Pencil grades

A pencil's grade tells you how much clay is mixed with the graphite. More clay (the H grades) gives a harder, lighter, finer mark that will not smudge and will not go very dark however hard you press. More graphite (the B grades) gives a softer, darker, fatter mark that smudges, layers and reaches real blacks. HB sits in the middle, and it is the grade that beginners use for everything and then wonder why their drawings look grey.

You need five: 2H for layout lines you will erase and for the lightest contour; HB and 2B for most of the actual drawing; 4B and 6B for shadow planes and the darks. An 8B or a dedicated black pencil is a sixth, for the three or four darkest accents in a drawing. That is the whole orchestra. A 24-pencil tin is not more capability, it is more indecision.

The young Corot drew his Italian hill towns with a hard, sharp pencil: look at how pale and precise View of Marino is. The old Corot worked in charcoal, which behaves like a 9B with the lacquer off. The architectural etchers worked in line, which is a hard-pencil way of thinking. You will use the whole range, but you will reach for each grade on purpose.

The rule that saves beginners a year: when you want a darker value, change to a softer pencil. Never press harder with a hard one. Pressing grooves the paper, polishes the graphite until it shines, and makes it impossible to go darker later.