When I was on tour, everyone was in the habit of using the word ‘sick’ as a superlative as in ‘Dude, that band was sick, I can’t wait to hear their record.’ Sick can refer to anything you deem amazing beyond comprehension. Take Laurie Lipton’s pencil and charcoal drawings for example — with a dark, gothic sensibility, the London-based New Yorker creates cynical images that often deal with political, social, religious, and macabre themes. Every time I see her work I can just imagine my bandmates saying “Siiiiiiiick” in unison.

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German illustrator Sophia Martineck’s own description of herself as ‘The Sophisticated Pencil Girl’ is actually rather fitting. Colored pencils were always one those materials the professors always tried to steer us illustrators away from, but Martineck has me rethinking all of that. I really enjoy her flat use of the pencils and the subtle texture they impart.

Neal Murren likes hanging out in forests — deep, dark forests — from which dark artworks featuring clowns, frogs, marionettes, skeletons, Courtney Love fairies, and the requisite giant toadstools weave together in penciled delight. It’s the kind of work you’d pore over, nose-to-page, in a crack of sunlight.

We thought we’d check in with our favorite HB Jedi, Jenny Mortsell. Is pencil the only medium you feel comfortable working in? ‘It is what I use most now, but I also like doing printmaking, screen-printing and etchings’. What do you look at first when drawing a portrait of someone? ‘First the outlines, then the eyes. The hair I always do last’. Which other artists do you look to for inspiration? ‘I like those artists that do pencil portraits of kids or pets as a hobby. But my ideas come from films, books, fashion and photography rather than other illustrators’. Who haven’t you drawn yet that you would love to? ‘Anna Karina’.