DRAWING PENCILS, THE MOST BASIC MATERIAL
Before any other material used in artistic production, the pencil takes precedence over the process, because its use refers to the most basic element of production: the drawing itself and its graphics.
A draughtsman can draw with charcoal, crayons or blood, but the drawing pencil remains the most basic material in art.
In terms of its inability to achieve the deep blacks of charcoal, its range of tones does, however, make it possible to achieve a rich variety of dark, medium and light tones.
So which pencils are suitable for drawing?
They are those with a gradation above - at the very least - 2b. This gradation, which starts above 2b and extends to 9b, has progressively softer tips, allowing for a fluid pencil stroke on the paper, suitable for drawing. Pencils with gradation B, Hb downwards, have a harder tip, in an inverse progression to the softness of the pencils in the 2b - 9b series, in which case the lower the gradation, the harder the tip. Pencils in the B - Hb downwards series are therefore suitable for engineering drawings and drawings of technical parts, as well as architectural plans, but the line produced by their tip becomes too unproductive and inexpressive for artistic drawing.
Therefore, pencils suitable for drawing should be at least graded 2b upwards. In my opinion, it is possible to build a good tone scale with the following three pencils and their respective gradations:
4b pencil, 6b pencil and 9b pencil.
They can, however, be chosen according to the designer's personal taste, although a single pencil like the 6b is enough to make a good drawing.
Below is a photo of the strokes produced by the gradations of pencils mentioned:
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