Basic Drawing Materials

This tutorial talks only about pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. Charcoal, paints, and other mediums will be discussed elsewhere. This is a copy/paste of a blog post.

Contents

• Pencils
• Erasers
• Pencil Sharpeners

Pencils

There are multiple types of pencils. Remember those bubble tests in high school where the teacher is all, "Use a number 2 pencil?" Pencils range from high "H" pencils, to high "B" pencils. H counts down to zero, and B counts up from zero, making a scale like this: 2H, 1H, HB, 1B, 2B. Kinda like the BC and AD year systems. There are some other letters in the middle where 1H and 1B meet, but I'm going to avoid those to avoid confusion.

Now, I wouldn't go out and buy a set of 9H to 9B pencils, though you could if you wanted. Generally, if you're starting out, you just want to play with one type of pencil so you don't confuse yourself. You can ask yourself three questions to find out which range of pencils to look at.

Do you like darker or lighter lines? B pencils are darker, and get darker heading towards higher numbers. H pencils are lighter, and get lighter headering towards lower numbers.

Do you like sharpening your pencil? B pencils wear down a lot faster since the graphite is softer. What, you thought you got a darker line without cost? H pencils are harder, so the graphite doesn't wear away as much and you don't have to buy new ones as often.

How hard do you normally press when drawing? If you press hard, you'll probably want to lean closer to the Hs. If you press very lightly, you'll want to lean closer to the Bs. This makes it easier for you to vary the weight of the line by pressing harder or lighter.

With that in mind, go out and buy a set of pencils, or a sampling of pencils. Say 4H, 2H, HB, 2B, and 4B. Wear them all down drawing pretty pictures and find out which one you're more comfortable with. I doubt just drawing on a sample paper in the store will tell you too much about which ones you want -- you'll want to draw a whole picture or two with them. Your tastes may also change over time. I prefer low Bs, myself.

Erasers

First, if you use a Pink Pearl, stop. You're only hurting yourself. Go buy an Artgum or some white brand. You'll never go back. They eraser much smoother and more effectively. The advantage Pink Pearl has is that it starts with some wedge shapes on it, and you can carve your eraser to have those edge shapes if you need them. (Erasers wear down slowly and lose their sharp edges fast. They're also inexpensive. Having that wedge shape to erase percisely is worth the $0.02 you shave off to make the wedge.)

Second, ever heard of a kneeded eraser? It's kind of like Silly Putty. You can mold it to erase detailed areas. And since it's not quite as effective as a real eraser you can rub it across the entire page to "knock back" a picture or a section of it. It's useful for erasing guide lines while keeping the darker finished lines.

Pencil Sharpeners

There are hand-held electric pencil sharpeners. I recommend them highly. Hand-sharpening pencils takes too long and is boring. And it compounds your frustration with the lead breaks. Also, I've only ever seen one (and it's really old), but "Auto-Stop" sharpeners are awesome as they don't eat your pencil down to nothing -- they "auto-stop" once the pencil is sharp.

There's a little more to pencil sharpeners than just electric or non, though. Some pencil sharpeners expose more of the graphite and others sharpen it really tightly. Depending on if you prefer more surface area for drawing with the edge of the graphite, or if you use a type of lead that breaks a lot, you may want pencil sharpeners that behave differently.

If you get a small hand-held sharpener, get multiple. You'll lose them. Trust me.

Unfinished