Hey guys! In the last video, we talked all about paper and sketchbooks. In this video, we’re going to cover pencils and erasers. I’ll show you how to use them and how to understand what you’re buying.

Which Pencils Should I get?

Pencils are simple right? Well… they’re a bit more complicated than you’d think. Let’s look at some of the most common types.
* Some of the items below contain affiliate links

When using a mechanical pencil, you can only draw with the very tip of the lead so mechanical pencils can only produce thin lines, limited by the thickness of the lead. Well, kind of... I’ll come back to this. Limited line weight can be good or bad. A 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm or 0.7 mm mechanical pencil can be good for thin lay-in lines or cross-hatching, but if you’re shading a large area or trying to produce a variety in your line weight from thick to thin, only using that tiny tip can get kind of exhausting, and unnecessary.

These super thin mechanical pencils are not really made for shading. Just precise line work and maybe shading the lighter more detailed halftones. Or maybe if you’re shading really small drawings. If you do like using these very thin mechanical pencils, these Neox refills are high quality.

Moving up to a 0.2 mm mechanical pencil gives you a little more surface area on the lead to play with. And by the way, these “leads” don’t actually have the poisonous lead in them. They used to… a long time ago. They changed it to graphite, but the word stuck around. As far as mechanical pencils, the 0.2 mm is the one I personally use the most and I’ve collected a lot of them. Instead of carrying around a bunch of these refill containers with me, I just have a few backups in this little tube! Much more portable.

Of course we have the wooded graphite pencils, which you’re probably already familiar with. You can sharpen these in a regular pencil sharpener or you can carve away the wood with a blade to expose a longer part of the graphite, sand it down a bit and get rid of the bevel to be able to use even more of its side.

You can lay it on its side and get a nice, broad mark, which is great for filling in large areas quickly, or you can use the tip just like with the mechanical pencils. Just be mindful of the ratio of length to thickness. If you expose too much of the lead, it’s more likely to break.

If you get a woodless graphite pencil, you can sharpen it to a really long point to get an even thicker stroke when you’re shading! You can use the pencil at different angles to pull a whole variety of calligraphic marks. This makes the graphite pencil an extremely useful tool.

Now, coming back to the part where I said mechanical pencils are limited to the point. There’s actually a pencil that’s kind of like a combination of a woodless and a mechanical pencil. These 5.6 mm refills go into this holder called a Clutch. It works just like a mechanical pencil, but you can sharpen it with sandpaper and use it like a woodless pencil. I think of these as fancy pencil extenders. Which can be nice if you don't want to waste the pencils when they get too short to hold comfortably.

A charcoal pencil is thicker than a wooded graphite pencil, so you can carve off more wood before it breaks. When you sharpen a charcoal pencil like this way, you can get soft edges and large gradations very quickly. Charcoal pencils also don’t have the reflectivity that graphite pencils do. The “black” of a graphite pencil isn’t so black next to charcoal, especially at certain angles where it reflects the light. However charcoal is typically softer and more difficult to control for beginners. In this course, we’re going to start with graphite. It’s simple. It’s precise. It’s easily accessible. Maybe later in the course, if I'm feeling spicy I’ll introduce you guys to charcoal.

When buying your pencils, you’ll notice they come in a range. “B” stands for black. These pencils are made with more graphite which makes them softer and they leave a darker mark. On the other end of the spectrum is “H,” or “Hard,” pencils. They’re made with more clay added to them to make them harder and leave lighter marks. If you press harder, you’ll just scratch the paper. Don’t do that.

Pencils usually fit on a scale from 10H, the lightest, to 10B, the darkest. 10H is harder and lighter than 4H and 10B is softer and darker than 4B. But between the H family and B family is an HB, which makes sense...and an F. Which is also the grade I would give to the person that decided to include the random F in there. Would have been nice without it, but here we are. To protest, I actually never use the F. It doesn't exist in my world. HB is the classic #2 pencil you remember from school.

It’s nice to have a range of pencils, but you don't need 22 of them! You don't even need the 12 that come in a set. I typically use just 5 of them: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B. You can do your lay-in with a 2H or HB, start your shading with a 2B, work up to a 4B and 6B for the shadows, and do the really subtle light shading with a 2H. If you’re on the go and are only bringing one pencil with you, grab an HB or 2B for a good range in both directions.

Shakespeare said that there are only 2 types of pencils… 2B or not 2B.

Now, we’re not getting into color theory in this course, but colored pencils do exist. They’re fun and you can experiment with them if you’d like, just remember, color is hard. It’s a whole nother beast.

But, a lot of artists, myself included, like to start the preliminary sketch with a red or blue pencil. For some reason the red allows me to be more loose and noncommittal when I’m sketching and I let myself try stuff out and explore. When I’m drawing more freely, they usually end up with more energy and life, and whatever it is I’m designing looks better. Then I draw over it in black afterward if I want to clean it up.

2D animators at Disney used the Prismacolor Col-Erase. If you want a mechanical option, I really like the Staedtler 0.2 mm refills.

Using Your Drawing Pencils

We’re going to explore what our pencils can do. You’re gonna draw along with me so, get your sketchbook or some paper, get your pencil and make sure it’s sharp.

Let’s start by trying the side of the pencil vs the tip of the pencil. Try creating a gradation from light to dark. When I use the tip, I get very thin lines. As I lighten up on the pressure, the lines get lighter and lighter, creating a gradation. But it’s a gradation made up of a bunch of small lines. I could get a smooth gradation without the lines if I take my time and make sure there are no spaces between the lines. This takes more time and more patience, but sometimes that's the effect you need to get, so be patient.

This might seem simple but it’s important to understand the abilities and limitations of our tools so we know what to expect and how to utilize its full functionality when we’re drawing something we care about.

Now try doing that same gradation with the side of the pencil. I can get a gradation without lines much faster. The pencil covers more surface area with each stroke. But, notice there’s a rougher texture to the gradation. The texture of the paper shows through more. This makes sense because when you use the tip of the pencil, the pointy part goes into all the little crevices, but when you use the side, it only touches the peaks, while the crevices stay white. The texture of the paper you’re using will make a big difference here. Don’t think of this as good or bad. This is just another option for you while drawing.

You also have the option of softening edges and texture with a blending stump. Just please don’t get into the habit of overusing them. You want to practice to have the control and get the edge that you’re looking for without depending on a blending stump.

Check out this drawing by Adolph Menzel. There are areas that are really smooth, probably softened with a blending stump, and areas that keep the raw texture. This adds variety to the drawing and a contrast between soft skin and halftones vs rough hair, fabric, and shadows.

There are two common pencil grips, the one you’re probably familiar with is the tripod grip. It's called the tripod because of the three points that touch the paper. Most people write this way. The other one is the overhand grip. I have another video that explains the advantages and disadvantages of each grip and how to use them so check that video out after this one if you haven’t seen it. Generally, using the tripod grip limits you to using just the tip of the pencil, which you’ll be doing a lot of with graphite, so nothing wrong with the tripod grip. The overhand grip allows for more range of interesting lines, because you can change the angle of the pencil.

Pulling a stroke parallel to the pencil gets you a thin line. Pulling a stroke perpendicular to the pencil gets a thicker line. Now try starting parallel and then curving your line without changing the angle of the pencil. You can get nice, calligraphic marks this way. Play around here… Thin to thick, thick to thin, light marks, dark marks, straights, curves, organic lines. There’s so much you can do. Spend a few minutes playing around with the pencil and experimenting with all the variety.

This will be awkward at first because you’ve trained your whole life to hold the pencil with the tripod grip. Incorporate this grip into your drawing routine little by little and eventually, it’ll feel more natural. And try not to squeeze the pencil too tight. You don’t want to get carpal tunnel. You’re going to be spending a lot of hours drawing, so make it ergonomic. Sit up straight and hold the pencil loosely.

Now that you know how to hold the pencil, let’s talk about how to move it. For larger strokes, use your whole arm. Lock the wrist and move your shoulder and elbow. For smaller strokes, use your wrist. Only move your fingers for very small details, unless you want all your drawings to look like hairballs. The idea is to avoid small, tense movements and use big, loose ones instead.

Using your wrist is fine for making a short stroke. Use a flicking motion and you'll get a nice "C" curve. But if you want anything longer than 1-2 inches, or if you want an "S" curve or a straight line, the wrist alone doesn't work well.

Learn to control your shoulder and elbow if you want to achieve a dynamic line quality. You want to train your whole arm. This applies to the overhand grip and the tripod grip. For example, if you’re using a mechanical pencil, it doesn’t make much sense to use the overhand grip cause you can’t use the side of the pencil. So, use the tripod grip, but still, make sure you use your whole arm. The same applies to digital artists using a stylus. You can only use the tip of the stylus, but you can still use your whole arm to pull the stroke.

Let’s try to just shade a square of flat tone using the tip of the pencil. Sounds simple, but it can be challenging. You want an even tone without spotty areas of light and dark or little white specks. It’s honestly pretty difficult and time-intensive to make a flat even tone. If you practice this, your pencil work will improve greatly and it will show whenever you have to shade something.

A lot of you guys are choosing to use just the most essential materials. That’s great! Once you start feeling like it’s holding you back and choose to invest in some more, the next most important thing I recommend is a bigger range of pencil leads! If you really want to stay lean, just the addition of a 4B will dramatically increase your range in the shadows. You'll know you need it when you start noticing that the HB is indenting/scratching the paper in the dark areas. Even if you erase it out… for the most part… the mark still shows because the paper is indented. That damage can’t be undone. When you want a really dark area with your pencil, either use a “softer” lead or make a few layers at it and let the graphite build up. You won’t be able to get it as dark no matter how many layers you apply, but you can get close. It’s better to go over an area a couple of times for a dark tone than to press hard once and damage the paper. You’ll get a feel for it with experience.

If you already have a full set, try them out. How does a 6B feel vs an HB or a 4H? Do some more gradations and flat squares with each pencil.

Erasers

Some erasers are made of rubber and some plastic. Erasers behave differently depending on the medium and paper. Personally, I’ve found that for graphite, in most sketchbooks they’re all just fine. So, I’ll just go over the different ones I’ve seen my friends use and you can explore the ones that appeal to you.

Leon Okun who studied at the Repin Academy says the artists there like the KOH-I-NOOR Small "Elephant" Eraser natural rubber eraser because it works well with the charcoal and paper that they use.

Daniel Warren Johnson who works in comics likes the Ain plastic eraser because it erases his pencil lines without damaging his ink lines.

Stephen Bauman likes the Mono Zero. It’s also plastic but he likes it for its thin shape. He slices off the tip at a 45 degree angle and uses it to draw, like a pencil but in reverse.

I also recently discovered these pencil erasers. You can use the tip for thin detailed lines. And even the side for softer gradations. It’s definitely not something you need, but they’re fun! And it works with my electric sharpener, but sometimes I have to use a blade to cut off some extra bit it didn't get.

For the finest of detailed erasing, we have electric erasers! Like I said in a previous video, they're good for a few specific things, like getting those little highlights in the eyes.

And finally, kneaded erasers are my favorite. You can shape these rubber erasers however you want, so you can erase a large area or just a really thin line or dot. Or make it into a rolling pin and lighten all your lines. When one gets dirty, knead it to clean it up a bit. When they get past the point of no return, throw it out and rip off a fresh piece.

Kneaded erasers don’t crumble and leave eraser poops on your drawing, either. Plastic eraser poops stick together in bigger poops. Whereas rubber eraser poops break apart into smaller poops and stick to the paper more.

Alright guys that’s it. I’ll do another video very soon, demonstrating all the different ways to sharpen all these different pencils. See you next time!

Drawing Basics

Warmup - Mushrooms

Warmup - Mushrooms

Stan Prokopenko