Memorial for Laurentien colored pencils
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I was so sad for the fact that after 17 years of using, Laurentien colored pencils brand were stopped by Sanford USA some where between the end of last year and this April. Since I already made an over 3,500 words Chinese text on my Chinese blog with details of this story, I will not write everything again in English. I just want to post here a main time line translated from my Chinese blog text.
At the end of 1970s，a Canadian company named Venus created this brand，purchased after by Faber-Castell Canada ltd, but keep producing in Canada.
Laurentien colored pencils earlier package until 1990s. It’s very simple: a transparent plastic bag with a card sticks inside. On the card, the small picture showing its lead size is bigger than normal pencils – that was the main reason why I chose to use Laurentien pencils. The plastic bag was designed to be fold to smaller size so it is easier to be carried around.
Character G1D007A: earlier design with Laurentien color and other brand of colored pencils.
On 1994, Laurentien brand was purchased by Sanford USA. The Canadian production line was closed. A new production line was opened in United States instead.
After the reproduction in US, the package was changed. Instead of plastic bag, you get a red paper box – that is fragile and not easy to keep. I still have my old plastic bag for Canadian Laurentien and keep use it until now.
On 1998, after years of experience, I decided to use only Laurentien colored pencils for drawing my project characters. All other brands of pencils were removed from my work office.
Character G1D073B: totally designed by using Laurentien colored pencils.
That is my own technique to use very colorful layers but not make them “mixed up and bit the eye”.
On 2011, after 5 years of hard work in China, one of the first things I did after return back to Canada was to buy a 60-color pack Laurentien colored pencils. On the cover, it says there are 6 new metal colors added in package. At that moment, I could not even imagine that it was the final image of Laurentien pencils on market.
Character G2D020A: drawing built on earlier 2013. Now it is time to add in metal colors!
April 2013, there was someone started posting blog text in memory of Laurentien pencils, in which it shows Sanford closed this brand earlier. I found it out by myself on Aug 16 2013 – after I could not find any Laurentien colored pencil in Wall Mart this day.
On Aug 22 2013, I post my own text on my Chinese blog to memorize the last 17 years I’ve past with Laurentien pencils.
I’ll always miss Laurentien colored pencils!
Q: I saw the original Chinese text, it was emotional, but could you just restart with some other even better colored pencils?
R: As I said in the Chinese text, I developed my own colored pencil drawing techniques were based on everyday use of this kind of colored pencil for last 17 years. It is hard now to restart over with other brands. However, I will not give up drawing because of this incident.
Q: By the way, in the Chinese blog, your user name is “Fish”, where is that name coming from?
R: Well, that is very simple: because my zodiac sign is Pisces. And since my Chinese name is very common, I decided to use “Fish” as a nickname for my Chinese blog.
Q: Well, did you sale your pictures before? （One of my co-worker asked so.）
R: Not really. I did direct exchange some small pictures for some goods in China, but those are not final products for my project. I’ve teaching young kid how to draw with HB pencil – not colored pencil. I don’t think I will sale my project character design for money – they gave me so much pleasure and the happiness is simply priceless!
Q: How big that project could be? That spent you almost 20 years to realize it?
R: That is so called a life project. At beginning (on 1995) there were only 149 characters in plan to draw (Yes, that “only” is not seems to be right : ). But just like building a snow ball, I just cannot help to add more characters during my creation. Now each character has his/her own team. One of the main characters has 10 additional characters built to his team just to make his own story completed… How big is my project now? I give you a example: back on 2002, when J R R Tolkien’s “Lord of Rings” was filmed and showing in Canadian cinema. I want to watch the first episode. In my mind, it equals one section of my chapter 2. And at that moment, all 10 chapters were built for my project. Each chapter has 4 to 5 sections. I need time to improve my story line and, if possible, finish all characters design as I planned for years. I already spent 20 years for it. I need at least 10 more years to finalize it.
Posted by zchenh
at 10:18 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 2 September 2013 10:32 AM EDT
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