All About Erasers

Now you see it, now you don’t! 🪄
You might be surprised to learn that erasers are a relatively modern invention-so how did artists (and writers) erase before erasers?
🗡️ In Europe, from ancient times through the Middle Ages, the only way to remove text or artwork from manuscripts was to scrape them from the page with a blade. This method not only damaged the substrate, but also often left a ghost image of the original behind 👻
📜 Manuscripts of this type, called palimpsests, are a whole field of study unto themselves. In fact, many important ancient texts survived only as palimpsests!
🍞 Believe it or not, another popular method was... bread! Yep, artists like Michelangelo used it to clean frescos during the Renaissance. Cheap and widely available, it was widely used in this way for centuries-and in drawing books right up to the 1940s!
📝 In the mid-1700s, French scientists discovered that solidified natural latex could erase graphite from paper. English chemist Joseph Priestley coined the term "rubber" for it in 1770…and the rest is history!
Questions? Recommendations? Drop ‘em in the comments ⬇️
👩🏻‍🎤 Presentation by Bri from our SEO Team
😁 Thanks to our vendor partners at Winsor & Newton and Canson Paper for the footage
🎨 Special thanks to Tevin Drake and Johnathan Clark, whose artwork we featured here.
🎥 Filmed at BLICK Studios in Chicago, Illinois
#drawing #createwithblick #blickartmaterials #drawingtips #sketching #arthistory

[@reanozeon9459]

Bri you are So Sweet 😊 ...I really Love Art 🎨 🎭 and Thnx...for this !

[@smugglinpuppies]

❤

[@ChantelleArts]

This is brilliant ☺☺

[@reanozeon9459]

Absolutely 🤗