X is for . . .

X-Acto_® knife.

http://flic.kr/p/mJpjY

Before computer layout software, this was one tool graphic artists couldn’t do without. It's probably safe to say that very few art students back then graduated without slicing into a finger or other misplaced body part with an X-Acto. I did. Graduate, I mean. 

It’s been said that art is at least as much about learning to see as learning to draw or paint or sculpt. It’s true of language arts also, because you can’t write about something you don’t perceive. 

How to sharpen perception? If only there were an X-Acto_® tool for that.