Pencil Pushing

Here we get closer to the absolute heart of the matter, of what it truly means to DRAW. When it comes to pencils, there’s nothing more simple + immediate, and it doesn’t need any expensive technology, or another update, or even electricity for that matter. It’s not that far away from scratching on a cave wall with the end of a burnt stick, reminding us where we really are as far as our place in the grand scheme of things in the universe. And probably one of the most crucial, fundamental skills I try hardest to impress upon Beginning Drawing students is finesse ("refinement or delicacy of workmanship, structure, or texture... skillful handling of a situation : adroit maneuvering). Second only to inking, there isn't much of anything else that one can hold within one's own hand which has the power to exhibit so much nuance and subtlety, and command such a range of expressive mark-making.
Okay maybe that’s a bit much for reviewing a pencil.

So I recently received my order for a new line of Musgrave pencils, a big, beautiful box (bonus points for a handwritten thank-you note w/a couple free samples) of their “Tennessee Red” brand. I’ll link a couple other more professional review sites here and here, as there is a whole other level of uber-geeks into rating pencil performance. As is my usual MO, this is more of a quick & dirty, real-world practical application of materials that I use both in the studio and the classroom. Similar to the swatch tests I did a while back when comparing & contrasting different inks against a variety of papers, I’ve uploaded here some samples made specifically for this post. More below the fold!

A side-note here in how I much prefer hand-sharpening, as it extends the area of exposed wood for a more custom, textured, contoured grip. This is also why hexagonal shafts are better than the smooth, round-bore pencils, and don’t get me started on the weirdness of the fleshy grips that are popular now. Plus whittling releases the scent, and quickly reveals if the pencil is made of actual wood – some of the cheapest ones these days use horrid composite crap instead.

The Tennessee Reds smell intense - the hardwood box could easily double as incense, and so you get some bonus aromatherapy having it in your work area. Presumably with exposure to air over time it’ll fade from the individual units like all the other cedar pencils I have, but all it takes is a couple shavings to make your students look askance at your sniffin’. Only two outta a total of 24 had any evident gaps in the slats, and there were no visibly off-centered cores… though hand-sharpening remedies that concern anyways. The “lead” itself is soft + smooth, yielding yummy, rich darks, as opposed to the drier, harder + more scratchy ones in many - if not most - of my other samples.

The other gourmet pencil I use on special occasions, the rare Blackfeet, is getting a bit brittle from age perhaps, or a reminder that I need to hone the sharpening blade. I rate the Tennessee Red more of a “B” compared to the Blackfeet “HB” and everyone else is slightly more along the “H” end of the scale (technically ALL of my testers are “HB” or #2). I broke out a vintage Berol here for fun, plus there's a baseline governmental pencil from my last season as a ranger, and a representative of the basic Ticonderoga Black #2/HBs are - along with my faithful Derwents and the occasional Staedtler Mars - probably the most numerous pencils I have on-hand. I never give Generals much credit, butI need to give their Cedar Pointes a day in court, as I read a lot of positive reviews now. Of course, it's awfully hard to mess up a basic pencil: even Artist’s Loft, who I routinely grade as sub-par materials "works" on the same level as Daler Rowney "Simply," Pro Art, and even the free little #2 stubs handed out to circle in those oval bubbles on a test with. One of the sublime meta-pleasures behind cartooning in particular is the ability to use whatever is at hand and is accessible to everyone, so the bar is set pretty low here. That being said, let's take a closer look at what makes the higher-quality ones "better."

Personally I have a heavy hand, and frequently snap my leads – one reason I keep a pair of drumsticks by the drawing table so as to avoid breaking the cores, which happens enough when they get dropped. Incidentally this brings up the abject failure of mechanical pencils, which are laughably weak and are generally useless. Excepting when penciling out lines of text, or super-fine detail, in which case doing crossword puzzles is handy training.

Before we get started on some basics, I would be remiss in not mentioning (again) one of my literary idols back when I was a philosophy major: Henry David Thoreau. Wait what? One of the fathers of American Transcendentalism had a hand in revolutionizing this humble writing utensil?

OK: First start shading off to the side with a couple strokes so as to establish the bevel on the tip – and then don’t shift grip or change angle of pencil while moving over to whatever you’re shading so as to preserve that initial buffed-down point on the tip. With very slight rotation to the edge of the beveled working face (either by rolling pencil a slight amount and/or changing angle of overall pencil) you get a momentarily sharper point and/or edge so as to get a quick corner/add a slightly darker tone.

Being hyper-conscious of the state of the tool in your hand is an element of awareness and focus we, as a people, have literally lost touch with, especially in the era of pecking away on keyboards. There aren’t many if any implements we primates manipulate anymore that require dexterity like a surgeon or dentist. Also how you hold the pencil is also another component that will influence your making marks and is sometimes assumed and overlooked. One’s grip is a personal matter largely derived from that beginning training you get usually in school. If the habit is instilled “wrong” it may lead to discomfort or even cramping over extended sessions of use. See here for my previously documented forays into this endlessly fascinating aspect on getting and maintaining a firm grip. Also the distance your grip is along the shaft to some extent will determine the degree of control you have, ie shading larger areas require a broader stroke versus tighter, smaller areas when holding the pencil nearer the tip.

After establishing the working face of the tip off to the side, now begin with feather-light pressure (letting the tooth of the substrate catch the lead) lay down a base tone – say 5% gray. Using small circular motions carefully build up shading successive layers until the desired tone is reached. You may occasionally get an errant chunk of grit that will mar the area of shade, especially with cheaper, mass-produced student-grade pencils. That’s a good time to shift over to scratch paper and work it out. 

Remember to maybe rotate the paper itself a bit, so as to take advantage of a different counterstroke, again letting the grain of the paper grab the graphite (essentially crosshatching) to push the blush from a 5% to a 10% and so on across the scale of these little swatches. In reality I usually wind up with/use a range of roughly 5-6 distinctly discernible different patches, approx. 10%/20%/50%/75%/90%. I but them right up against one another since it'll be easier to distinguish between the contrasting areas.

I also use the little beaver doodle as it encapsulate all the crucial elements: bold outline, overlapping marks against a dark tone (on the tail), a couple zones to build up a smooth gradation/shadow (where arm tucks behind body + footpad), and an comparatively large area across the tummy that requires a longer stroke. Much like the flexibility of using a bush or dip-pen while inking in creating an organic line with varying weights, I prefer to use a tool that has everything in hand ie. with one implement I can make a wide variety of marks, without having to pick up something else (like for example a blending stump or another grade of pencil).

At some point you’ll now want to start gradually pushing down to make the shading darker an darker – in conjunction with grain of paper + angle of pencil + beveled edge or working face of the point. What I personally aim for is a smooth gradation of tone from lights to darks so as to enhance volume, give my outlined shapes three-dimensionality. Anything that breaks that smooth surface tone creates a visual speed bump of sorts, like the areas of overlap when trying to shade in a large area, and your stokes inadvertently make bands, which to compensate for one can blend out by adding more, but will then consequently make a darker area than originally intended. So I keep in the back of my mind that it’s essentially a one-way process, and the, uh, value of slowly, meticulously building up those areas of value by first establishing a base tone and slowly, carefully adding successively darker tone through judicious application of increased pressure.

The final, darkest swatch will necessitate making sure the paper you are shading is itself on a hard, smooth surface, like a desktop. Working on a pad for example will not only create embossed lines on the underlying sheet(s) but effectively cushion your penciling, which could perhaps be a deliberate effect when working with lighter tones at the outset). You’ll also see just now dense and rich the darks are as the lead will thoroughly impregnate the fibers of the paper to the point it becomes impossible to make it any darker, and in many cases develop a reflective sheen. If you want to really get carried away then adding workable fixative can, after drying, re-establish another surface to maybe push it another final step.

In actuality the final step in many instances for me is erasing, which is a whole ‘nuther arena of consideration and concern (and another post). Another brief aside on the beaver test swatches were scanned and then in Photoshop converted to grayscale and then tweaked using auto-tone + auto-contrast. After reviewing the images side-by-side with raw scans I judged them to be better representations of reality (your results at home may vary).

In closing, all this testing is only good for you when you sit down and do it all yourself, because the fundamental criteria cannot be communicated through seeing an image – it is how it feels when in use. This is like learning how to cook with YouTube tutorials – at some point you just gotta taste it. So taking the time to line ‘em all up and methodically test each individual brand alone, in addition to how they compare/contrast against each other, is the only way practical way to effectively gauge their relative performance. Finesse, experience (the ease + comfort of a working familiarity with one’s tools and materials), and the type of paper are the most basic, crucial concerns. Plus there’s intangibles like nostalgia, pride in America, scent, heft, and most important of all: instilling a desire to keep drawing, for making more marks.