Category: guide

Guide to Small Handheld Pencil Sharpeners

18 February 2016 By ian

There are dozens of different sharpeners, in all shapes, sizes, materials and colours. Here I’m looking at small one-step handheld sharpeners. One-step just means you can get a finished point in one go. Some sharpeners are two-step: you sharpen the wood first and then the graphite, to give a long point. Handheld sharpeners are sharpeners […]

Guide to Pencils for Drawing

14 January 2016 By ian

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 […]

Guide to D1 Refills

20 November 2014 By ian

Many moons ago I did a comparison of six different D1 refills and called it ‘part one‘. I was fully intending to do a ‘part two’ soon after but it didn’t happen. Here it is now, though. Better late than never! Just to recap, D1 refills are small refills used in many Kickstarter projects and […]