Paul Kidby’s pencil

This weekend saw the BBC airing their Terry Pratchett documentary Back in Black.

In the documentary Paul Kidby, the artist responsible for most of the fantastic Discworld artwork, can be seen with a rather impressive, hand sharpened pencil point on a Castell 9000. I think it can certainly compete with the longest pencil points I have seen in use. It’s even longer than the one on the James Bond cover.

Paul Kidby’s Castell 9000 (image © BBC Scotland)

In the documentary you can also see Rob Wilkins, Terry Pratchett’s former assistant, signing books with a Lamy Vista filled with green ink. Nice.

Rob Wilkins’ Lamy Vista (image © BBC Scotland)

If you are in the UK you can watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer for another 28 days.


The screenshots have been taken from Terry Pratchett documentary Back in Black. I believe that the use of the images shown in this blog post, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

2 thoughts on “Paul Kidby’s pencil”

  1. Can’t make out the grade but it’s a single letter so H, F, or B. Only an artist would use a point like that. I shouldn’t like to write with it.

  2. Thank you for your comment.
    I also tried to make the grade out and wasn’t sure.
    It’s probably nor B, you’ll see why in one of the next blog posts, probably the next one.

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