Drawing Tutorial 008 - Drawing materials

This week we will discuss about the drawing materials required for graphite pencil drawings-

Let's see first the essential ones

1) Paper

Its the surface mostly used to draw with graphite pencil. The papers that are used for drawing with graphite can be differentiated on the basis of how much teeth the paper has. More the teeth, less smooth the paper will be. While a paper with medium to high teeth is good to sketch on. for finer drawings a smoother paper will do the job better. While doing free sketches I use all kind of papers that takes graphite well like notebook, sketchbooks, print papers. Print papers have very less tooth and is good if the intended sketch is more towards line drawing. I fine the desk notebooks that are used in meetings and conferences a good option to draw rough sketches to free the drawing muscles. 

However, when the drawing is intended to be a finished drawing that should last long, a completely different property of the paper comes into play. Its the acidity of the paper. For longevity of the paper, it should be acid free, else it would turn yellowish over time and become brittle. All general purpose notebook available from Indian manufacturers are not acid free and therefore prone to deterioration. Thus, if the drawing is meant to be preserved over time, archival grade paper is the best option.

2) Pencil
graphite pencils comes in different hardness. the lead of the graphite pencil is made with mixtures of graphite and clay. More the graphite softer the grade of the pencil becomes and vice versa. The grades are denoted by H or B with a number prefixed. H stands for hard and B for black(soft). H pencils make a lighter mark but if pressed hard will make dent/scratch on paper that is irreversible. On the other hand the B pencils make softer dark mark on paper. Greater the number before the grade, more intense the softness or hardness of the lead. Thus, a 6B is softer and darker than a B, 2B or say 4B and a 4H is harder and lighter than 3H, 2H or H. There is an HB too which is the middle point of all the grades.

For drawing lighter shades like skin tones or say very faint shadows H pencils are suitable. For creating medium to heavy shadows, B pencils are suitable. For general sketching, an HB or 2B is good option on most of the papers.

3) Eraser
Two types of erasers are a must for drawing. one is the non dust vinyl eraser and other is kneadable eraser. While the first one is most probable used by any novice who has drawn anything with pencil, the second one that is the kneadable eraser is not that commonly used. But kneadable earsers are very useful as it can be kneaded to shape it as wished such as a pointy one or a sphere.

4) Sharpener
The best cheap option is a razor blade with a high risk of an accidental cut on finger. But if you are not a kid and think you can handle the blade, sharpening the pencil is fun. Otherwise, pencil knife is safer option. A good pencil sharpener is another good option with zero risk and faster sharpening.

following are some of the economical choices that yield good result
Paper :
notebooks made by papercraft or classmate by ITC for rough and free sketching.
sketchpads from canson or biano
smooth bristol from canson or biyano

Pencil:
cretacolor, staedler, Biyano
mechanical pencils from Camlin, Staedler, Kurutoga

Eraser:
Staedler, Skyist vinyl eraser
Kneadable eraser from cretacolor

Sharpener
Apsara, razor blades


More items will be covered in future posts.