Jerwood - to do or not to do?

Usual dilema at this time of the year - whether to submit work for the Jerwood Drawing exhibition. I have actually decided to submit again - must be a sucker for punishment :). Problem is that there are thousands of entries but only 40 - 50 selected. Living in Derby the nearest submission point is Liverpool which means at least 2 half days kept clear for taking work and picking up (and those days are fixed so I have to make sure I'm not doing anything else). In the past I've submitted large drawings which has meant making packing cases, and finding transport large enough to fit them into. This year I've decided to submit 3 smaller works which are representative of my current larger drawings - a pencil on paper, a wax/ pencil drawing and a drawing on translucent japanese paper. The latter is a single drawing (but I'll be doing some large scale layered drawings in the near future) and I've framed it so that it's sandwiched between 2 sheets of perspex to emphasise the translucent quality. Should all fit easily in my car which will keep the costs down and I shall use the opportunity for a bit of culture in Liverpool if time permits.

Pencil stuff

I've been having problems lately with drawing - after a few hours or so my fingers are aching more than normal. I think part of the problem is that the pencil gets smaller and smaller and although I have a pencil extender, the ridges actually make my fingers hurt even more. I'm hoping the answer lies in using a cluch pencil - should mean the pencil is exactly the same length/ weight all the time. Shall test over the next few months. As a result I needed to find a way to collect the residues - so I ordered some test tubes (will collect as individual drawings rather than the years of combined shavings from traditional pencils.)

I have been contemplating doing an animation for some time - still way off actually executing but found a promising piece of software - pencil - which I'm going to try to find the time to experiment with.

Finally, recently came across a pencil of the month club, which I'm really tempted to subscribe to - problem is single pencils aren't much use to me work-wise, but then I'd probably just keep them to look at anyway!