GRAPHITE PENCILS
“It’s just pencil“, an often dismissive comment made about graphite. I love graphite drawings. Some are soft and run the full gamut from lightest light to deepest black, and yet others are hard-edged and can almost be mistaken for a pen and ink rendering. I no longer ink my cartoons or book illustrations. When scanned into my computer a well sharpened pencil drawing on smooth paper looks very much like pen and ink.
Graphite was discovered in a cave in Borrowdale, England in the 16th century. A form of carbon, it was, at that time, thought to be a “black lead.“ It was immediately treasured for its marking ability and as a fix for its brittleness, it was often shoved into hollow sticks or tightly-wrapped in sheepskin. From early on, it was called a “pencil” (Latin, “pencillus”), meaning “little tail.“ The words “pencil” and “lead” have somehow managed to survive over the years. During the Napoleonic wars, France was unable to import the highest quality graphite from England. In the 1790’s, a French officer, Nicholas Conte’, discovered that you could grind graphite into a powder and, as a binder, mix it with clay, shape it, and fire it in a kiln to make it hard. Then, as a serendipitous blessing, he realized he could vary the hardness (lightness/darkness) of the finished pencil by altering the clay to graphite ratio. As a result, we graphite artists so much appreciate the ability to move up and down the, now vast, full hardness/value scale.
“H,” meaning “hard,” produces a light value and the higher the number, the lighter the value. “B,” meaning “black” or “soft,” produces a dark value, and the higher the number the darker the value. The usual hard or light value range is from lightest 9H down to H . HB and F float in the middle Then, 9B being the darkest, lightens in value as it moves towards B. So the full assortment from lightest/hardest to darkest/softest should look something like this chart I pulled from an informative site Pencils.com
Even though full graphite sets are easily affordable I think you would be hard pressed to fully appreciate the tiny difference between each number. When purchasing I would recommend the hardest and the softest pencils in the display and then every other one or even every third number would give you an adequate range with which to work.
I feel it is critical, when purchasing an assortment of pencils, you purchase all the hardnesses made by the same manufacturer. That way, the tiny differences in values as you move up or down the scale will be consistent. Better said, one company’s 2B might be another company’s B or HB.
I love and so much appreciate a pencil drawing when the artist uses the full range of hardnesses. That requires the discipline to constantly be changing pencils rather than just pressing harder or lighter. in this portrait of her Grandfather by Emily Birchler you can see the full gamut of values. I always joke that drawing with a 9H is like drawing with a steel wire, but when you find yourself shading something like the whites of the human eye, it is the perfect shade of “off white”. As you move toward the softer numbers, you might notice a shiny or reflective quality that can be a little distractive. I have found that a light spray of a matte finish fixative will take the shine out of those rich black areas.
Graphite works great on virtually any paper, but most prefer, as a final substrate, a heavy Bristol paper or board and most opt for the slight tooth of a “vellum” or “Kid” finish. I recommend a clean kneaded eraser, a white eraser, and for details, an electric eraser with a white rubber insert.
It would also be best to do your rough drawing on a thin white paper and, when perfected, transfer or trace your art perfectly placed on a beautifully white and clean sheet of higher quality and, hopefully acid free, paper or board.
There is so much to say about graphite. Next week I will share some tips, tricks and recommended papers that will help you create awesome graphite pencil artworks.