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Perhaps we’re biased, but there’s a unique beauty to drawing pencils that isn’t matched by your everyday writing pencil. Usually painted in a pleasing color and embossed with their name and grade, they cut a striking figure in one’s art box. Of course, you can’t judge a drawing pencil (solely) by its beauty. They come in a variety of grades: B pencils have more graphite in them, so they make dark and soft marks, while H pencils have more clay in them, which provides harder and more precise lines. A good drawing set will include a range of grades that transition smoothly from one into the next. Ahead, find top-notch options to get your sketching and drafting off to a good start.

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With a plastic or aluminum head and a sharp metal point, pushpins are essential to any studio, classroom, or office. The humble pushpin, precursor of the thumbtack, was invented and patented in 1900 by Edwin Moore of Newark, New Jersey. Moore’s original pins were made of glass and steel, and he referred to his creation as a “pin with a handle.” After making and selling his invention for several years, Moore founded the Moore Push-Pin company in 1904. Today’s pushpins are useful for affixing studies, bits of inspiration, or memos to a corkboard or wall. But they can be great assistants for specialized projects, too. You can use them to stretch canvases, elevate canvases for drip paintings, or use them as mini grips to hold while tilting a wet canvas. They’re helpful for stained glass projects as well, holding pieces in position prior to soldering. Or use them to secure paper stencils over clay for neat transfers. The perfect pushpins await you in our list of favorites below.

June 8 – July 29, 2022

June 29 – July 29, 2022

The Guggenheim Bilbao’s long-gestating plans to expand to a Spanish natural reserve may finally come to fruition.

Earlier this week, officials with the government of the Biscay province, whose capital is Bilbao, revealed that they were planning to put €40 million toward an expansion in Urdaibai, an estuary to the east of Bilbao that has hundreds of plant species and thousands of human residents.

Deia, a Spanish-language outlet based in Biscay, reported this week that the provincial council had pegged the total cost of the new museum at €127 million ($129 million). A connector that El Correo described as a “tunnel” would reportedly link the Guggenheim Bilbao with its expansion.

Unia Rementeria, the deputy general of Biscay, reportedly described the potential project as an “important” one that could “generate a lot of well-being in Biscay society.”

Representatives for the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Creating your own paint is a great way to cut costs while exerting greater control over the shades and effects you desire. Dry pigment powder can be combined with binders to create a variety of painting media, from oils to acrylics, and you usually need just a small amount of pigment. (Keep in mind that the amount of binder will vary depending on the pigment used.) Like paint, however, the quality of powders is wide ranging in order to suit projects from crafts to fine art. No matter what powder you favor, you should always handle these particles carefully and protect yourself from inadvertent inhalation. Review our picks of the best powdered pigments to find the one that suits your needs.

Archaeologists from the Autonomous University of Barcelona discovered ancient engravings that are around 14,000 years old, the researchers announced in a statement.

The Upper Paleolithic–era engraving was found near the city of Lleida, which is about an hour away from Barcelona. The archaeologists had been working on the site for some time, having previously discovered the partial skeleton of a woman the researchers have dubbed Linya, her name a reference to the cave she was found in, Cova Gran de Santa Linya.

The engravings, though found at the same site, predate Linya by a few of centuries, according to the carbon dating research. According to the archaeologists, the fragment helps put together a larger tapestry of the lives of the first settlers of Spain’s northeastern region.

Jorge Martínez-Moreno, a researcher who helped found the engraving, said in a statement, “There are elements and visual resources with which to narrate stories or specify spaces that denote that the person or persons who executed them were intelligent and technically skilled, and that combining few lines were capable of generating visualizations with a high empathic content that we have been able to decode thousands of years later.”

While the naked eye can’t quite make out the engraving, a 3D scan helped reveal the figure that was a Pyrenean ibex colloquially known as a bucardo.