I’m often asked about mechanical pencils – the brands that I use and why I’ve chosen them.

First, I bought a set of .5 mechanical pencils from my local office supply store. I chose them for the colour on their barrels to help me stay organized… white barrels for H leads and black barrels for B leads. I have .5’s in 6H-4B. 

Then I discovered finer pencil leads!

My .3 mechanical pencils are Pentel Graphgear 1000’s. I bought them because they have a little dial that you can set to identify the type of lead that you use. Turns out that wasn’t very useful because the labels are too small to see easily and the dial doesn’t have an option for all of the lead types that are available. But the pencils are beautiful, and I use them in every drawing. I have .3’s in 4H-2B. 

And now, the finest of all!

My .2 mechanical pencils are Pentel Orenz, and I have them in HB-2B. These pencils are my absolute favourite, and I couldn’t do without them. They allow me to make a range of subtle to sharp teeny tiny marks which create immediate depth and drama.

Here’s the personality insight…

I’m (a bit? very?) Type A. I have labelled and colour coded all of my mechanical pencils (standard across the sizes) so they’re easy to grab when drawing. I can’t stand interrupting my drawing to search for a specific pencil!