Which grades of lead would you choose

[Davidjamesink]

Someone asked me a question a few days ago and I thought it would be a good question for enthusiasts. If you could only have three grades of lead for your pencil which ones would you choose and what is the rationale behind your choices?

[dipper]

Three grades only? Oh .... that's cruel punishment!

 

In wood-case pencils I choose 8B, 2B and HB.

The 8B - because I like to use a super-soft pencil for loose sketching, with deep blacks and fat filled areas. (Needs fixing with a can of cheap hairspray. Is that permitted?)

The 2B - because sometimes I do need a reasonably durable sharp point that is also dark.

The HB - for gently floating over the paper making the faintest of lines, seeking out shapes and angles and proportions - then worked over in ink. (The HB pencil layout scribbles will be erased when the ink is dry.) Any harder grade than HB makes line that are too faint to see half way through the ink work. Any softer than HB risks making marks that are too dark.

 

In technical "click" pencils, with "polymer" leads, the grade numbering is different. For the same uses and reasons as above, my polymer leads would be 2B, HB, and H.

(Generally I use 0.9mm technical pencil lead diameter.)

 

This topic is similar to the classic Stranded-On-A-Desert-Island question. (Choose Ten books? Ten pieces of music? etc...)  Reminds me that I once asked a fellow mature-art-student what pictures, or art materials etc he would take to a desert island. After a little thought we were both surprised by his answer.... He decided that if alone on a desert island he would not take any pictures or art materials! I am still pondering the significance of that answer, many years later.

 

 

[txomsy]

I'd first ask, what for?

 

Depending on use the choice may be different. One may lean more to the hard or to the soft side.

 

For drawing, likely something like a 4B, HB and 4H may cover a range wide enough.

 

For beginners, it likely should be 2B, 2H and HB.

 

If you like deep blacks and faint lines, 8B, HB ad 8H

 

If you need soft leads to write on chalky walls, B leads, or maybe charcoal. If you want faint lines easier to erase, H leads.

 

Not to speak of charcoal leads which have their own uses and preferences. So some may prefer a charcoal and two graphites... and it also depends on how "heavy handed" or "light handed" one is or wants to be.

 

The point is, first one should define what it is one wants to do with them.

 

 

That said, and considering two factors: that leads are cheap (I can get a 6-pack of Koh-i-noor for about 8 EUR) and that they will normally last very long, I would advice first asking other people in the same trade what do they use and, failing that, to just get an even sample (say each two or three steps) and   and see what feels better for their own use.

 

[Davidjamesink]

5 hours ago, txomsy said:

I'd first ask, what for?

 

Depending on use the choice may be different. One may lean more to the hard or to the soft side.

 

For drawing, likely something like a 4B, HB and 4H may cover a range wide enough.

 

For beginners, it likely should be 2B, 2H and HB.

 

If you like deep blacks and faint lines, 8B, HB ad 8H

 

If you need soft leads to write on chalky walls, B leads, or maybe charcoal. If you want faint lines easier to erase, H leads.

 

Not to speak of charcoal leads which have their own uses and preferences. So some may prefer a charcoal and two graphites... and it also depends on how "heavy handed" or "light handed" one is or wants to be.

 

The point is, first one should define what it is one wants to do with them.

 

 

That said, and considering two factors: that leads are cheap (I can get a 6-pack of Koh-i-noor for about 8 EUR) and that they will normally last very long, I would advice first asking other people in the same trade what do they use and, failing that, to just get an even sample (say each two or three steps) and   and see what feels better for their own use.

 

Apologies but I wasn't really seeking advice as such, more as Dipper stated above, a kind of desert island disc for pencil enthusiasts. A way of searching inside for what you could least do without. Each person will have their own needs and requirements. Just a bit of a fun or thought experiment and talking point.  

[txomsy]

No need to apologize. If anybody needs to be apologetic, that's me. I misunderstood your post.

 

For drawing, I think it would be 4B, HB, 4H (or 2B/2H instead, hard to really decide). One may go about one or even two levels on each side by changing pressure, so that would pretty much cover most of the range.

 

But I would be hard pressed to consider a charcoal instead of a 4B. Now, if we say a charcoal is not a pencil, then one may include it and leave the choice as a charcoal, and then 4/2B, HB and 2/4H.

 

But then, I would have to consider a sanguine as well. So that would make three graphites, a charcoal and a sanguine.

 

You! You made a tough question! Grrrr...

[inkstainedruth]

I have a variety of leads because a couple of years ago I was in a local thrift shop that specializes in arts & crafts stuff and found a whole bunch of boxes of Berol Turquoise leads (12 leads per package) in different hardnesses.  But my general preference is for 2H for a lot of the artwork I do -- easy to erase and thin enough lines for me to easily ink over with Uniball rollerball pens on cheap printer paper) but still dark enough to be legible to see the lines when I'm inking.

I learned about the Berol Turquoise lead holders in college because one of my art professors used them, and the size of the 2 mm leads also fit Staedler Mars lead holders (I have lead holders of both brands).

A single 12 pack of the 2H leads lasted me about a decade.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Davidjamesink]

😂😂😂 

I felt the same when the question was pitched at me.

I eventually plumped resolutely for 2B and 2H for sketching and as yet have not finalised my third choice which would be for writing.

 

It's currently driving me crackers trying to decide. 🤯 

 

They would all be clutch pencils though that much I do know.

[inkstainedruth]

I'm assuming that "clutch pencil" is another name for "lead holder"....  But I never ran across the first term until fairly recently (and in another thread here on FPN...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[dipper]

From left to right...

 

1 ) A 5.6mm lead holder.

2 ) A 2mm lead holder. That is the size I that associate most with the alternative phrase "clutch pencil".

3 ) A Conte "Pierre Noire" pencil. If the topic had been to choose just ONE grade this is the one I would have chosen for drawing. Sadly, some of mine are ruined by gritty inclusions, so be warned.

4 ) A hunk of graphite, also known as a wood-free-pencil.

5 ) And a good old traditional wood-cased pencil graphite. This is what I always go back to after dalliance with the others. It's a tactile preference - for the Sailor fountain-pen-like feedback 😁. Used down to the limit of the stub, because I hate waste. Fitted in a bamboo extender by a few wraps of gummed paper tape to fatten the back of the pencil stub.

 

For my desert island I will stick with the choice of three wood-cased graphites 8B 2B HB.

 

[1nkulus]

IMO, it is subjective.

Either try them at an art store or order a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 'standard' or 'sketching' set containing 12 grades.

[txomsy]

OTOH, I do have my "desert island" set(s), which oddly, I always keep on.

 

One is a cell phone leather case in which I carry two 5.6mm clutch pencils, one a Kaweco Brass Sport 5.6mm lead holder and the other a wooden one (also short length) whose brand I no longer remember, and two Liliput fountain pens. The Kaweco has an HB and the other currently has a 2B (I switch this from time to time to other hardness/softness leads). This set I always carry in the jeans front pocket (sometimes I also add a Kaweco Sport FP to it).

 

It is intended to match a couple of 9x14cm leather notebook covers (one with a Moleskine for sketching and the other with a Rhodia for writing) that I always carry in a jeans back pocket.

 

So that makes for two leads.

 

The other "set" is in a cotton bag I carry in my suitcase / doctor's case / backpack /whatever I carry at the moment, where I have a traveller's notebook and a roll-able pen case with one or more Kuretake brush pens, a full-length Koh-i-noor 5.6mm lead holder, an eraser, and either a Cretacolor or a Koh-i-noor 6 leads artist's set (white chalk, sanguine, sepia light, sepia dark, charcoal and 2B).

 

And that makes for cheating in the answer.

 

But certainly the Artist's set in its plastic box makes for a great combination. If one takes separately the sepia/sanguine, then that makes for two nice 3-lead sets depending on preference: white chalk, 2B graphite and charcoal for black monochrome, and sanguine, dark sepia and light sepia for alternate monochrome (with the white being sorely missed).

 

Odd that nobody mentioned the white lead earlier (or did I miss it?)

 

Come to think of it, once I find a suitably portable small fixative can that is cheap enough (some quick sketches in the Moleskine transfer to the opposite page with time, not that I mind much, I sketch for the fun of it, and often discard filled notebooks, but...), that might change my choice to charcoal, 2B and white.

[dipper]

14 hours ago, txomsy said:

...... Come to think of it, once I find a suitably portable small fixative can that is cheap enough ....... 

I agree that a spray fixative is the only way to deal with chalks, pastels, charcoal, etc.

For those media, a small purse-size can of extra-firm-hold hairspray might suit your needs.

I see collections of such miniature cosmetics in display racks in UK supermarkets in the summer holiday season. (For travellers heading off to their "desert islands" no doubt.)

 

But for graphite pencil in a sketch-book I prefer an alternative....

Here is an old A6 size sketchbook.

 

Inside the back cover...

 

My sketching kit was some soft graphite pencils, the A6 sketchbook, and a small screw-top tube of Matt Artists Acrylic Gel Medium.

A dab of acrylic medium on a fingertip, smeared thinly over the graphite, forms a highly effective fixative. Dries in a couple of minutes or less.

In photo above you can see how the acrylic medium has dissolved the lines printed on the paper!

 

Smearing of the drawn graphite sketch depends on pencil grade used, how much graphite is laid down on the paper, and how carefully it is smeared over the sketch.

Smearing can be minimal...

 

Or visible, but not an issue in a sketch book.

 

Or can even be intentionally developed to make a darker tone background fill ....

 

Notice that the facing blank pages show zero transfer of graphite.

 

[I-am-not-really-here]

HB, just in case there is a Scantron scored test...And two backups. And a sharpener of course!

[lectraplayer]

On 10/27/2022 at 6:19 PM, dipper said:

 After a little thought we were both surprised by his answer.... He decided that if alone on a desert island he would not take any pictures or art materials! I am still pondering the significance of that answer, many years later.

 

 

Truth be told, about the only art material you'd really need on a desert island would be the charcoal from your own campfires and something to sketch on (animal hide, leaves, etc, maybe even a rock or two.) ...but that said, his first thought may not necessarily be on art, but possibly building a radio out of coconuts.  

 

...though right now, I'm constantly refining my graphite sketch material choices, though HB would definitely be included. I usually use colored pencil or some sort of ink (be it fountain pen, alcohol marker, or whatever) for most of my drawings. For now, I would say HB, 6B, and would have to roll for a 2H, 4H, 6H, or 2B, depending on my mood.

[txomsy]

6 hours ago, dipper said:

I agree that a spray fixative is the only way to deal with chalks, pastels, charcoal, etc.

For those media, a small purse-size can of extra-firm-hold hairspray might suit your needs.

I see collections of such miniature cosmetics in display racks in UK supermarkets in the summer holiday season. (For travellers heading off to their "desert islands" no doubt.)

 

But for graphite pencil in a sketch-book I prefer an alternative....

Here is an old A6 size sketchbook.

 

Inside the back cover...

 

My sketching kit was some soft graphite pencils, the A6 sketchbook, and a small screw-top tube of Matt Artists Acrylic Gel Medium.

A dab of acrylic medium on a fingertip, smeared thinly over the graphite, forms a highly effective fixative. Dries in a couple of minutes or less.

In photo above you can see how the acrylic medium has dissolved the lines printed on the paper!

 

Smearing of the drawn graphite sketch depends on pencil grade used, how much graphite is laid down on the paper, and how carefully it is smeared over the sketch.

Smearing can be minimal...

 

Or visible, but not an issue in a sketch book.

 

Or can even be intentionally developed to make a darker tone background fill ....

 

Notice that the facing blank pages show zero transfer of graphite.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I will have a try to all of them. I confess I never looked with attention to hairspray, but it is true that it is easy to find small and manageable spray cans almost everywhere for a budget. And the acrylic is something I will also have to test.

 

I usually prefer unlined, blank paper notebooks, but maybe acrylic will expand my choices.

 

So, sincerely, thank you very much!

[lectraplayer]

I used to use hairspray all the time--specifically Aqua Net. It's about the cheapest stuff out there. Lots of healthy discussion on fixers on many of the art chats, such as DeviantArt Forums (back when that site was good,) so I would look there first.

[amper]

Three grades? HB, because it's a good balance between hardness and blackness, which is why it's the standard for everyday writing leads. 2H for technical drawing, because it's hard enough for most purposes. 2B for artistic drawing, because it's soft enough for most purposes. 

[OCArt]

I like fountain pens with broad nibs and the cooresponding lead for me is 2B.