Drawing Pencils Tips - Ran Art Blog

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Some drawing tips regarding pencils.

Pencils come in different levels of softness and hardness.
Super soft pencils tend to break.

The "H" levels indicate hardness.
Meaning, there are more clay particles that harden the pencils.
Graphite is quite soft, so hard pencils lay less graphite particles on paper, and make them look brighter (lighter).
2H, for example, is lighter than H. 3H is lighter than 2H.

On the other hand, "B" levels indicate blackness. Meaning, how dark a pencil is.
3B, for example, is softer (and therefore darker) than 2B. It lays more graphite particles on the paper and cover it faster.

When drawing realism, I recommend using several pencil grades.
In order not to damage the paper, you do not want to press hard.
So use light pencils for light values, and dark pencils for dark values.

Example for realistic drawing with graphite pencils:

There are many pencil brands.

For my recommended brands, visit my guide for drawing materials.

For beginners, I suggest working on transitions with each pencil grade.

That way, you can see the values each pencil can produce.
Then, focus on drawing a gradual transition, a gradient.

Graphite pencils are super friendly. The ability to erase gives them an edge on other drawing material.

I love painting realism:

But, to do that, I first had to master drawing realism.

Here are a couple of drawing examples:

Ran

P.a.: you are welcome to visit my drawing and painting tutorials.

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