Although most of the posts on this blog pertain to digital subjects, having used a pencil for much longer than I've used a mouse, track pad or graphics tablet, I decided to author a post about the pencil.
Origins
Pencil making began in the mid 17th century in Germany, Nicolas-Jacques
Conté (1755-1805) was the first to patent the present commercial process for
mass manufacturing pencils in 1795 in France. The name Conté should be familiar
to illustrators because of the Conté crayon or stick. Conté compressed and
fired powdered natural mined graphite, finely ground clay and water to create
long thin cylindrical or square rods. The graphite content determined the
softness of the pencil while the clay content determined the hardness. The
Faber Company, one of the first pencil manufacturers, now familiar to us as
Faber-Castell, began producing pencils even before the Conté Process was invented.
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| Graphite raw material. |
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| Clay raw material. |
The Pencil
Using Nicolas Conté’s
process, pencils are manufactured in a variety of softness and hardness called
“grades”. Although differing from Conté’s, by the end of the 19th century, a
number/letter grade system was recognized and is now used by most European and
American pencil makers for artist and drafting pencils. And even though there is no
lead metal in the graphite in pencils, the grades are also called leads.
The grades are as
follows:
9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B,
9B
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| Tonal scale of pencil grades. |
H stands for “hardness”.
B stands for “blackness”.
F stands for “fine or finest”.
A 9H lead is hardest, producing the lightest mark. A 9B lead is the
softest leaving the darkest or blackest mark. Although not documented the F grade most likely began with the German manufacturers
where it is “feinste”.
Not All Pencils are Created Equal
Another simpler number system is also in use in the US. It ranges from
#1 to #4 with the most common being the #2 pencil with yellow coated wood and
an attached eraser, Although the #2 is equivalent to an HB in hardness its best
use is for simple handwriting. It is important to note that the quality of
these pencils differs significantly from artist and drafting pencils. I have
seen many an art student struggling to draw with one of these pencils, only to
be limited by its poor quality of graphite/clay mixture and mistakenly thinking
a #2 pencil should be darker.
In the Too Much Information Category
An older way of classifying pencil grades was by the use of
multiple letters. Primarily used by pencil manufacturers in England, it went
like this. Hard pencils were stamped with an HHHH, HHH, HH, etc., while soft
pencils were labeled BBBB, BBB, BB, etc.
How to Use Pencil Grades “The Bicycle Analogy”
So now we come to the real purpose of this post. We all know that if we
use a light touch, a 4B lead can make a mark equivalent to an HB, or a 2B lead
can make a mark as dark as a 6B. So why are there so many grades of pencils?
Here’s why.
I’ll use “the bicycle analogy”. Professional cyclist’s bicycles come
with a range of gears that allow the cyclist to be most efficient in all
circumstances. The goal is to pedal at a steady rate. In cycling its called
“cadence”. A cyclist uses a higher gear to get more speed and distance using a
consistent amount of energy from pedaling on a level surface. They downshift to
a lower gear to go up inclines, which causes a loss of speed and distance but
keeps pedaling rate and energy expended as consistent as possible to the level
surface situation.
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| Lead samples. |
Now think of pencil grades the same way, except this time instead of
pedaling rate, think in terms of the hand pressure used to make a mark. Every artist
draws in a way that is natural for him or her. Some artists have a light touch
while others are “heavy handed”. The idea is to use the pencil grades to
provide the different tone variations in a drawing without having to
drastically stray from your natural pressure. So, a heavy handed drawer can
have difficulty if they try to use a 3B pencil to get some lighter subtle tones,
whereas by switching to an F grade pencil those desired tones can be achieved
with ease, and without the need change their natural pressure.
So does that mean an artist always needs to have all 20 grades of pencil
at hand? Of course not, however they are at your disposal for nearly any
circumstance. Engineers and draftsmen tend to use H grades for mechanical
drawing and hand plotting. Illustrators tend to use the B grade pencils, but
they can also use H grades to do light preliminary sketching. H pencils can be
so light that they won’t disturb the illustration as it proceeds to finish.
How a Pencil Works
It’s obvious and yet it may not be. When you use a pencil to create a
drawing, you are making marks on paper by applying some pressure and moving the
pencil across the surface. As you do, lead is transferred from the pencil to
the surface of the paper. The pencil begins to wear down because you are using
the lead to create an image. So that’s the obvious part. What is not so obvious
is that while you are moving the pencil across the surface of the paper,
friction is created by the movement of the pencil, heating up the tip of the
lead. The faster you move the hotter the tip becomes, so when you are
blackening in a large solid area or hatching, the tip of the pencil heats up. The
heat actually hardens the tip of the pencil, which in turn causes the pencil to
resist transferring lead to the paper surface. Alternatively, the pencil tip,
which is now harder, begins to “burnish” or polish the graphite that is on the
surface of the paper, so dark dense areas begin to shine. The heat can also warp the surface of the
paper depending on the paper structure. And, if you want to darken the darks in
a your drawing, paper accepts graphite better than graphite accepts itself, so
it is difficult to layer graphite over an area where the surface of the paper
is saturated with graphite. It’s best to use a soft grade pencil to apply dark
graphite to the paper rather than trying to go over a dark area to make it even
darker. (More on paper in a future post.)
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| Closeup example of pencil work burnishing itself and warping the paper. |
One Last Thing
Have you ever been frustrated when sharpening a
pencil, only to find that when you take your pencil out of the sharpener, the
tip is broken? So you repeat the sharpening, only to find yet another broken
tip, and so on. The natural inclination is to blame the sharpener, but it
could actually be the pencil that’s to blame. It’s fairly easy to damage a
pencil. If you drop one, it may look just fine, but the impact could have
cracked the lead inside of the wood sheath. Much the same as when a
carton of eggs is dropped. The carton looks just fine, but the eggs inside are broken. And
who’s to say how the pencil had been treated during shipping or by the
retailer. If this happens it may be time to switch to another pencil.
Conclusion
The point of the story, no pun intended, is to consider which pencil grade is appropriate
for a desired effect and frequently sharpen your pencil. You can also rotate
the pencil tip to expose fresh lead. By sharpening and rotating you will allow fresh
exposed lead to transfer to the paper and also improve the line and tone quality of your
drawing.
