Understanding the differences in pencil hardness is a tool for you to use. By changing the hardness of the pencil used you can control line thickness, blending, shading and “texture” of the work.

While it is possible to create a drawing using only one pencil, the ability to leverage a variety of hardnesses provides a “spectrum” of grey scale.

Exercise:

With each pencil, make a mark and label the mark with the pencil hardness. Do not change your pressure – keep things nice an even. Notice the differences. Line the pencils up in the order from lightest to darkest line, and observe the numbering on the pencils.