The core concept of the series, similar to Animator vs. Animation, is that little notebook doodles of stick figures come to life on pages of paper (usually notebook-style lined). These characters, known as Pencilmates and Pencilmisses, try to go about their lives, made more complicated by the Pencil changing things around at their whim. Hilarity Ensues.
Episodes up to #47 can be watched on Bollinger's Newgrounds account here
. All episodes, including #48 and later, can be seen on the official YouTube channel. Starting with #56, a rotating series of guest animators have handled the series.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Hank's continous adventure seen in episode 12 has abruptly ended on episode 13, despite the "To Be Continued" sign at the end.
- A Taste of Defeat: At times, although very rare, the pencilmates will actually fight back against the pencil and win.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: You make requests of the Pencil at your own risk.
- Breakout Character: Hank, who would eventually have his own series
- Butt-Monkey/Cosmic Play Thing: Too many characters to count, but Hank and Pencilmate have it the worst.
- Christmas Episode
- Spin-Off episode "Peril of the Bells"
- Episode #70, "All's Noel that Ends Well"
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Pencil is hardly ever seen in most of the latest episodes.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When the characters have color, Pencilmate is seen as blue, Pencilmiss is pink, Mini P is yellow and so on.
- Continuity Cavalcade: "Plight of the Living Dude", nearly every character that appears is from a past episode.
- Dark Is Evil: In episodes with multi-colored characters and Pencils, black characters are villainous or at least criminal. The original video description for "The Dastardly Doodle" even states the Black Pencil is evil.
- Depending on the Artist: In later episodes, how the characters look depend on the animator.
- Depending on the Writer: How the Pencil works can change from episode to episode. As early as #10, it's capable of drawing in things behind other parts of the drawing.
- Dirty Old Woman: Granny Green can sometimes be this. She’s has been shown to have a perverted crush on Pencilmate, as shown in some episodes (such as "Love Burps" and "Teeth For Two").
- The Dog Bites Back: Sometimes the pencilmates will actually actively attack the pencil, most notably in "Grouch Potato".
- Downer Ending/No Ending: Countless amount of episodes end like this.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The Pencil can be affected by its own drawings, including being burned to a crisp several times.
- Episode #60, "Grouch Potato," ends with the Pencilmate turning the viewer off.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- Episode #20, "Bettermorphosis," features no Pencilmate characters (aside from an Early-Bird Cameo for the following episode), and has only the Pencil turning an animal doodle from one animal to another.
- "Graphical Error" has both extensive voice acting and no Pencil at all.
- Gaslighting: The Pencil has been known change things while Pencilmates aren't looking.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Pencilmate, often due to his bad luck or the stupidity of the situation.
- Halloween Episode: Episode #29, "Tricky Treat"
- Hurricane of Puns: Every episode title in the series.
- Jerkass Gods: Both the main pencil and the multitple colored pencils love abusing their creations.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although usually a savvy guy, Pencilmate can be this on various occasaions.
- Kids Hate Chores: Parodied; In the episode "Sweep Stakes," the Pencil forces Pencilmate to use the broom it drew to sweep the floor. Pencilmate tries everything he can to get out of having to sweep, and it gets to the point where the Pencil threatens to erase Pencilmate if he doesn't comply.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: Most of episodes work like this. Very few episodes have their characters talking, being the first one "Hank Speaks", where Hank speaks for the first time to be rebelled against the Pencil.
- Mirror Reveal: Many episodes are about the Pencil making unwanted changes to Pencilmate that he doesn't realize until he looks at a mirror and he see them by himself, many times for his own horror.
- Monster Clown: The episode "System of A Clown" revolves around this, involving Pencilmate getting nightmares and hallucinations about clowns. By the end, he's still insane, with his fear becoming stronger than ever (due to Pencilmiss taking him to a circus of all places).
- Musical Episode: "Scaredy Song" and "Hat's All, Folks"
- Negative Continuity: Except for the Story Arc.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: "Abracadabraham Lincoln," where appears the eponymous Abraham Lincoln, first as part of a five dollar bill and later As Himself.
- Papa Wolf: Mini P's dad, although sometimes Pencilmate isn't at fault.
- Reality Warper: The Pencil is this within the drawing world.
- Slower Than a Snail: In one of the character vs. creator early animations, the pencil gives Pencilmate shorter legs which makes him walk (and even run) very slow, at the point of seeing Green Granny (with a rollator) and even snails walking even faster than Pencilmate.
- Story Arc: Episodes #20-#25 all connect into each other.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In "Hank Speaks", Hank has finally had enough of the pencil and calls him out on his actions. The pencil however doesn't care. The pencil erases his mouth a re-draws it on his own crotch, this causes Hank's nose to suddenly start peeing. Hank tilts his nose, causing the stream of pee to hit the pencil. The pencil for once, shows a sign of weakness and attempts to run away, with Hank chasing after it while laughing maniacally. Notably being one of the few episodes where Hank has a happy ending.
- Troll: The Pencil is often this.
- Updated Re-release: Early episodes released before YouTube allowed HD video get this treatment when they're included in post-new episode anthologies.
- A straighter example is "The Dastardly Doodle," which was updated with the hero Pencilmate and Pencilmisses with new filled colors.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The first two films of Harry Potter, Independence Day, and Ghostbusters received Pencilmation remakes of 2-3 minutes, seen as affectionate homages to these titles.
