Drawing for Beginners – Pencil Types
If someone mentions pencils to someone starting a drawing for beginners lesson, they probably think of the orange pencils that they used years ago in their math class! Maybe even the coloured pencils they used as a kid to colour in the pictures. When teaching drawing for beginners it comes as no surprise how little people knew about the tools they were about to use.
I thought I would spend a small amount of time just looking at the types of pencil that you will need when starting out drawing. Hopefully you will see how different techniques will require different pencils.
You could split the types of pencils into two categories, soft and hard. This refers to the graphite in the pencil and how hard or soft it is made. You may of course have a preference for one or the other when it comes to putting pencil to paper. Drawing for beginners can be confusing, but don’t get too hung up on technical details.
Drawing For Beginners – Hard Drawing Pencils
I have found when teaching drawing for beginners that students often choose the wrong pencil. As you will have already guessed, hard pencils have hard graphite. The lines that are drawn are a lighter shade of grey and produce thin lines, very useful for starting a sketch. If you are a painter, a hard pencil is great for sketching your ideas onto the canvas.
Hard pencils are assigned with the letter H and followed by a number. This is the number that tells us the hardness of the graphite. The higher the number, the harder the pencil is.
So what does the H stand for? Well you guessed it – hardness!
Drawing For Beginners – Soft Drawing Pencils
Soft pencils produce a darker grey and much thicker line. The graphite has more oil and is softer, making it break away more easily onto the paper. Soft pencils are used for shading and darker lines. On a typical drawing for beginners course, it is sometimes difficult to get the person to use these pencils as they want to draw everything lightly.
Soft pencils given the letter B and are also followed by a number. The higher the number the softer and darker the pencil is. These pencils are best used for shading because of the dark tonal ranges that can be achieved.
So what does the B stand for? Blackness!
The HB or number 2 pencil is the pencil right in the middle of the textures and is a good all-round pencil.