Guide to Pencils for Drawing
14 January 2016
What makes a pencil good for drawing?
While it’s possible to produce absolutely beautiful art with just a single pencil, for the purposes of this guide we’ll be looking only at pencils that are available, as a minimum, in a range of grades from at least HB to 6B.
Erasers aren’t necessary as you’ll almost always be using a separate eraser when drawing.
The lead should shade in a nice way. Although this is to a certain extent subjective, it should be easy to shade from light to dark.
The lighter grades, at least, should be easy to erase without smudging.
Drawing pencils should keep their points for a reasonable amount of time and should sharpen cleanly and easily. The lead should be smooth, to improve the overall experience of using the pencils and to help with shading.
Finally, if you’re putting down and picking up a selection of pencils, you need to be able to tell quickly and easily which grade each pencil is.
Selection
We’re taking a look at these pencils. Links lead to full reviews.
- Staedtler Mars Lumograph
- Faber-Castell 9000
- Staedtler Tradition
- Palomino Graphite
- Caran d’Ache Technograph 777
- Tombow Mono 100
- Caran d’Ache Grafwood 775
- Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni
Comparative review
Range of grades
Staedtler Mars Lumograph: 6H to 8B
Faber-Castell 9000: 6H to 8B
Staedtler Tradition: 5H to 6B
Palomino Graphite: 2H to 6B
Caran d’Ache Technograph 777: 4H to 6B
Tombow Mono 100: 9H to 6B
Caran d’Ache Grafwood 775: 4H to 9B
Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni: 10H to 10B
Erasing
The Graphite was very smudgy and didn’t erase cleanly at all. The pencils that erased best were the 9000, Mars Lumograph and the Hi-Uni.
Shading
The Graphite was very grainy and didn’t shade nicely. The Tradition struggled a little too but the rest all behaved well. Which you prefer is going to be very much down to your own taste.
Point retention
The Grafwood kept its point the best but they all did well apart from the Graphite.
2B pencils, to see how well they kept a point
The state of the 2B pencil tips after all that scribbling.
Smoothness
All these pencils had good quality lead. The 9000 was the worst of the lot. It wasn’t bad, just not up to the high standard of the others. Japan absolutely won out with the Mono 100 and Hi-Uni both having exceptionally smooth lead.
Sharpening
I sharpened the 2B pencils with the wonderful DUX brass sharpener and, unsurprisingly since this sharpener is amazing, they all sharpened cleanly.
I sharpened the HB pencils with the KUM Automatic Long Point Sharpener. This is a tricky sharpener that can destroy some poorer quality pencils but all of these sharpened well. The thicker barrel of the Grafwood made it a little difficult but not impossible to use with this sharpener. You can see that the Tradition’s lead isn’t quite centred.
HB pencils after being sharpened
Barrel design
These pencils have the grade printed on at least three sides of the barrel, making it simple to pick up the one you want: Mono 100, Hi-Uni, 9000 and Mars Lumograph.
The others didn’t but the Grafwood barrels are shaded according to the grade (becoming a darker shade of silvery grey as the lead becomes softer).
UK Prices
Unless otherwise stated, these are the prices for single pencils taken from Cult Pens during December 2015.
Staedtler Mars Lumograph: £1.06
Faber-Castell 9000: £0.95
Staedtler Tradition: £0.64
Palomino Graphite: $9.95 (pack of 8 mixed grades from Pencils.com in the USA)
Caran d’Ache Technograph 777: £2.60
Tombow Mono 100: £1.84
Caran d’Ache Grafwood 775: £2.50
Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni: £2.40
Recommendations
All of the pencils in this selection are good for drawing except for the Palomino Graphite which has waxy lead that is, basically, horrid.
The Caran d’Ache Technograph is one of the weaker performers (in an admittedly strong field) and is also the most expensive. It represents poor value for money.
The very best pencil for drawing is the Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni. It keeps a good point, erases effectively, is wonderfully smooth, looks beautiful and shades extremely well. Worthy runners up are the Caran d’Ache Grafwood and the Tombow Mono 100. The Grafwood is on a par with the Hi-Uni most respects but it isn’t as smooth. The barrel design isn’t as pretty and doesn’t have clear grade marks on enough sides. The Mono 100 is a little smudgier when erasing and doesn’t keep its point quite as well as the Hi-Uni but shades in a beautiful way and is just as smooth.
The Grafwood and Hi-Uni are very expensive though. The Mono 100 is almost as good and costs about twenty-five per cent less.
If you’re on a budget then the Staedtler Mars Lumograph is an excellent choice. It’s smooth and shades and erases well. The barrel is clearly marked. It just loses its point a little more quickly than the best pencils.
If money is no object: Mitsu-bishi Hi-Uni
Best for a more sensible price: Tombow Mono 100
If you’re on a budget: Staedtler Mars Lumograph
Over to you
This guide will be updated when/if I come across something better. Do you know of anything I ought to be taking a look at? Have you got any favourites yourself? Do you think I’ve got these recommendations completely wrong? Please let me know.
Tricky subject – I think that, even more than for writing pencils, there’s a degree of personal bias, and (in a nice way) irrationality, in the choice we make here. Personally, I really like Derwent and Faber-Castell 9000 – I’m not keen on the Lumograph, despite it being pretty similar to the 9000 (excepting that it doesn’t smudge quite so well). I grew up using Derwent (I did my Art O-level with a set of Derwent “Graphic” pencils) and Faber Castell 9000s were the first “fancy” pencils to which I treated myself).
There’s also the variables like how you sharpen (and whether the pencil stands up to that regime or not), whether you work with a full set of grades or just two or three (relying on layering the graphite). Personally, and at the moment, a large core (I find the Mitsu-Bishi Penmanship Pencil, and Derwent’s “Sketching” interesting on that basis) and a slightly thicker casing (like the Grafwood) appeal to me. Larger bodied pencils (the Caran D’Ache Blackwood, Lyra Super Ferby) are lots of fun, although they come in one grade only.
This post by Dianne Sutherland is quite interesting on the topic – her preference for a long lead and knife sharpening rules out Derwent (for her, at least). She also works with what seems to be a full range of grades, so a pencil I quite like (Derwent’s large cored, but three grades only Sketching Range) is also a non-starter for her. http://diannesutherland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/which-pencil.html
Weirdly (perhaps) the last thing I was really happy with was dashed off under a two day deadline, with the line work being done using a General’s Semi-Hex, because that’s what I had on the desk at the time. I can see reaching for that pencil again, despite the fancier, and probably more suitable options to hand, just because I had a good experience with it last time 🙂
TBH, what pencil I use depends a lot on what I am trying to do. If I’m doing a base drawing for a painting and fineliner, I tend to use a fairly basic Faber Castell which I know will lift when I’ve inked the lines. For anything that is pure graphite, I have a set of Grafwoods. I love Caran d’Ache coloured pencils and the Grafwoods make me happy. As a result, I’m questioning whether I need to review several sets in the hope of identifying a best option. At the end of the day, no one is going to analyse my work down to that degree, so what matters is whether I like the pencils myself. As I do, I’m not sure I see the need to go looking for other/better options.
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