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Dryfire · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2001 9:20 am

anyone know what the difference is between a layout pencil and a regular pencil??? they both pretty much look the same when you draw with them.. but the layout pencil is a bit darker.. anyone know why?

Akolyte · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2001 4:46 pm

Layout pencils contain 5B lead, while "normal" pencils usually use either, 2H, HB, or 2B leads. Layout is just darker for sketching reasons, I think.

Impaler · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2001 6:52 pm

A layout pencil is generally a 6B lead, sometimes a 4B.

9H
8H
7H
6H
5H
4H
3H
2/HB (standard pencil)
3B
4B
5B
6B
7B
8B
9B

Bold grades are Technical pencils, Unformatted are rendering pencils (and generally all you really need to buy for pencil art), and italics are sketching pencils.

Listed from hardest graphite to softest graphite.

Pat · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2001 9:52 pm

Impaler, you forgot F. Some pencil manufacturers have a pencil rated F which comes in right above the HB hardness. Keep in mind that these are not absolute values either. They're relative only to pencils from the same manufacturer. I've seen a lot of variance between brands --so a 6B from one company might be much closer to a 4B from another.

As for mysterious pencils... I recently picked up 2 boxes of Eagle Draughting pencils from an Army/Navy surplus store that was going out of business. The pencils are ancient but have an amazing line quality for sketching. The Eagle's I used in college sucked compared to these. I'm dreading reaching the end of these two boxes. Best 50 cents I ever spent.

-Pat

Tinusch · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 4:53 am

A 9H pencil was the worst $1.05 I ever spent. Those things are impossible to use. They just scratch the paper and leave a litle trail of graphite dust behind.

Impaler · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:30 am

I KNEW there was a grade or two I forgot. There are 18 grades in graphite, and I only listed 16. You the man, Pat. *nod*

Tinusch: BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's because any pencil from 7H and up is meant for drafting on mylar, not paper. I remember my experience with a 9H. I was finishing a 6 hour sketch of mine, when suddenly I decided to try out that new cool 9H of mine. I sharpened it, and started shading with it. 9 minutes later, my drawing was no more than shreds of Canson paper. BUAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Dryfire · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2001 6:15 pm

ah thanks... i aks because i bought this lil "learn how to draw" type kit and it came with like a dozen pencils... thanks for pointing those out ;-)

Freddio · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2001 7:02 am

quote:
Originally posted by Impaler:
9 minutes later, my drawing was no more than shreds of Canson paper. BUAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

must of been really funny at the time heh