Pencil Drawing by Debra Ford in sketch book in 2000

Drawings I did in a variety of Sketch books were originally drawn just for me.   Copies were scanned into a personal friend's computer who I showed my sketch book to years ago. This is actually a scanned copy of the printed file so there is a slight degradation of the actual image quality.

The drawing was done in pencil using a Dewent pencil set. Using  a selection of pencils with various hardness gives the ability to create a more intense presentation.  Though I make a habit of recording which leads are used in my drawings, all records of this information has been lost for the time being.  To the best of my recollection I would say this drawing was done with pencils ranging from 2H to 6H.

Pencil Hardness:

B Series Pencils

The hardness scales range from 9B-2B, B & HB for the darker softer leads which have a smeary or lightly greasy or fuzzy look.  The B series of pencils give the ability to do blending, once the drawing is complete. The ability to do things  like shadows, without the time otherwise necessary with the H series, is an advantage to using the B series.

H Series pencil

The remainder of the pencils are hard leads ranging from H-9H  most people are familiar with the 2H which is often referred to as the No 2 pencil.  1H is the softest and  9H is the hardest.  The hardest pencils allow you to draw a very light thin line. 

The F pencil

is mid range between the eH & B Series -   It is both a dark and a hard lead

Pencil Sets

Most brands of pencils with a variety of sizes are equally good since they use the same harness scales.  It is more typical to find sets ranging up to H6 or a selection of the H & B lower numbers grouped with or without the F pencil.

Other lead sets

include the O  series which are Hard plastic leads which produce very dark black lines.  The finish is either flat, waxy, or greasy depending on the letter associated with the lead.  They come in a variety of sizes and can be used in mechanical pencils.  They are also available in traditional wooden pencils with a standard lead size in all pencils.

Note: All drawings using any pencil types listed above will be referred to as Pencil drawings in any future blog postings at this site.

Anyone wishing to use a link to this entry may do so.  The drawing is free to use for any non commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge that the artist is Debra Ford.