How to Choose a Drawing Pencil
Select a drawing pencil that's suitable for your sketching project.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Take a trip to the local art store and try several pencils. The correct pencil is the one that you enjoy using the most.
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2
Select a pencil with soft lead if you want dark, fat lines that are easy to make and you don't mind smudges or frequent sharpening.
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3
Select a pencil with harder lead if you want smudgeproof, precise lines and a pencil that doesn't require sharpening as often.
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4
Ask the art store clerk about any pencils that don't have a grade indicating the softness or weight of the lead. Leads are graded, hardest to softest, 4H, 2H, H, HB, F, B, B2 and B4.
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5
Consider a lead holder and a selection of changeable leads if you want to be able to change the weight of the lead, keep a very sharp point and enjoy using a special gadget.
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6
Select a mechanical pencil with replaceable leads and erasers if you enjoy gadgets and don't want to carry a pencil sharpener or lead pointer and a separate eraser.
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7
Choose a pencil or leads that work well with the sketch paper that you select. You'll get rips using hard lead on fragile paper, and lots of dust and smudging using soft lead on rough paper.
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8
Select a soft lead if your sketch paper might become damp while you're sketching, since harder lead won't make marks on wet paper.
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9
Remember to pick up a separate eraser. Most drawing pencils don't have one on the end. Make sure it works with the lead you've chosen - very soft and very hard leads are both difficult to erase.
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10
Remember to pick up a pencil sharpener or lead pointer. Make sure it works with the pencil or lead holder you've chosen.
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Comments
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Jan 25, 2006
Kneadable erasers are the best to use when sketching. Not only do they thoroughly erase pencil, they are reshapable so that you can pull and fold it to a clean part - over and over again. The gray kneadable eraser is a more effective eraser than the art gum type, it erases more completely and can be molded to erase in even the smallest areas. The art gum eraser is very annoying primarily because it leaves clunky eraser crumbs all over your paper while doing at best a fair job at erasing. If I don't have a kneadable eraser, I will use some blue or yellow ticky tacky (I don't know its real name, that's just what we call it) the removable poster adhesive stuff. -
Jan 25, 2006
Kneadable erasers are the best to use when sketching. Not only do they thoroughly erase pencil, they are reshapable so that you can pull and fold it to a clean part - over and over again. The gray kneadable eraser is a more effective eraser than the art gum type, it erases more completely and can be molded to erase in even the smallest areas. The art gum eraser is very annoying primarily because it leaves clunky eraser crumbs all over your paper while doing at best a fair job at erasing. If I don't have a kneadable eraser, I will use some blue or yellow ticky tacky (I don't know its real name, that's just what we call it) the removable poster adhesive stuff.
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Nov 22, 2005
An important thing to remember is to try to not resharpen your pencils so quickly, it wastes pencils and money. Plus, it you use the pencil right you'll get a nice, round led edge. Great for drawing comics!!
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Nov 22, 2005
The HB pencil is great for drawing, but I have come to learn that you can't earase it that well.Oh well, u can always draw over ur mistakes...right?
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Nov 22, 2005
The HB pencil is great for drawing, but I have come to learn that you can't earase it that well.Oh well, u can always draw over ur mistakes...right?
