Material for Graphite Pencil Drawing

Here are some tips from the graphite pencil artist, Jay Greig, on choosing the material to draw with pencil or if you prefer graphite pencil. Greig decided to speak on the subject, because he realized that very often, many people were surprised by the variety of different pencils, erasers and other materials used for graphite pencil drawing. So, here Greig shares is a short list of non-exhaustive materials, which he thinks that will allow artists to expand their possibilities in the field.

The graphite pencil

You guessed it, the first tool of the artist is undoubtedly the pencil "HB", sometimes called "gray" pencil. Simple and efficient. However, according to Greig, the range of graphite pencil begins at 9H and ends at 9B. “H” being the range of hard (dry) mines and “B” of the soft (oily).

Greig puts it simply, a 9H mine is very hard and not very visible, while the 9B mine is very oily and dark.

It is not necessary to by the whole range. Greig frequently uses 5H or 4H for roughing, H and HB for finishes and he finishes rendering his drawings by going from 2B to 4B to 8B for strong contrasts.

“Do not press the pencil too hard on your paper, you risk engraving it, and erasing becomes more difficult. Try different pencils in the range of graphite pencils and choose the one that best matches the shade you are looking for,” says Greig. “Try to start your drawings with the “lighter” (dry) pencils and finish your rendering gradually using the darker (bold)”.

Greig uses mainly Faber Castell pencils when creating his graphite pencil drawings.

The Gum Eraser

According to Greig, the choice of eraser is essential. Avoid the erasers of pink, green color, etc… they dig and damage the support. White eraser is excellent for HB pencils and below. Then, it is a crumb gum which is more absorbent and avoids spreading the color on your beautiful drawing. The latter is moldable which allows more precision.

Greig particularly likes the white eraser “Staedtler Mars plastic”, it is a very good reference.

The stump and the fingertip 

To blend is to “spread” the graphite on your drawing to fill a surface. You can also color in one place and blend the color to the surface to be filled. The finger is perfect for that, but we get dirty quickly and we risk staining our beautiful drawing.

So, Greig recommends in his scholar publications, using the stump stick, which somehow replaces your finger. There are different qualities. The best is to test them, sometimes even in the store. You can also try with a (dry) sponge or a cloth, even a glove. Greig likes to work with simple cotton swabs.

The support 

Who didn't draw on simple photocopy paper? Since this paper is very thin, it may puncture or curl with too much pressure from your pencil or from the heavy use of your eraser. Greig always uses these sheets for his sketches, because of the good price.

For the neat drawing, Greig advises you to switch to Canson type sheets with a heavier grammage. The grammage corresponds to the thickness of your paper. Jay Greig points out that 180g / m² paper is already sufficient.