Drawing

Graphite Pencil

Graphite is the most common drawing material and is available in a few different forms. You can get traditional wood bound pencils, wood-less pencils, various sized mechanical pencils, graphite sticks, and graphite powders for example. You don’t need anything special to start drawing, you will get along just fine with an everyday #2 pencil or mechanical pencil from just about any store. However, there is such a thing as “artist pencils”.

These differ by providing a range of pencils that can achieve a range of values from a very light pencil (H for hardness) to a very dark pencil (B for blackness). This is achieved by altering the formula to create different levels of hardness. A very soft pencil has more graphite and can achieve a much darker result while a harder pencil with less graphite will achieve a much lighter result. These are labeled with a  number - the higher the number the harder or softer it will be - and H or B. The number of pencils available depends on the manufacturer, but the average range is: 4H 3H 2H H HB B 2B 3B 4B; and can extend outward on either end. Brands may also make an F pencil which stands for Firm and sits between the HB and H.

Mechanical pencil leads are also available in a range of options as well as size, so if you want the benefits that an artist pencil provides, while also benefiting from the advantages that a mechanical pencil can provide; you can have the best of both worlds. 

Charcoal

Charcoal comes in quite a few forms such as pencils, sticks, what is known as vine and willow, as well as liquid and powdered charcoals. These all extend the limits of what you can do with with an otherwise simple medium. Charcoal, depending on the form, are also available in a number of hardnesses.  Pencils can be pure charcoal, or a mix of charcoal and graphite, while sticks are usually compressed charcoal mixed with a binder. While they are visually similar to pastels, they do not provide the same buttery smoothness of pastel. Vine and Willow charcoal are known as ‘natural charcoal’ and made of either willow or vine.

Sharpeners

When using a traditional pencil there will be a need to sharpen your tool. There is a wide selection when it comes to sharpeners, but we will start with a traditional hand driven sharpener. These are usually made with a single blade that has been fastened to either a block of wood or plastic. Unfortunately these can be hard to use as they don’t necessarily cut smoothly, so they have a high chance of breaking your pencil tip rather than sharpening it.

Alternatively you can use an electric sharpener which is going to be the easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to sharpen a pencil. This is primarily because it is a lot less likely to break your pencil tip - but it can also eat away at your pencil very quickly if you are not careful. Other benefits include an auto-stop feature, the ability to sharpen mediums that come in different sizes, sharpeners that plug into the wall or run on batteries, as well as the ability to break down the sharpener for easy cleaning of debris.

A third option is sharpening your pencils the old school way which is to ditch the sharpener all together and use a utility knife. The main difference a utility knife offers is one, you can get a very fine point, and two, its ability to remove the wood of a pencil exceeds the capacity of the two options mentioned above. Some drawing techniques make use of a pencil like this as it can fill in much larger areas of paper with the side of the exposed graphite thanks to this method of sharpening.

Erasers

The rubber eraser is going to be what you are most accustomed to. Made of rubber or vinyl and a slightly abrasive material such as pumice, this type of eraser allows you to gently, but completely, remove pencil or various other mediums by simply rubbing the surface of the paper.

The kneaded eraser is considered to be an artist eraser which means it is not as widely known as the previous one. They are made of unvulcanized rubber which is how they remain playable, unlike rubber erasers. This eraser has a lot of qualities that are useful for the artist because it can be broken, stretched, or molded into any particular shape for precision detailing or to erase back only certain areas of your drawing. The kneaded eraser only lightly lifts materials and is capable of picking out details, such as highlights, in a drawing. This eraser does not shed, and because it can be ‘cleaned’ through kneading, this eraser can be used and reused indefinitely.

Pencil, mechanic, or electric erasers are all very similar to one another and are largely made of the same materials as a rubber eraser. What makes them special is that they are much smaller in diameter and therefore designed to be capable of cleanly pulling out fine details such as highlights, erasing thin strands of hair, or removing small errors.