Ian Sidaway subjects Derwent Graphic pencils to a thorough workout.
Top features:
- Easy to hold
- Sharpen well
- Smooth and consistent in use
- Erase easily
- Blend well
- Suitable for a variety of substrates
Where to buy
Derwent Graphic pencils can be purchased from Jackson's Art Supplies.
Available singly, from 9H to 9B, or in sets of six, 12 and 24.
About Derwent
Since the discovery, in the 16th century, of a vein of graphite – then known as black lead or plumbago – running through Seathwaite in Borrowdale, Cumbria, the nearby town of Keswick has been synonymous with the pencil industry.
The first recorded factory was in 1832 and by 1851 a further three factories had opened, such was the demand. The world-famous Cumberland Pencil Company established itself from the Hogarth and Hayes company, which the Greenwood family had taken over in 1912 due to a bad debt.
The company went on to develop the Derwent brand during the early and middle parts of the 20th century and launched the Derwent Graphic range, reviewed here, in 1980.
The graphite pencil is perhaps the most immediate of all mark-making implements. It is both simple yet sophisticated, and more importantly it is familiar.
Unlike most mark-making materials used by artists there is no huge learning curve, you pick it up and draw. It is arguably the most important tool at the artist’s disposal, and so should be chosen with care. Derwent Graphic pencils would be an excellent choice.
For the drawing above I used the 8B, 2B and H Derwent Graphic pencils.
Top tip
Using a range of grades makes it much easier to achieve a full spread of tonal values.
DISCOVER DERWENT GRAPHIC PENCILS
The Graphic grades
Derwent Graphic pencils are available in 20 grades, two more than most other manufacturers offer: the soft grades are 9B to B, the medium grades F and HB, and the harder grades are H to 9H.
They are hexagonal in shape, which makes them easy to hold, with well-centred leads or strips, which is important if you use a pencil sharpener rather than a knife to point up your pencils.
The tests
A pencil needs to do three things well:
- Ideally it needs to deliver a consistent tone at consistent pressure
- It should not feel ‘gritty’ in use but smooth and free flowing
- The lead or graphite strip should be resistant to breaking, a problem that is often encountered with the softer grade of pencil.
The Derwent Graphic pencils I tested did well on all counts.
Sharpening
They certainly sharpen well with both sharpener and knife, with only the 8 and 9B needing a little extra care to avoid the strips breaking under pressure – something that can happen will all very soft grade pencils.
Smoothness
All pencils felt smooth to use on a variety of substrates and the tone delivery was always consistent.
Tone
When used under maximum pressure each grade of pencil should deliver a maximum tone density that matches the grade of the pencil.
For example, the marks made by a 6B applied at maximum pressure should be much darker than the marks made by a 6H applied with maximum pressure. This will vary from brand to brand, as each manufacturer will use different filler to graphite ratios to make each grade of pencil.
Graphic grades
I found the harder grades were much softer than the harder grades made by two other brands that I regularly use, and so delivered a darker tone.
It required a very light touch to achieve really light tones with the Graphic pencils. This can, of course, easily be achieved by holding the pencil higher up the shaft and letting the pencil’s own weight make the mark.
When you are producing complex drawings where a full tonal range is required, harder H grade pencils are really needed in order to achieve those lighter tones easily. However, I really liked the harder grade H pencils and would use them in situations where others might use the softer B grades.
The HB grade pencil proved to be the perfect all-rounder, easily producing a full tonal range of marks and is the perfect sketchbook partner – all that is needed for a day’s sketching.
6B and 6H
The top swatch shows the range of tones possible using the Derwent Graphic 6B.
The marks are soft and slightly textured as the soft graphite can pick up the texture of the paper.
The bottom swatch shows the range of tones possible using the 6H. The marks are crisper and the texture of the paper is less noticeable.
4H
The top swatch shows the range of tones possible with the Derwent Graphic 4H.
The swatch below shows the range of tones possible when using a Faber-Castell 4H, which is much harder.
Both were applied using full or hard pressure at the darkest end of the swatch.
Erasing
Drawing can also be about what is taken out or removed and many artists use erasers as part of the drawing process as well as to remedy mistakes.
I used putty, vinyl and art gum erasers on cartridge paper; all performed as expected, with the harder type erasers producing a better result. Soft erasers, although useful, can smear rather than remove graphite.
Due to the softer nature of the H range I found that even marks by the 9H erased very cleanly – try doing that with a hard grade Faber-Castell pencil and you will see a marked difference.
I also experimented with blending stumps, which resulted in smooth blending and tonal transitions on all of the softer grades and, rather surprisingly, on the harder grades too, albeit to a lesser extent.
Made in Britain
The Graphic range was the first product to be relaunched under Derwent’s rebranding programme.
All products now carry the ‘Made in Britain’ marque on the new packaging and will feature work by international artists that reflect both the product and Derwent’s continuing commitment to the artistic community.
ORDER DERWENT GRAPHIC PENCILS HERE
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Ian Sidaway studied graphic design. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s he painted portraits to commission but now concentrates on the landscape.
He has illustrated and written 32 books and taught at summer painting workshops near Arezzo in Italy. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 2010. www.iansidaway.co.uk