Ready to start sketching? Share your work with us in our Facebook community, and who knows, maybe you'll have your work featured oneday. B-grade pencils work well on both smooth paper and paper with a slight bit of texture Their soft consistency will not cause the same paper indentations that you get with an H-grade. Strokes applied with little pressure tend to erase easily, but strokes applied with a lot of pressure are very difficult if not impossible to erase. When drawing hair, clumps are easy to achieve, but it's not normal for a smooth surface to be so clumped. Draw some bigger, wider shadows in the lower area to create "waves" (smooth groups of clumps). Step 11 No matter what the circumstance, every single graphite grade is not required. Most artists will only need a few pencils to be successful. Because softer pencils have a bit more range, most of the pencils that an artist will use fall on the "B" side of the scale. I suggest the following grades - "2H, H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B". DUX is the oldest pencil sharpener factory in Germany, so you know you can't go wrong with their utensils. Their pencil sharpener includes openings for slim and oversized pencils and comes in a variety of cute colors to complement your drawing set.

Drawing sketchbook and pencils and leather cover, Christmas gifts kids sketch book personalized by name, birthday gift for girlfriend & boys The number found in front of the letter reveals just how soft or hard the pencil is. In other words, a "4H" pencil is harder than a "2H" pencilwhile a "4B" pencil is softer than a "2B" pencil. Use the same pencil if you want to add details to the lower part, but avoid any bigger shadows here. This part should be a smooth and soft fluffy texture. Step 17 This Faber-Castell set includes 12 pencils ranging from 5H to 5B, which gives you a great range to work with. It leaves out my beloved 6B, but it’s a great set to start with. Once you understand the type of lines you can expect from your pencils, it's easy to mix and match to put together a graphite pencil set that will cover your needs as an artist.

And while we've gone over how to select the best colored pencils, there are a whole other set of considerations when thinking about the right graphite pencil to add to your collection. In fact, you'll probably—like most artists—wind up using several different pencils depending on the effect you're looking for. Faber-Castell's Grip 2011 Mechanical Pencil has won design awards for a reason. Rubber dots along the triangular barrel make it extremely comfortable and easy to grip. It also comes with a twist-out eraser and is pre-loaded with lead. If you know you'll be working with graphite pencils frequently, then you'll be in need of a good pencil sharpener to make sure your utensils are always at a point. We've selected a few to help you get started. Some folks place a heavy amount of pressure on the pencil naturally. For these artists, a "4B" pencil may be the darkest pencil that is required. For those that naturally produce lighter marks, a much darker "6B" or "8B" may be required. For our cube, use an H pencil on its flattest edge to work in horizontal strokes. Using the flat edge will create broader strokes but the darkest tone. As the right hand side of our cube is furthest from the light, this is where the heavier shades will need to be.

I'm a Polish artist with a great passion for creating new things—whether by drawing, digital painting, or photo manipulation. Let's draw a tail with a fluffy texture as an example. Imagine its top is slightly bent away from you. Use the HB pencil to draw the fur's basic shape on the tail. Don't press too hard—we don't want to see the fur sketch later. Step 2Work in comfort when you use the Pentel GraphGear mechanical pencil. It is inlaid with soft pads that will feel good on your fingers. Beyond that, the pencil features a dual retractor to both advance and retract your lead with ease. Continue where your 6B lines finished and, using a 5B pencil, continue the contour lines across the middle of the sphere. Bending the lines slightly will add definition to the sphere. Take the 4B pencil and draw some tight, dark shadows on the shadowed side. Don't make them too big! Step 12 Secondly, in front of those draw a curved line, beginning at the bottom of the ball and end three-quarters of the way across your cylinder. Then draw a line coming from your cube, beginning at the corner facing you and ending at the edge of the paper, at around a 75 degree angle. These lines will form the constraints of your shadows. When choosing a hard drawing pencil, I don’t usually go above 5H. Even 5H is too light for my taste.