I have been doing some charts for reference and to get a handle on what all these pencils I now have can do.

I made four charts like the large one shown which is on Bristol Vellum. There is also a detail of this chart to better show what is there. The other three were done on Bristol Smooth, Arches Cold Press and Aquarius II Watercolor paper. That gave me a range of smooth to rough and hard to soft to examine.

The differences in the papers were very noticable and the differences in the different brands of pencils make major changes too for the same type and hardness.

Some of the swatches show three pressures using same pencil. The charcoal pencil tests just filled the box with an even tone.

Also shown is a chart of my Derwent 20 pencil set and a Value chart I made for the set of leads I use in my drafting leadholders.

The charts were a lot harder to do than I thought they would be, but the knowledge I gained doing them was worth it to me.

Be happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

Bob

Quote hello robert...i was just wondering..on the second to bottom scale...is that charcoal?...and also ...what kind of pencils are in the very bottom picture......it looks like a very nice range in all of them.

Hi absolute,

If you are refering to the Derwent chart, not they are graphite and the come in sets. This is actually two sets, the sketching set and the graphic set combined. Give a complete range of tones.

The bottom picture is just mechanical leadholders that contain a range of leads of Sanford Turquoise 2mm leads. I put them in a old tin case that some older pencils I had came in.

Bob

Quote What brand of leads are you using? Toby

Hi pencilartist,

I used to use anything that was handy, but now after reading JD's book, looking at Mikes site and visiting the art stores I think I have just about everyone there is .

The graphite in the leadholders is 2mm Sanford Turquoise and the other graphite leads are Derwent, Pentalic and ProArt.

The carbons are Wolff's and Conte.

The charcoal pencils are General, Ritmo and Derwent's.

The vine charcoal is Grumbacher and W&N.

Bob

Btw,....that eye ball is really cool...

Quote Hey Bob.....wow...you really have put in some time doing these charts. I think it's a great idea.....I might even try it myself!

Btw,....that eye ball is really cool...

Bella, they take some time to do, but you really learn a lot from doing them.

By the way, the eyeball is from my sketchbook that I did a few years ago when I was studying how to do eyes and was my version of one of Lee Hammond's examples in her book. Iwas looking for something to use as an avatar and that looked like a good one to use.

bob

I had troubles with it too at first, but then as I deleted files (internet options) it suddenly began to work. I thought first its because jpegs and then changed jpeg to gif, but Iam still not sure whats the real reason for the problem. Now it works for me well, its not as clean as in photoshop though