Im an intermediate that has almost solely drawn with graphite pencils, but I often see "pros" on YT use ink pens, special pens, or high-contrast black pencils like the mars black. The grass then always looks "greener on the other side" so to speak when looking at their sketches. So do you prefer to draw with graphite pencils, charcoal, ink pens, or lumograph mars black? And why?(Putting the latter in its own category as its somewhat different than regular charcoal )
Use whatever you want. Try everything and bounce around. Personally I like Graphite if im doing quick sketches of faces where I want to really hit proportions and values. I like pens, especially brush pens, when doing gestures/figures because theyre so flowy. I like to draw with crayons on big paper sometimes as a way to be super loose and experiment with color. I like oil pastels if im outside and drawing nature. Or sometimes I want to draw and the closest thing is a pink highliter and green colored pencil. The combination ends up looking really cool. Cool thing is all of this shit costs like 3 dollars a box
When I'm sketching in trad I use 2B pencils the most but when I want to do something in ink I'll do the sketch in colored pencil (usually non-photo blue) and then use fineliners and brush pens for the final lines. I prefer the look of black ink but pencil is much more forgiving, both because I can erase it and because it's easier to build up values gradually
>>8003944actual artists just use a random 2H or 2B pencil. they dont have special pencils unless they are maybe a comic artist and using non-photo blue before inking, but even thats just a random non-photo blue from staples.
>>8003944I actually hate the mars black. It's like shitty charcoal. Charcoal is king if you want black but I still prefer a pencil. I used to go with soft artist pencils but lately I just use the 2B school Staedtlers, they're good quality and dirt cheap
>>8004018So you prefer to draw with charcoal pencils then that aren't a mix of graphite and charcoal like lumograph mars, or do you draw with charcoal sticks or whatever? You said you prefer the pencil format, what brand do you use then?
>>8003944I buy a pack of these once per year.Oval carpenter pencils. HB
