The designation of the hardness of pencils. Types of graphite pencils

Simple pencils for the artist

Anyone who has ever written, drawn, or drawn with a simple pencil is familiar with graphite.We are accustomed to think of ordinary pencils as made of graphite, and do not think about what but in factThe lead of a graphite pencil is made from a mixture of graphite and clay, and is packaged in a case, most often made of wood. Precisely toThe amount of clay determines the degree of hardness or softness of the pencil.

Graphite is a mineral that is a form of carbon. Its various rocks are mined, and its artificial counterparts are also made. The raw materials for this, for example, can be carbides, which are subjected to high temperatures, or cast iron, which, on the contrary, is gradually cooled to obtain artificial graphite.

The main line of dividing pencils by hardness is as follows: "H"-pencils and "B"-pencils."H"-pencils are hard, and the higher the number (it is placed next to the letter designation, for example: 1H or 2H), the lighter the lines. Toa 6H number pencil, for example, will be much easier to draw than a 2H pencil."B" pencils are soft and the higher the number, the darker the lines or strokes it will make. What corresponds to the Russian marking "T" (hard) and "M" (soft).For drawing, softness pencils “B” or “M” are usually used - if in our opinion.

The diagram belowshows the full range of hardness of graphite pencils, adopted in the West, which we also have to deal with constantly."NV" means in Russian and corresponds to the properties of the marking "TM" - hard-soft - and is the middle of the scale. Marking "F" corresponds to "TM", it's just less common.

Imported pencil hardness scale

The blackest (and most expensive) graphite is still devoid of the intensity of blackness, in addition, like graphite in general, it has a luster. A drawing made with graphite (especially hard) shines. Therefore, in some artworks, it is replaced by a drawing one, which gives an intense thick blackness and does not have a shine. That is why graphite is only suitable for small, mostly landscape drawings, which are well preserved without (unless too soft graphite was taken for the drawing).

Other forms of artistic graphite

Two other forms of graphite that are commonly used in drawing are: woodless pencil and graphite bar(or sticks).

Woodless graphite pencil. He's "graphite in lacquer."

Bwood pencil(as you can guess) it's graphite without the wooden case. It is often on sale under the name "graphite in varnish" or "graphite rods" (then they will not be varnished). Basically, the stylus has a round shape. Sharpen woodless pencils with a regular sharpener.They are made for sketching and drawing and are usually on the soft side of the hardness scale, more often in HB, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B. Again, different manufacturers offer different degrees of hardness. With a woodless pencil, you can draw both very thin and wide strokes, which are made with the beveled side of the writing tip.

Graphite bars (sticks)

Graphite Drawing Sticks

Useful for large images and for covering large areas quickly.They are also available in different degrees of hardness, and some manufacturers, likeCaran d'Ache(pictured above) make them in different sizes.

Decide what you need pencils for.

• What are you going to do with the pencil? Will you write a lot? Or do homework? How about solving crossword puzzles? Or do sketches and draw full-fledged paintings?
• How much pressure do you use on the pencil when writing or drawing?
• Do you prefer a thin line or a thick one?
• Do you tend to regularly lose pencils, give them to others, chew them or spoil them, or do you try to save pencils and keep them exclusively in a pencil case?
• Do you carry pencils in your pocket, at the risk of injuring yourself with the tip of the lead?
• Do you try to keep the eraser on your pencil, or does it tend to get lost? Do you rarely use an eraser and it just dries out?

Pay attention to what you like or dislike about the pencils you use. Perhaps some are very comfortable to hold in your hand, while others, on the contrary, are difficult to move across a sheet of paper.

Think what you like best: mechanical pencil or traditional.

• Mechanical pencils do not need to be sharpened, but they do require replacement of the correct lead thickness. As a rule, when about 1 centimeter remains from the stylus, it can no longer be used.
• Mechanical pencils allow fine, even lines to be drawn, which may be advantageous when creating technical drawings or small drawings.
• The length of a mechanical pencil does not change over time.
• Mechanical pencils are usually more expensive than traditional ones, especially high-quality ones designed for long-term use. Most often, in mechanical pencils, it is possible to replace the lead and eraser, which allows you to use it for a very long time.
• Regular pencils are usually cheap. The thickness of the line may vary depending on the angle of inclination and the degree of dullness of the lead.
• The advantages of conventional pencils are their low cost, availability and ease of use. Many also like the feel of using a regular pencil.

The quality depends on the correct selection of the hardness of the pencils.

Hard pencils with a sharpened and dry point can be used to draw grayish lines. These pencils usually have the letter H (from the English hard - "hard"). They are good for high-precision images, such as line drawings or drawings. Hard leads, unlike soft leads, give thin lines and do not leave excessive marks on paper.

Soft pencils have an oil-based lead. Drawing with such a pencil and lightly pressing on the lead, you can get more dark and thick lines. They put the letter B (from the English bold - "bold"). In artistic drawing, the use of soft pencils makes it possible to give greater expressiveness and expressiveness to the work of the artist.

• A well-sharpened pencil lead marked 6B allows you to make a good sketch. The basis of the outline is applied with a soft stylus. To get pale lines, you should tilt the pencil.
• As you create a drawing, you need to gradually impose new strokes on the previous ones in order to deepen the shadows and expand the midtones. Lightened areas on white paper remain unpainted, that is, they do not need to be stroked.

What could be easier than a pencil? This simple tool, familiar to everyone since childhood, is not as primitive as it seems at first glance. It allows you not only to draw, write and draw, but also to create a variety of artistic effects, sketches, paintings! Any artist must be able to draw with a pencil. And, more importantly, understand them.

Graphite ("simple") pencils are pretty different from each other. By the way, "pencil" comes from two Turkic words - "kara" and "dash" (black stone).

The pen's nib is set in a frame made of wood or plastic, and may be made of graphite, charcoal, or other materials. The most common type - graphite pencils - differ in the degree of rigidity.

The human eye distinguishes about 150 shades of gray. An artist who draws with graphite pencils has three colors at his disposal. White (paper color), black and gray (color of graphite pencils of different hardness). These are achromatic colors. Drawing only with a pencil, only in shades of gray allows you to create images that convey the volume of objects, the play of shadows and glare of light.

Lead hardness

The hardness of the lead is indicated on the pencil with letters and numbers. Manufacturers from different countries (Europe, USA and Russia) have different markings for the hardness of pencils.

Rigidity designation

In Russia, the hardness scale looks like this:

M - soft; T - hard; TM - hard soft;

The European scale is somewhat wider (marking F does not have a Russian equivalent):

B - soft, from blackness (blackness); H - hard, from hardness (hardness); F - this is the average tone between HB and H (from the English fine point - thinness) HB - hard-soft (Hardness Blackness - hardness-blackness );

In the US, a scale of numbers is used to indicate the hardness of a pencil:

Corresponds to B - soft; - corresponds to HB - hard-soft; - corresponds to F - medium between hard-soft and hard; - corresponds to H - solid; - corresponds to 2H - very hard.

Pencil pencil strife. Depending on the manufacturer, the tone of the line drawn with a pencil of the same marking may differ.

In Russian and European marking of pencils, the number before the letter indicates the degree of softness or hardness. For example, 2B is twice as soft as B and 2H is twice as hard as H. Pencils are commercially available and are labeled 9H (hardest) to 9B (softest).

soft pencils

Start from B to 9B.

The most commonly used pencil when creating a drawing is HB. However, this is the most common pencil. With this pencil draw the basis, the shape of the picture. HB is good for painting, creating tonal spots, it is not too hard, not too soft. To draw dark places, highlight them and place accents, a soft 2B pencil will help to make a clear line in the picture.

Hard pencils

Start from H to 9H.

H is a hard pencil, hence the thin, light, "dry" lines. With a hard pencil, draw solid objects with a clear outline (stone, metal). With such a hard pencil, according to the finished drawing, over the shaded or shaded fragments, thin lines are drawn, for example, strands are drawn in the hair.

Hatching and drawing

Strokes on paper are drawn with a pencil inclined at an angle of about 45 ° to the plane of the sheet. To make the line bolder, you can rotate the pencil around the axis.

Light areas are shaded with a hard pencil. Dark areas are correspondingly soft.

When drawing, they gradually move from light to dark areas, since it is much easier to darken a part of the drawing with a pencil than to make a dark place lighter.

Graphite pencil lead is a fragile material. Despite the protection of the wooden shell, the pencil requires careful handling. When dropped, the lead inside the pencil breaks into pieces and then crumbles during sharpening, making the pencil unusable.

And a little about pencils, whose companies you may have known for a long time.

"Constructor"

Well-proven inexpensive pencils are made of high-quality wood, the lead does not break and is easy to sharpen. Eco-friendly, easy to grip, and the stylus hardness markings always match the letters on the pencil (the last two are pretty obvious, but artists forum users often mention them in their descriptions).

Quite good, high-quality pencils, many artists are a favorite model. Sold in sets of 24 pieces. They have a strong body, sharpen well. As features of these pencils, their persistent and rather specific smell is noted, as well as, pardon the tautology, the softness of soft pencils. They are really much softer than similar models by other companies, the softest ones even crumble and smear a little. But in general, this is a great option even for the pros, very comfortable and high-quality pencils.

“Koh-i-noor”

High-quality, perfectly sharpened, these pencils are easily erased and do not break at all, even after repeated falls on the floor.

Sold individually or in stylish metal boxes - in general, they are a pleasure to use. The only drawback is the price, they are often one of the most expensive in the assortment of a single store. By the way, they got their name in honor of the large Kohinoor diamond, one of the most famous gems in the world.

If you have your favorite brand of pencils, then you can tell us about it in the comments.

Thank you for your attention!

What is a pencil? This is a kind of instrument that looks like a rod made of writing material (charcoal, graphite, dry paints, etc.). Such a tool is widely used in writing, drawing and drawing. As a rule, the writing rod is inserted into a convenient frame. pencils can be colored and "simple". That's just about such "simple" pencils today we'll talk, or rather about what types of graphite pencils exist.

Interesting from history

The very first object, remotely resembling a pencil, was invented in the 13th century. It was a thin silver wire soldered to the handle. Stored this "silver pencil" in a special case. To draw with such a pencil, remarkable skill and skill was required, because it was impossible to erase what was written. In addition to the "silver pencil" there was also "lead"- it was used for sketches.

Approximately in the 14th century, "Italian pencil": rod made of clay black shale. Later, the rod was made from burnt bone powder mixed with vegetable glue. Such a pencil gave a clear and color-saturated line. By the way, this kind of writing instruments are still used by some artists to achieve a certain effect.

Graphite pencils have been known since the 16th century. Their appearance is very interesting: in the Cumberland area, English shepherds found a certain dark mass in the ground, with which they began to mark sheep. Since the color of the mass was similar to lead, it was mistaken for metal deposits, but later they began to make thin sharp sticks from it, which were used for drawing. The sticks were soft and often broke, and dirty hands, so it was necessary to put them in some kind of case. The rod began to be clamped between wooden sticks or pieces of wood, wrapped in thick paper, tied with twine.

As for the graphite pencil that we are used to seeing today, Nicolas Jacques Conte is considered to be its inventor. Conte became the author of the recipe when graphite was mixed with clay and subjected to high temperature treatment - as a result, the rod was strong and, in addition, this technology made it possible to regulate the hardness of graphite.

Types of pencils

Graphite pencils come in two main types: soft and hard. As a rule, the degree of softness or hardness is indicated on the body of the pencil. So, the letter "M" means that the lead is soft, the letter "T" is hard, and the letter combination "TM" tells us that the pencil is hard-soft. Numbers are sometimes located next to the letters - they indicate the degree. For example, "2M", "3T", etc.

A visual difference between pencils depending on the degree of softness or hardness

In Europe, hardness and softness are also denoted by letters, but by others: "H" - hard, "B" - soft, "HB" - hard-soft. It is more convenient for an artist to have all types of pencils in his arsenal: for sketching, drawing, hatching, etc.

It is important to properly store pencils and, of course, take care of them. Try not to drop the pencils on the floor, as the lead may simply break on impact. In addition, "simple" pencils do not like high humidity - after the lead becomes damp and dries again, it will deform.

The type of graphite pencils can also be attributed to a mechanical pencil. The lead of such a pencil is movable - the length is regulated by a special button. Mechanical pencils can have very thin leads (0.1 mm) or fairly thick leads (5 mm). By the way, professional artists are increasingly opting for high quality mechanical pencils.

By the way, the combination of different types of pencils in one drawing gives excellent results.

Let's see how amazing pencil drawings can be.

Drawings with graphite pencils have their own charm. Experiment with different types of pencils, look for your own unique style!