Like many consumers I buy into the “expensive = better” misconception. Although, as a broke college student, not as often as I used to. You’ll rarely catch me spending more than $5 at a time now unless it’s a necessity. I unfortunately do not consider art supplies a necessity. Hand me any old high school #2 test-taking pencil and a piece of scrap paper and I’ll make it work if I have to.
But recently my 6B pencil ran out, and wow would you look at that, total coincidence, I just had to go to my local art store for frames. Why not stop by and look at the pencils while I’m there?
Now, usually I use Artist Loft supplies, the generic Christmas gift most artists get fifty of in their lifetime. You know the ones, they come in those gray or brown boxes filled with off brand markers, pastels, watercolors, and thin sketchbooks. I think I’ve probably gotten at least three of those things every Christmas and birthday, I don’t actually need to buy any pencils for at least another decade. But why waste a trip, I was already- again total coincidence, in the pencil aisle, might as well look.
As someone who’s only ever used Artist Loft pencils and the occasional bic mechanical pencil in a pinch, I have no idea what a “good” pencil is supposed to be. An expensive one? A big brand name one? A pretty looking one? So, naturally, I gravitate towards the expensive, big-brand name, pretty, pencils. The ones in metal carrying cases, the ones that look like I should be wearing gloves to touch. The ones I absolutely did not need to be buying. Especially since I already had perfectly fine pencils I was perfectly used to using everyday.
Those thoughts did not deter me from walking out of the store with a tin of Winsor and Newton pencils and zero frames which was the whole reason I even went out in the first place.
I was too scared to draw with them and ended up using my old Artist Loft when I got back home. I’m really good at spending my money. (I did eventually end up using them that night.)
But all that got me thinking, what even is a good pencil? Is the pack of pencils I bought for $25 better than the pack I bought for $10, or the various #2 pencils I have lying around my desk?
Does expensive = good here?
Lucky for you, I, prompted by no one and nothing besides my own curiosity, decided to test that out.
Down below you’ll see I have drawn myself three times, one with a #2 pencil I found lying around, one with an Artist Loft HB pencil, and the last one with a Winsor and Newton HB pencil. I drew them all in a Strathmore sketchbook with the same techniques and supplies, the only variable here being the different pencils. (Note: I am not a professional pencil rater, these are just my opinions.)
Final rating of pencils: (listed least expensive to most)
#2 Berkley & Jensen HB: 1/10 Horrible to shade with, felt like I was just scribbling lines down. This pencil was also the most difficult to sharpen but that could have easily been my lack of sharpening skills. Only redeeming feature being that I was able to get anything at all down on paper with this one.
Artist Loft HB: 8/10 Pretty good at shading, absolutely love doing hair with this pencil when you get a nice flat edge with the graphite. I’m not afraid to “mess” this pencil up and wore the graphite down to the wood far too quickly. Which made me realize that these pencils really don’t last all too long.
Winsor & Newton: 9/10 Was not expecting this one to be better rated than Artist Loft but here we are. Really loved drawing with this pencil, smudges easily though that’s not a deal breaker. I was pretty scared I would “ruin” this pencil, didn’t press as hard as I should have to get a better contrast. The wood on this pencil feels much softer, I could accidentally easily break this pencil if I use it too rough.
I would also like to note that I only spent around an hour on all three of these together, the Berkley & Jensen taking the longest and the Winsor & Newton taking the shortest amount of time, and might have gotten slightly different results if I took more time to properly render these.
It might not have been too fair to add a writing pencil to this list either but I was curious how well you could draw with one. The answer was not shocking there, I did not have high hopes for Berkley & Jensen the second I sketched out that first drawing.
Not to make this sound too much like a Winsor & Newton ad but you heard it here folks, in this case expensive does equal better. Not to say cheaper pencils are bad, I’m an Artist Loft supporter for life. Once my tin of Winsor & Newton pencils run out I’ll most likely go back to Artist Loft, but, they were definitely worth the price.