Harry Borgman - Pen and Pencil Drawing Techniques (Dover Art Instruction)

Fortunately for artists and art students, there are a great variety of drawing pencils available, as well as many excellent paper surfaces to work on.

Graphite Pencils . The traditional basic drawing toolthe graphite pencilis made of compressed graphite that is encased in cedarwood. It is available in many different grades, ranging from very hard to very soft. The order of grading is 9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, and 6B. The 9H lead is the hardest grade, and the 6B is the softest. Personally I prefer using the HB grade for general work and often use the H and 2H grades as well. Experiment with a few of the different grades to see which you prefer. Generally speaking, the harder grades work better on smooth, hard-surface paper, and the softer grades work better on textured paper.

With regard to lead grades, the harder the lead, the lighter the line; the softer the lead, the darker the line. The harder gradesthose above 2H are usually used for drafting or for mechanical drawing; the softer grades are used for general drawing. For sketching, the very soft grades2B through 6Bare best; the hard 2H to B grades are better for meticulous renderings.

Many fine brands of graphite pencils are available, and you will have to try a few of them to see which you prefer. Some brands I have found to be excellent are Berol Eagle turquoise, Koh-I-Noor, Mars Lumograph, and Venus. Some graphite pencils especially suited for sketching have very broad, flat leads for drawing thick lines. These sketching pencils usually come in grades of 2B, 4B, and 6B. The Ebony pencil, which has a large diameter and a very black lead, is also quite good.

Charcoal and Carbon Pencils . There are many types of charcoal and carbon pencils on the market. A good brand is General Charcoal. It is a deep black and comes in grades of HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, and in white. Wolff carbon pencils are also quite good, and they come in grades of HH, H, HB, B, BB, and BBB, which is the softest.

Wax-Type Pencils . One of my favorite drawing pencils is the Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth Negro pencil. It has a wax-type lead that is jet black, and it is available in five degrees of hardness. Many other wax-type pencils are on the market; some have very fine leads, whereas others have very soft, thick leads.

I have used Berol Prismacolor pencils for many years and have found them to be uniform in color and lead consistency. Their leads are smooth, thick, and strong enough to sharpen to a fine point. Their color range is wide, comprising sixty colors. Prismacolor pencils can be purchased singly or in sets of 12, 24, 36, 48, or 60 colors. These pencils can also be used in conjunction with other mediums, such as markers, dyes, watercolors, and other painting mediums. They can be blended or smudged with a paper stump dampened with Bestine, a rubber-cement solvent.

China Marking Pencils . These pencils are available in several colors, including white, black, brown, red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. Stabilo, another wax-type pencil, is also available in eight colors.

Water-Soluble Pencils. Another interesting pencil is the Caran DAche water-soluble pencil. You can wash clear water over the drawn lines with a brush and dissolve the tones to create a pencil painting. You can also use Caran DAche pencils without dissolving the tones. This brand offers forty brilliant colors, whose strong leads can be sharpened to a fine point. Other types of water-soluble pencils are also available.

Pastels. These come in pencil form and are a very interesting medium to work with. They can be blended easily with your fingers or a paper stump and are especially suitable for soft effects. The brand I use is Carb-Othello, which is available in sixty colors, with matching pastel chalks that can be used for covering large areas. These pencils sharpen well for detailed work and have a large-diameter lead that can be used to draw broad strokes.