Understanding Pencil Grades and Stroke Techniques

Pencil Grades

For all the newbie in terms of using graphite pencils, you need to understand first the pencil grades and strokes. Before you come up with your artwork using graphite pencils, I have some tips for you to achieve your goals on your drawing. Understanding pencil grades and stroke techniques are your key to make a smooth and realistic drawing. 

You can tell how hard or soft a pencil is by looking at the combination of letters and numbers printed on the end of each pencil.

H: Hard
F: Fine Point
HB: Hard Black
B: Black

Proper stroke of your shading can produce good results. There are many kinds of stroke techniques in shading. Here are some basics you need to know for you to understand how to shade properly your drawing.

Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines.

Smudging is the next step after mastering the technique of line drawing. Smudging the graphite means that you have to work less hard at shading

Curve Hatching When hatching is used, the lines drawn generally go in the same direction and are mostly parallel with each other. Sometimes, the lines may curve slightly or even a great bit depending on the contours of the object.

After knowing the importance of these elements, you can start your drawing and shading. Mastering the pencil grades and stroke techniques will improve you a lot.