{"id":92,"date":"2015-04-10T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lemasney.com\/projects\/illustratedobjects\/?p=92"},"modified":"2020-07-12T19:44:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T23:44:17","slug":"pencil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2015\/04\/10\/pencil\/","title":{"rendered":"Pencil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An<\/a>

An illustration of a pencil by John LeMasney<\/p><\/div>\n

An illustration of a pencil by John LeMasney.<\/h2>\n

This sketch reminds me of the story of the space pen, in which it’s suggested that the US was wasteful in spending a million dollars to develop a space pen, while Russians simply used pencils. A great story, but false on many counts:<\/p>\n

“The lesson of the infamous “space pen” anecdote about NASA’s spending a small fortune to develop a ballpoint pen that astronauts could use in outer space, while completely overlooking the simple and elegant solution adopted by the Soviet space program (give cosmonauts pencils instead), is a valid one: sometimes we expend a great deal of time, effort, and money to create a “high-tech” solution to a problem, when a perfectly good, cheap, and simple answer is right before our eyes. \u00a0 As good a story and moral as that may be, however, this \u00a0 anecdote doesn’t offer a real-life example of that syndrome. \u00a0 Both U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts initially used pencils on space flights, but those writing instruments were not ideal: pencil tips can flake and break off, and having such objects floating around space capsules in near-zero gravity posed a potential harm to astronauts and equipment. (As well, after the fatal Apollo 1 fire in 1967, NASA was anxious to avoid having astronauts carry flammable objects such as pencils onboard with them.)”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– snopes.com: NASA Space Pen –<\/p>\n

http:\/\/goo.gl\/9RtFIv<\/a><\/p>\n

This drawing was made by John LeMasney in Krita, the open source digital painting application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An illustration of a pencil by John LeMasney. This sketch reminds me of the story of the space pen, in which it’s suggested that the US was wasteful in spending a million dollars to develop a space pen, while Russians simply used pencils. A great story, but false on many counts: “The lesson of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1128],"tags":[403],"class_list":{"0":"post-92","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-illustration","8":"tag-illustration","9":"post_format-post-format-image","10":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/pencil.png?fit=1080%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3h6y2-pencil","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1477,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2013\/05\/12\/on-a-bulbous-linear-illustration\/","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":0},"title":"On a bulbous linear illustration","author":"lemsy","date":"2013-05-12","format":false,"excerpt":"I am fascinated by serial linear illustrations that reveal form simply by altering the sequence of lines. It's not a new idea, visually speaking, but one that I've seen executed beautifully many times and have tried to emulate several times. I once had an introductory \u00a0graphic design class that challenged\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "consulting"","block_context":{"text":"consulting","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/consulting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A bulbous linear illustration by John LeMasney via lemasney.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bulbous.png?fit=1000%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bulbous.png?fit=1000%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bulbous.png?fit=1000%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bulbous.png?fit=1000%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2010\/02\/15\/56-of-365-is-changing-from-a-pencil-to-a-quill-in-inkscape\/","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":1},"title":"56 of 365 is changing from a pencil to a quill in #inkscape","author":"lemsy","date":"2010-02-15","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I was inspired to make something that reminded me of President's day. When I think of Washington, I think quills, and when I think of Lincoln, I think of pencils, though they both had both. I can't explain why, this is just what came to me. So this one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "portfolio"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From a pencil to a quill - LeMasney Consulting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/20100215.png?fit=494%2C494&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":420,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2010\/03\/29\/98-of-365-is-a-squid-with-a-hundred-eyes-in-inkscape\/","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":2},"title":"A monstrous squid with a hundred eyes by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #illustration #inkscape","author":"lemsy","date":"2010-03-29","format":false,"excerpt":"So today's sketch is of a squid, which, not being a marine biologist, I think of as simply a sea cre\u00e4ture with 8 tentacles. And black, black eyes. Lots of eyes. So that's what I drew here for you. A gracefully swimming black-eyed squid. 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I created the bowl using the ellipse tool, converted to path and tweaked. I made the noodles with the pencil tool set to shape: ellipse.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "portfolio"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A bowl of noodles - lemasney.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100609dailynoodle.png?fit=499%2C498&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2013\/04\/12\/on-living-illustration\/","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":5},"title":"On living #illustration","author":"lemsy","date":"2013-04-12","format":false,"excerpt":"I really love the truth in this quote by Oscar Wilde on the difference between living and existing: \"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all\" I decided to create an illustration of the idea to underscore it. Related articles Equal rights emblem,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "curriculum vitae"","block_context":{"text":"curriculum vitae","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/cv\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"most people exist (Wilde) by John LeMasney via lemasney.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/most-people-exist.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/most-people-exist.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/most-people-exist.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/most-people-exist.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47030,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/47030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}