The Basics of Graphite Grading

I just found out yesterday that pencils have different levels graphite grading (resist your urge to ridicule, please), and this is what makes some pencils have harder lines and some softer. Previously, I thought a pencil was a pencil, and maybe just the size of the tip was what made a difference. I almost always used mechanical pencils in the past when I drew and shading was insanely difficult for me, and so I avoided it. Now I know that this struggle was in large part due to using an entirely inappropriate pencil for the task (like using a fork as a spoon).

Boldly now I walk into a new dawn of pencils! I purchased my first set of drawing pencils, with six different graphite grades to experiment with. Each pencil has a set of numbers and/or letters. To learn more about what on earth these symbols mean I did a quick internet search and landed in the holy land of pencils: CW Pencil Enterprises. These people LOVE pencils and are super knowledgable. Here’s what I learned from their introductory piece on graphite grades:

• The core of graphite pencils are mainly made up of two ingredients: graphite and clay. The more clay, the finer and lighter the line. The more graphite, the looser and heavier the line.
• The grading systems (there is both a European and American system) are helpful for telling a pencil’s general ratio of clay to graphite, but the consistency is not universal and each brand is a bit different. So, it will probably take some experimenting to find the pencils that work best for varying projects.
• A variety of pencil grades is needed to make shading and detail work possible in one drawing (aka, monogamy is for fools in the pencil world).

To try to drill all this into my brain I did a quick trial with my new six pencils, which you see above. I tried drawing a single line in the middle to tell immediate thickness and some shading on the sides to see the difference between soft and hard. I also smeared one end to show how much each smudges. The two pencils side-by-side show how much of the tip was used for both the hardest (the HB) and the softest (8B) just to draw the circle and shading. So, yes, there can be a HUGE difference between graphite grading, and I go forth into drawing humbled and a bit wiser.