Pencil Drawing, Tips and Equipment

The use of any art medium requires a little knowledge. This article focuses on the tools you should use, and some of the techniques of pencil drawing. Firstly, consider the pencils themselves. In my experience, paying more for a pencil merely buys a better quality casing; the performance of the leads is pretty similar across the price range. The important thing when buying graphite pencils is to have a range of different grades. "H" pencils have hard leads. "B" pencils have soft leads. The higher the H or B number, the harder or softer they are; so an H9 is very hard, and a B9 is very soft. In terms of drawing, pencil "harness and softness" equate to lightness and darkness. A hard pencil will make a very faint, sharp grey line, while a soft pencil will make darker and less sharp mark. Pencil drawing is a matter of recording light and shade, so you need to use a range of lighter and darker pencils to capture tonal variations. The range you choose is up to you, and dependent on the style of drawings you wish to make, but the "Bs" are suitable for most drawings. I would recommend the minimum of an "HB" (neither hard nor soft), B, 2B, 4B, 6B, and 9B. The choice of paper again depends on type of drawings you wish to make, but generally, the best type of paper will be very smooth (e.g. cartridge paper). Paper quality is important. Imperfections in the surface of a smooth paper have a nasty habit of filling-in with graphite, and forming blotches. Pencil work can require a fair amount of blending and reworking, so it is advisable to use a paper that is reasonably robust. My personal recommendation is that you use the heaviest weight paper you can - something that will stand-up to a bit of a battering. Always apply pencil very lightly, and never press hard. The aim should be to float the graphite on the surface of the paper, and not to produce an engraving. Pressing hard will make the pencil mark darker, but it will also deform the paper. Far better results can be obtained by using a darker (softer) pencil lightly, when you need to draw darker areas. Altering the angle of the pencil to the paper can help if you tend to be heavy handed. Briefly, when the pencil is vertical to the paper, it's easy to press down hard. Leaning the pencil reduces the amount of pressure than can be applied to its tip, and the least possible amount pressure is achieved when the pencil is leaned so far that is almost horizontal. When shading an area, don't randomly scrub the pencil back and forward in all directions. Try to apply pencil strokes in a uniform and specific direction. The best direction is often one that describes the shape of an object, so if shading something that is round, used curved strokes. The hardest thing to do with pencil is lay down and area of flat and even shading. The problem is often that the pencil strokes overlap, with the result that the overlapping areas are darker. One way to avoid this is to always shade an area two or three times to achieve even coverage. Multiple layers of shading with a single grade of pencil will not make that shading significantly darker. For example, three layers of B should not be as dark as one layer of B3 (but it should be smoother). The usual approach with pencil is to work from dark to light. Graphite is a lubricant. If you lay-down a very light shading first, you will find that this effectively lubricates the paper, and subsequent shading goes on more smoothly and fluidly. So, if you want to shade an area to a "B3" depth, don't go straight in with the B3; build-up through two or three steps, say a B, a B2, and then a B3. If you wish to shade an area to B8 or B9 depth, similarly go through a few steps, but start with say a B6. If you want to record really dark shades, it is possible to buy specialists' pencils, darker than B9, or you can use a little charcoal. Graphite is shades of grey, and never black. Time for a quick word about sharpening pencils. Most pencil drawing is a matter of recording areas light and shade; it's not about "lines", unless technical drawing is your thing. My advice is therefore - don't sharpen your pencils too often. Shading is easier to do with a slightly blunt pencil, so only sharpen when you need crisp detail (usually the finishing touches). Blending is a vital pencil drawing technique. Blending is fundamentally smudging. Smudging can be used to smooth-out shading, and blend different pencil grades to produce a smooth tonal graduation. Pencil smudges very easily due to the lubricating properties of graphite. You can do it with your fingers (although a little messy), Torchillons (paper stumps), and "Q-tips" (cotton buds on sticks found in most bathrooms) are very good for blending. Whatever you use, make your blending strokes directional rather than random. An eraser can be very useful. It is not for correcting mistakes; it is necessary for cleaning-up (because pencil smudges so easily). The best type is a putty eraser. These are very soft and can be pinched into points or thin edges to take out tiny dots or thin lines of pencil from your picture, without doing any damage to the paper. The final bit of equipment you may like to use is a fixative spray. This stops the drawing from smudging once it is complete, but can also be used mid-drawing to prevent unwanted smudging. Don't use hair spray (except on your hair): use a purpose made fixative, and don't over do it (a light spray is enough).

Tips on Choosing and Using Drawing Pencils

An essential component of any pencil artists materials is a good set of drawing pencils. These can be bought fairly cheaply in any artist materials shop and are a great investment as they will last for a long time when looked after properly. It is worth buying a high quality set of pencils as poor quality graphite can lead to problems creating consistent tones and even scratches in the paper. Drawing pencils can often be purchased in boxes of six or twelve and they range in scale from 6H, which is the hardest and gives the lightest tone, to 8B, which is the softest and produces dark tones. When buying a set of pencils make sure they span a range of tones from fairly hard to soft. It is rarely necessary to use more than a few pencils when producing a drawing as a wide range of tones can be produced simply by varying the pressure that you use to produce the pencil strokes on the page. A good combination of pencils to use is a HB for the initial drawing of the outline and preliminary shading, and a 5B/6B for adding depth to the drawing. It will rarely be necessary to use pencil lighter than HB, and hard pencils may leave indentations on your paper when hard pencil strokes are applied. Don't be afraid to use soft pencils to produce dark shading in the areas with shadow as a strong contrast in pencil tones will help give the picture depth and a three dimensional quality. A good technique to use when shading a drawing is to start off by shading the entire drawing lightly with a relatively hard pencil and then adding progressively darker layers to this with softer pencils to build up the tones on the pages. Soft pencils can also be used to build up consistency in a drawing as pencil strokes from soft pencils when applied lightly will tend to blend into one another without the need for crosshatching. Crosshatching is drawing of two layers of fine parallel lines that are at right-angles to each other and is used to create area of tone in a drawing. When using soft pencils, if you make delicate pencil strokes that are close together along a single plane, this will create the illusion of an area of tone where the individual pencil strokes are invisible. After sharpening a drawing pencil, make sure to use a scrap of spare paper to dull the point, as a sharp point at the tip of the pencil will make effective shading more difficult. For some examples of portraits that were drawn with a HB and 6B pencil combination check out my pencil portrait website.

Drawing Pencils - What is the Difference, and Which One is Best?

Graphite Pencils: Graphite pencils are those Yellow #2 pencils that are generally purchased in packs and used in school. These types of pencils are usually not recommended for drawing as the small particles within the graphite, or lead, contain reflective particles. These particles can cause your drawing to take on a glare from certain angles or create too much of a silvery, un-realistic look. These types of pencils are good to use with certain drawing techniques and in various parts of a drawing, though they should not be used for the entire drawing. Areas of a drawing that are recommended for regular graphite pencils are shading the white of an eye, drawing glass, shiny or silvery metals, smooth or shinier fabrics such as silk or satin. It is important to note that while your "normal" pencils contain graphite, there are also artist quality graphite pencils you can purchase which are better for drawing than your normal pencils would be. The difference is the filler that is mixed with the graphite. The filler and the amount that is used creates varying degrees of hardness. Your common pencil will have a degree of hardness that is in the middle of the scale, while artist pencils will allow you to choose from a wide range of fillers. Drawing Pencil Grades Extremely hard - 7H to 9H Very hard - 4H to 6H Hard - 3H to 4H Medium hard - H to 2H Medium - HB to F Medium Soft - B to 2B Soft - 3B to 4B Very soft - 4B to 6B Extremely soft - 7B to 9B Charcoal Pencils: Drawings done with charcoal pencils will usually appear to have more depth than a drawing with graphite. Charcoal pencils produce deeper, darker lines because the particles within the pencil are irregular and do not reflect light well. If you are new to drawing with charcoal, you may find this challenging at first. Charcoal pencils do not glide along the paper as smoothly as graphite pencils do. Additionally it is easy to smear part of the drawing and for beginners it can be difficult to make fine lines for detailed areas. These types of pencils are good to use with certain drawing techniques and in various parts of a drawing such as skin tones, wood, fur, bark, eyelashes, shadows, coarse fabrics such as leather, denim or corduroys. Charcoal Pencils come in many forms. There are charcoal sticks, which can be quite messy but are fun to use because you can use the edge, corner or tip of them. There are charcoal pencils encased in wood, which will allow you a fine point to use for your drawings without being so messy. Like the graphite pencil, there are also various grades of pencils to use. Carbon Pencils: Carbon pencils are a mixture of charcoal and graphite which produces various degrees of smooth lines and darkness. This type of pencil gives some of the benefits of charcoal while providing the smoothness of graphite without the shine. Additionally, depending on the color of paper you are using carbon pencils can provide almost a sepia colored tone to them. It is important to note however, that carbon pencils can be a very unforgiving medium to work with. Those new to drawing may find they have the most difficulty with these types of drawing tools. These pencils do not have various degrees of tone to them so you will get a very rich, dark black mark with them. Additionally, graphite is pretty easy to erase, charcoal is a little more difficult but can also be erased, but carbon pencils will not erase. You want to be sure of your drawing prior to using carbon.

Beginners Guide - Introduction to Drawing Pencils

When you are just starting out in art, the amount of choices in materials can be daunting. This is especially true when it comes to choosing drawing pencils. Problems with Cheap Drawing Pencils For some it may seem silly to worry about what kind of drawing pencils to use but there are very real reasons why it is important to choose the right tools for the job. Take for instance the normal #2 yellow pencil with the pink eraser that I am sure everyone is very familiar with. These pencils are generally not of a high enough quality where you would want to use them for creating artwork. The reason for this stems from the poor quality of lead used inside the pencil. This lead tends to break more easily and is usually mixed with an inferior binder to that of artist grade pencils. The same holds true for colored pencils. Very cheap brands normally are made out of worse material than their artist grade counterparts and the results can be even more noticeable than in graphite pencils. Because colored pencils are partly wax, your creations tend to develop a light white film as your picture ages. This can be even more pronounced in cheap colored pencils because the mix of wax to pigment is much higher than it is in artist grade colored pencils. Types of lead With graphite pencils it is important to understand all the different types of pencils there are out there. In the US, there are two scales that are used to convey a pencils hardness and darkness, or blackness. The first scale is rarer and mostly used for lower grade pencils and you almost always see just one kind of pencil. That system is a number system that goes from one to four with one being the darkest and softest and four being the lightest and hardest. The number #2 pencil that is used in schools all over the country is on this scale, it is harder than a one and darker than a three or four pencil. The second scale and the one used for all artist grade pencils is an HB, Hard-Black scale. Normally this scale goes from H9, very hard and very light, to B9, very black and very soft. On this scale the #2 pencil would be an HB. The way that this variation in value and hardness is achieved is through the mix of clay and graphite used to create the lead. The more clay, the harder and lighter a pencil becomes. The more graphite, the softer and blacker the lead becomes. As an artist this range of values is very useful in allowing you express the subtlest of details or really pushing a sense of darkness. With colored pencils there isn't a scale. Because of this you needn't worry about different values instead you will have to focus on mixing colors. The theory behind color mixing is beyond the scope of this article but there are many wonderful books written on the topic if one wishes to investigate further. Conclusion In providing this overview, hopefully some light has been shed on what you should look out for in choosing drawing pencils. Also now that you understand how different pencils are classified, you will be able to understand the difference between a #2, an H3, and a B8 drawing pencil. Now all that is left for you to do is to dive in and start creating!