, loosely sketched in Blackwing. This allows ideas to be tested quickly and intuitively. A soft pencil helps find the right gesture, the natural movement, the subtle humor of an expression.
In this analog stage, the goal is not polish, but clarity. A joke that works on paper works on screen. An expression that reads instantly in graphite will read instantly in pixels. That's why sketch fluidity is so important.
Even in a digital project—where everything ultimately reaches the audience as pixels—there is an analog world behind the scenes. And in that world, the Palomino Blackwing continues to play the role that made it famous: being the first trace of something that has yet to come alive.