Drawing is my favorite medium. I love pencils in particular. After several art classes, I learned how to use different shades of pencils. (example: 2H, 2B, 4B) Just learning how soft or hard the led would be, helped me determine how to use the pencil. If you haven’t done a shade study, I highly recommend you getting a piece of art paper and making lines with each pencil. Two lines per pencil and label them. One line would be using the point of the pencil, and the other line using the side of the pencil. Label them so you can refer back to them.
The brand of pencil is not as important. But you will find that some pencils sharpen better than others. And in the colored pencil category, you will find that some brands saturate better than others. But if you cannot afford the good brands, there are still ways to work around them. I did not have any money in my younger years to purchase good brands. So I learned to adapt. Using oil on my colored pencils helped them to saturate and not leave marks. Using the same piece of tracing paper to set my hand on so I wouldn’t leave spots from my own hands having pencil all over them, was my biggest trick.
Paper is also a big cost. Are you going to use regular sketch paper, thick bristol paper, or pressed board? I think to practice you should just use the sketch paper. But when you want to do a project, I highly recommend the pressed board. I buy mine at Hobby Lobby. The more structured board gives you movement. You can easily take a soft pencil and lightly graph it to replicate an image. And then the lines erase easily. After you have finished your project, I recommend spraying the art to seal it. That will keep any of it from smudging off. And if you think you are going to sell the piece and decide to frame it yourself, most framing stores carry sun protector glass. That will keep the tone from fading.
Develop your signature. You should put something on every piece that you do even if it is just a doodle. Most artist have their work replicated and sign in the corner. They will add this is print number 1 out of 100. 1/100 to the signature. I do not choose to do this. Instead I sign my name and add the year that it was done. It helps me to refer back to the piece.
Stay tuned for me to compare different brands of pencils and which ones are better for different projects.
