17/9/13 Lead pencils and how they work

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I made another lead pencil sketch.

Happy Hip

Lead pencils

So by the way I will tell you something about lead pencils today. Most of the people who are'nt into art don't know much about this art medium. When you are one of them, maybe you asked yourself once in a while what this letters or numbers on the lead pencils mean?! Lead pencils are produced in different hardness grades. This hardness relates to the nature of the graphite lead in the pencils. Normal ranges, from 9H (hardest) to 9B (softest). So HB is medium. 2HB's  or HB's are usually used by primary school kids. Pencils are available in several versions. Firstly, the normal variant, as they all known, and on the other hand there are the mechanical pencils. But there is also the option to buy only the lead to use this without wrapping or a holder provided. And unlike pens you can erase pencil.

What could we achieve with the different degrees of hardness?
If you only write something with it, it's the best to use a medium grade. For drawings with really fine details and if they should look bright you use hard ones (I personally never used more than 7 H) and when you are going to draw dark shadows or anything like this you use the softer ones. In my drawing for example I used them on the left side of the picture to draw the shadows. But the negative point is, the more soften the pencil is,  the more difficult is it to erase them. And with the hard ones be careful. Don't press them to hard on the paper. Otherwise thery will occur indentations in the paper.

Do you have to use more than one ore two different kind of pencils?
No of course not. You can also use only a medium grade pencil. When you press it harder on the paper it will look darker and if you only use it lightly it will look brighter. In the drawing above I used three different grades.
And you can use an eraser to incorporate lights into the drawing. For this, a kneaded eraser is very good. This is a malleable eraser. He looks similar to a piece of plasticine. You can buy it in a shop for art supplies or on the Internet. I paid for mine about 3 Euros (as far as I can remember).

When you're working with pencils you run risk smearing your drawing. To prevent this, simply place a piece of paper or a handkerchief under your palm. You also can use a handkerchief to achieve exactly such effects.

When I make design scribbles I really like to use mechanical pencils.

To sum it up briefly. The pencil is a very simple means for drawing which is also suitable for beginners, because you can make corrections with an eraser. And you need nothing more than a sheet of paper, one or more pencils, an eraser, a sharpener and given case a handkerchief. It fits in every bag :)

Everyone has their own preferences. Just try out what you most like.

Ps.: If you have any questions I will try to answer every one :)