Masterclass of Realistic Pencil sketching-How to draw fruits

PENCIL GRADES

Hello Friends,

All of us use different pencils like 2H, 4B, 6B to render artworks. Most of them might not do so but use only one pencil. And when we use only one pencils to render, for the dark areas, we apply extreme pressure on the paper which is why the texture of the Paper is DEAD.

So in this Pearl we will be discussing about the Pencil Grades.

Not only about the grades, but which Brand of Pencil we must select while rendering and why.

The most often question asked is “which pencils do you use?” “how to you render the dark areas?” “what is the H letter in 4H and what does the Letter B mean?”

This tutorial is an answer to these questions !

First things First, before knowing about the pencil grades, let us know what is a Pencil Made up of. Once we understand the fundamental of its making, we can easily understand the pencil grades and their application.

Pencils were developed in the year 1970. What we see is that it is made of wood with a graphite core inside. Actually, the core is a combination of finely grounded graphite and clay which is mixed with water and in the final process, it is pressed together at high temperature.

Later, according to their compositions, the numbers started arranging themselves with letters.

Here is The full range of drawing pencil grades looks like this:

9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, HB, F, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B, 9B

The term ‘H’ stands for ‘hardness’. This depicts the nature of the lead in a ‘H’ pencil. The H pencils have hard lead. They are always lighter in shade. These pencils are made up of large amounts of clay and less of Graphite. So, even when we apply pressure while rendering with H pencils, it will be lighter always. Now, as the number increases from H to 2H, or from 2H to 4H, it gets more lighter. Such Pencils create a very light line. It’s almost lie no mark on the paper. Such pencils are used for drafting designs or any technical drawing.

Now, to talk about the use of H pencils in bringing realism, we only recommend t use a H pencil and a 2H pencils. That’s it.

H pencils are generally used in areas where certain areas which are near to white, but not actually white. We usually avoid using more of H pencils. The reason Is that, when we render using H pencils, it affects the texture of the paper. We recommend to use them for outlining or drawing of a sketch.

The term 'B' stands for ‘black’ which depicts soft pencils. These pencils are used for dark and bold strokes. A ‘B’ grade means the core has more graphite, and less of clay in composition.

B, such as a 2Black Pencils range from B to 6B These pencils are maximum used in various areas. It is used to bring depth in artworks, to drawing live sketches, to practise gesture drawings, scribbling ideas, etc. These Pencils are soft pencils, so we need to handle them with care. As the number increases from B to 2B, 2B to 4B, 4B to 6B and so on..

The more darker and bold strokes will appear on paper.

Then what is HB?

HB is the perfect combination of hardness and Black; it is the most preferred pencil. The strokes are not smudgier, and not so hard as well. It can e used for drawing as well as rendering the light values.s

We need to note one point over here. It is before of the soft pencils from B to 6B that result in “glare”. Glare is the shine we see when the drawing is a little titled towards the direction of light.

Now in case of a 8B pencil, it has a bit of charcoal in its composition. We must take maximum benefit of it because there are no chances of glare.

Now, to bring realism using soft pencils, we recommend you to buy only B, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B.

Do not use more of 6B pencil as it creates a more glare/ shine. Instead you can attain the value by using a 4B pencil, not by applying pressure but by adding layers.

Which Pencil Brand To Use?

There are lot of pencil brands in the market. While buying the pencil lot of things have to be taken into consideration.

1) Consistency in the values.
2) Graphite quality. (Allows to sharpen it to a point)
3) Erasing ability with kneaded as well as thin eraser.
4) Wood quality.

By considering all the above points we prefer to use these three pencil Brands:

1) Caran d’Ache (P) Grafwood

2) Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100

3) The Blick (R) Studio

Lastly, make sure you use only one Pencil Brand in one artwork.

We generally prefer the set of Blick Studio Pencils (2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 4B, 6B) and a Staedtler 8B Pencil.

Thankyou so much for watching this .