Can someone recommend me a drawing pencil

[Nova]

I want to draw again and i need a pencil that not makes my paper grey when accindently swiping across the drawing..

Edited February 11, 2016 by Nova

[malibu]

Do you have a preference for mechanical or wooden? I use a .5mm mechanical pencil for sketches, though I'm not sure if you're asking for something more "professional".

[Nova]

Yeah for more professional.

[malibu]

I believe the harder the pencil grade, the less it smudges. So you're going to want to look at graphite hardness of about 3H or so. A more trained artist might be able to help, but I'm just tossing out ideas.

[FlynnCoyote]

Use about 5H or 4H for sketches. It's very faint and less likely to smudge. Then use H to define the lines you want, like inking. The brand you use shouldn't be terribly important, as long as it isn't a real cheap brand.

[Pignog]

my favorite pencil to use is any of them by any company

[Guest]

Everyone is suggesting pencils, but this is something a lil more important to consider. 

The blue and the red sketching pencils! These are for building up the structure, gesture and shape of the drawing before you break out your pencils. As a beginner, I actually suggest you only work with the following: a 3H, an F, a 2B and a 4B, for fill. As far as paper quality, you most likely need to start with some throwaway sketchbooks. A lot of drawing happens when you figure out what exactly you wanna do. Do you wanna do architecture, or lighting, or figures? Do you wanna work with wet mediums (paint, watercolor, ink) vs dry mediums (pencil, coloured pencil, chalk)? 

A personal note is that I had gone to school for this, and those IRL boring skills helped me get better at my personal art- which is a lot of furry art nowadays. And if you wanna draw furry art and wanna seriously get started doing art in general, I really, really, really suggest you start with figuring out how shapes and figure drawings work. Once you figure out how a body works and how light falls on it, when you start doing furry art you'll be much happier with the results. Even some cursory stuff in learning gesture, shading and color theory will help. You don't need to take it seriously, and not every drawing will be a masterpiece. Your goal in art is trying to get as close to what you have in your head as possible, and to be happy with what you're doing. 

Resources:

• Learn to sketch for beginners
• Ten tools to start with
• Sketchbook skoolhaus
• How to draw what you see
• Sketching set
• Strathmore Series 400 Sketch pad 9 x 12
• Figure drawing 1
• Figure drawing 2

[PastryOfApathy]

Ticonderoga pencils 4 lyfe.

[Maug]

It might not be the pencil but how you are holding it:

 

 

[malibu]

9 minutes ago, Lemon said:

Everyone is suggesting pencils, but this is something a lil more important to consider. 

The blue and the red sketching pencils! These are for building up the structure, gesture and shape of the drawing before you break out your pencils.

Aren't those harder to erase? I have blue lead inside one of my mechanical pencils and I can't use it for anything I intend to ink because it simply won't come off the paper.

[Guest]

Just now, malibu said:

Aren't those harder to erase? I have blue lead inside one of my mechanical pencils and I can't use it for anything I intend to ink because it simply won't come off the paper.

These red and blue pencils don't show up when scanned, which I had wrongfully assumed would be the life of the pencils. At this point I'm advocating for OP to just make a mess to get around the ropes and didn't really think about refinement. 

When I sketch things with red and blue, I scan it as-is and then just adjust the levels in photoshop. 

[willow]

Just now, malibu said:

Aren't those harder to erase? I have blue lead inside one of my mechanical pencils and I can't use it for anything I intend to ink because it simply won't come off the paper.

I think if you use a kneaded eraser, it'll come off easier. it might not come off 100% but it won't be as noticeable. it doesn't smudge either.

[malibu]

21 minutes ago, Lemon said:

These red and blue pencils don't show up when scanned, which I had wrongfully assumed would be the life of the pencils. At this point I'm advocating for OP to just make a mess to get around the ropes and didn't really think about refinement. 

When I sketch things with red and blue, I scan it as-is and then just adjust the levels in photoshop. 

Oh sorry, I think I misspoke. I meant traditionally inking, like with a micron pen or a copic brush pen. I tend to like to line things traditionally from time to time and color things in with marker and pencil.

23 minutes ago, willow said:

I think if you use a kneaded eraser, it'll come off easier. it might not come off 100% but it won't be as noticeable. it doesn't smudge either.

I should try a kneaded eraser. I know they don't smudge, which is why I use a blue pencil for my office notes.

[willow]

5 minutes ago, malibu said:

I should try a kneaded eraser. I know they don't smudge, which is why I use a blue pencil for my office notes.

aside from the art kind, where do you even get a pencil with blue lead?

[malibu]

Just now, willow said:

aside from the art kind, where do you even get a pencil with blue lead?

I use a mechanical pencil with blue HB lead. I buy them from JetPens.com. I use this pencil with this lead. You can find other lead colors on that site, and any pencil that's .5mm will work.

[Maug]

I draw solely with markers and ink pen. At first it was torture but now it's liberating. It helps you focus on the entire picture instead of making every single line perfect. If I make a mistake, it's OK, I move on.

[yell0wf0x]

Apple pencil. :V

[Terminal7]

So wait,  you're not supposed to use a HB for everything? 

My brain hurts.

Everything I thought I knew was a lie. 

[Maug]

6 minutes ago, Terminal7 said:

So wait,  you're not supposed to use a HB for everything? 

My brain hurts.

Everything I thought I knew was a lie. 

No. a HB (or No.2) pencil is fine, many artists use them. If you're just sketching some ideas, you don't want to waste your art pencils on little sketches that you will possibly toss anyway.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Maug

[Kinare]

Mechanical pencils ftw!

I never knew there were so many types of pencils. o-o

[diretractor]

I never use graphite because it smudges. I don't use it for finished work and I don't use it for sketching. It's either Col-Erase (already mentioned previously) or ballpoint pen. I'm serious. Don't underestimate ballpoint pens. You can be almost as soft with a ballpoint as you can with a pencil. It also trains you to learn how to draw confidently, to not erase, and to just trust your instincts when you make a mistake, or cut your losses and start over.

The best thing you can do is to try everything. To keep things fresh in the middle of a project I'll switch media on a whim, sometimes once every hour. Each media makes different marks that can influence the design. You may find a new way to draw, a new way to think about color and value, and then apply that to how you use another media. Using a very smudgy media will train you to keep your palm off the page when you work, and then you can apply that to everything else that you do.

Also, switching media is my solution to getting out of a funk. If I get artistically depressed, I'll just switch to a different media and that usually keeps me out of a rut.

I will say for sketchbooks that I carry with me, I always use a Bic 4-color ballpoint pen and nothing else. I do have a Col-Erase Blue and Red on hand just in case (old habit from when I used to teach), but I never use them for sketching on the road because a ballpoint pen is more convenient than sharpening a pencil and being tempted to erase my gestures or caricatures. I want every sketch to be raw.

When I'm working I'll use Col-Erase Blue and Red, and then I'll use a whole other set of tools for adding color and inking. I should probably put "inking" in scare quotes. I use a lot of mixed media.

But for learning how to draw? I strongly recommend taking a class in a studio environment where you can use messy media: charcoal, pastel, paints, etc. You need to learn how to use messy media that smears, and do it in a safe room. Each tool, especially the ones that feel very primitive, will teach you something new about drawing that you can't learn with other tools.