Bringing Back the pencil: Philly artist creates amazing art with charcoal pencil

PHILADELPHIA -- When is the last time you used a No.2 pencil?

If it's been a while, you may be surprised to find that one area artist uses pencils almost every day. And it's her passion to show the world that the pencil can produce beautiful art, one line at a time.

Anastasia Alexandrin is a fine artist using charcoal pencils and large canvas paper to create life-like works of art, one line at a time. Operating out of her Philadelphia studio and home, she says her favorite subjects come to her in dreams and thought.

"My two favorite topics to draw are owls and other wildlife due to their fierceness and determination. And the other topic is what I call my girl power series. I like to draw women. I love the idea of beauty and friendships," she explains.

She even has a sci-fi range where many of her subjects can be seen in fantastical steampunk and space helmets. Some owls she's drawn are the size of an interior wall. Each are meticulously detailed to show every line. She needed more than 30 pencils to complete just one recent piece!

She loves the festival circuit, where onlookers can get up close and personal to her creations, analyzing each pencil stroke and taking a step back to take it all in.

She says, "there's always a moment when they're shocked standing there. They say, 'Wow' and I love that it's had an impact."

Seems painstaking at first, but to keep her pencils as sharp as possible, she has to stop drawing every 8 lines to sharpen them!

"My motto is bringing back the pencil one line at a time. People have forgotten that we use pencils. We're going into digital art and giant installations. But there's something beautiful about drawing and it's a real skill and passion for people like me!"

We may not use the pencil as much as we used to, she says, but it's because of her dedication to that method of art that's given her so much success. She's toured all over the country in festivals and galleries. And you can spot her at this year's prestigious Rittenhouse Art Festival in the summer.

To find out more about Anastasia's art please visit her at anastasiafinearts.com.