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Welcome to the wit that comes from my pencil. Hence the name Pencilwit. (Now does it make sense?)

This is a series of Grimm’s fairy tales, with some other stories occasionally thrown in, most of which are gruesome and wonderful! They’re wonderful because the bad guy gets his comeuppance while the loyal, the wise, and the honest get what they deserve! Not much like the real world, but certainly worth aspiring to. I have always been drawn to narrative artwork and these conjure up inspiring characters for me. To capture that perfect moment in an intriguing, complicated story…c’est magnifique!

I’m often asked, “How are these done?” I used colored pencil on cold press illustration board to create most of them. Some pieces include gauche or thinned acrylics, but that’s rare. My process is one of layers and layers and layers (and layers…) of one color lightly drawn on top of another in what can only be described as a sort of obsessive/compulsive/masochistic style. This fits my work style perfectly! However, every time I’ve started some of the “hair” pieces or the mosaics, I wonder — after about 14 hours of drawing with no end in sight – ”What was I thinking?!”

And so that brings me to the other question I inevitably get: “How long does it take you to finish a piece?”
I honestly don’t know. I lose all track of time when I draw, and it varies greatly from piece to piece. I remember Frog Prints was 8-10 hours (but it’s small). Woolgathering took nearly a month of sketches and drawing to complete. The rest are somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

The smaller pieces are the funnier, sillier side of me. I love putting in lots of small details that tell more of the story but are not readily apparent. (For instance, look for the wolf in the Three Little Pigs.) Some of the smaller pieces were studies for other, larger pieces, like the sad Little Angel.

My hope is that these pieces will make you smile, think, and wonder. Maybe they’ll be your dose of beauty for the day.
Thank you for looking — and enjoy!

- Pat Mayer