I received my much anticipated package today, containing the highly regarded Tombow mono pencils. Niftier illustrators than I said these were the gold standard but my search through 4 cities and 8 stores never turned any up. So amazon came through and I finally had a chance to use these pencils. Now usually when I buy new art supplies I get this idea in my head that it’ll make my work suddenly awesome. All I need is a different type of watercolor, a softer brush, a darker lead, so I approached these pencils with a little bit of hesitance. Despite my lack of faith, these pencils are actually really wonderful. They’re smooth as butter and can lay down some really nice dark lines when pushed. The best part is that they’re smear proof, which for a careless lefthander is a godsend. Again I was skeptical of Tombow’s claim, but the small amounts of clay (I believe) really did allow me to get through this drawing without major problems. I’m still not an awesome illustrator, but at least now I have pencils that make me look the part.