
What The Different Numbers on Pencils Mean
Ethan CulletonDescription
Ethan begins by introducing the familiar HB pencil, known to many as the classic No. 2 pencil, which strikes a balance between hard and soft, making it ideal for general use. He explains that the ‘H’ in pencil grading stands for hard, producing lighter lines, perfect for detailed or light sketches. The ‘B’ stands for black, indicating softer pencils that create darker, richer lines, ideal for shading and dynamic drawings.
As Ethan explores the spectrum from hard (H) pencils to soft (B) pencils, he demonstrates how higher numbers like 4H or 6H result in harder pencils that are less likely to smudge but might indent the paper if used with heavy pressure. On the other hand, softer pencils like 2B or 6B offer darker applications but wear down quicker and need more frequent sharpening.
Throughout the tutorial, Ethan showcases how to effectively use each type of pencil by demonstrating various shading techniques. He highlights the importance of pressure control and the angle of application, which can drastically alter the visual outcome of your work. Viewers will learn to perform simple exercises designed to reveal the potential of each pencil, from creating smooth gradations to practicing different stroke types.
This video is perfect for anyone looking to understand more about how different pencils can affect their drawing outcomes and how to select the right pencil for various artistic needs. Tune in to unlock the secrets of your sketching tools and refine your drawing technique with Ethan Culleton!
Hi, my name is Ethan Culleton. And in today's lesson, we are going to be talking about one of my favorite drawing materials, the one that the ones that you all know and love uh pencils. Now, I do a lot of drawing. I do a lot of sketching and pencils are the thing that I go to. First and foremost, they're readily available.
I can erase them, which is great. But some people wonder why do you need this many pencils? Well, I will explain it to you. So here is an example of a pencil that you all know and love. It's called an HB pencil.
All right. It's kind of right in the middle. It's not too hard, it's not too soft. And you've actually used an HB pencil before. It's also known as a number two pencil.
A lot of people, um you know, when we're growing up going to school, uh those yellow pencils are everywhere. And so that's what this is, you know, how it works. Um And I'm gonna show you a little bit about what all the rest do. I like to think about this pencil. Oops as being right in the middle.
If I had a line of pencils and I needed to put one in the middle, it would be the HB pencil. I would have it right there in the middle and underneath. I will also write that it is a number two pencil for you to remember. Now, you may be wondering what does H and B mean? So H stands for hard B generally stands for black.
So the H let's say if we jump to a pencil like this, which is called A two H pencil, I also have three H 4h. What that means is that the higher the number goes with the pencil. So let's say if we have a two H, let's say we have a 4h, the higher that number goes with the letter, the harder the core of the pencil will be so it will create a lighter line and I will show you that in just a moment how that works. These can go up to six H eight H. I generally won't go too far beyond a four or five H pencil.
I think A 4h will give you the lightest touch that you need. Um just because this pencil tip is so hard, the higher that number goes, you could indent your paper. And so if you're, if you're heavy handed, you may want to, you know, put that one aside for just a very, very light rendering. Now, let's say if we go the side, we go to the B side, we have a two B four B six B eight B and so on, the higher the number with the B means the darker the pencil will get. And so you don't want to make um a very light drawing with a two B four B six B eight B pencil like that.
So one other thing I want to talk with you about here is that the harder the pencil core is, the longer it will keep its point, which sounds great. But again, that point is going to be very hard. And so it could indent your paper if you have a hard hand, the softer the core of the pencil goes, the more quickly it will lose its tip. So you will need to keep sharpening it when you're doing details. So let me show you here.
Um a little example about what each of these pencils can do. I like to practice by making just little boxes to begin with. Nothing too large. Um The larger it is, the longer it takes because we have very small points on these pencils here. So I recommend this one right here is the HB pencil I've labeled it.
I want to know what my tool, what my pencil can do for me. I'll start in the top corner and I'll press as hard as I can and as I move further and further away, I will try to lighten up my uh my mark making, I'll try to uh see how dark to how light this pencil can go. I think I may have uh lightened up a little bit too soon. That's a great thing about pencils. You can go over them.
It's totally fine. I can go over it again. Maybe make that area a little bit darker is to create a value or a gradation of value. I know this pencil can achieve. So let's go to another pencil.
Let's jump to a two H. Let's see what that two H can do for us. I'm going to label this. It already feels much harder in my hand. I absolutely feel like I'm indenting this paper.
The quality of the line is a bit sharper. Um I know if you uh if you tend to smudge pencils at all, uh This would be a little bit more difficult to smudge. So let's see how dark we can get here. Oh Much harder to control because it's really indenting. It's really indenting my paper.
I know that there may not be too much of a difference on film, but I can touch this right here and I feel, I feel the ridges that that pencil has made right up here. So for a pencil like this, if I were to use it, I would not wanna go this dark, I would, I want to maybe ease up on the grip of my pencil. Hold it somewhere near the middle or somewhere near the end just to give it a little bit of a lighter touch. This is probably as dark as I would feel comfortable going with the two H pencil. I know I'm not damaging the paper but I can still control it.
Now, if we jump to the opposite side, we go to A two B, it feels much smoother. I can push down very hard. Yeah. Everything here feels much smoother. I don't feel like I'm indenting the paper.
It's just a very, very smooth gradation. So, um I would tend to use a two B for general sketching and uh for medium shadows. This right here is about the same amount of pressure that I was using with the two H and you can definitely see the difference between the two, how much darker this is than this. And it's essentially the same amount of pressure that I'm using. So a little activity that will help you learn how to control your pencils, how to make them work in unison because you don't just make a picture with one pencil.
You, you absolutely can. Uh But we have all of these for a reason. Some pencils are much better going lighter, some are much better at going darker. Uh The first thing that I would do would be to make just a box, nothing too large, maybe six or seven inches. It could even be smaller than that.
And I would start with your darkest pencil in this case, I have a six B pencil. So that is the darkest one that we've talked about so far. So you'll notice that there is a difference in the thickness of the tip as well or this core of the pencil, the softer ones are much wider or much thicker and the harder ones are quite a bit thinner and have a, a tighter point and they will keep that point longer. But essentially, I'm gonna go through, I'll probably pick about five or six pencils and uh try to create a gradation from dark to light. See where we go.
I am going to push down as hard as I can. It doesn't need to be super clean. This is just you learning how this pencil works. That's about as light as I'm going to be able to get that six B. So it's pretty nice.
I'm gonna jump down to, let's say A three B now A three B. It can go this dark, which is, which is nice. But if I started with this dark pencil with this dark pencil mark here, it would feel kind of out of place. It's, it's just too dark. I need to start a little bit lighter.
So I'm actually going to start further back into the six B and then start to pull the three B out and you'll notice that I'm doing this back and forth motion so that everything starts to blend together. So I might want to go a little bit harder for the next one and use an HP I know how dark I can get. But again, I can't use its full power right here where it just doesn't look right. So I will hold my pencil back a little bit further and I will start in this gray tone area. You can always go into a darker area with a lighter pencil.
If you feel like your light area isn't light enough, you can always use an eraser. And here I am using the tip of the pencil. Some people like to use the very uh the very edge of the pencil core that is uh that is exposed. But um but in this case, most people think about using a pencil, just the tip. So I'm just thinking about using the tip of the pencil.
One thing you will notice about these pencils is that the quality, the quality of the lines change. I'll talk a little bit more about that as I go on, I'm going to jump to the three H. Now that's going to be my lightest pencil I'll use on here, let's say, but you'll notice that this area of the drawing or of the gradation is a little more speck, there are little white specks that are popping up and that's just the texture of the paper. And then down here you're seeing more lines, more, more single stroke lines. Um That is because of how soft the pencil is here as opposed to how hard the pencil cores go over here and it's very gently trying to smooth things out a little bit.
So I wanted to go from as dark as I could go to about the white of the paper. And this is an excellent exercise to use for your set of pencils. Whether it's three pencils, six pencils, 12 pencils, it doesn't matter. It's, it's, it's a great exercise to use. I also love to use them.
If let's say I wanna work vertically, I can go from dark to light or you could also create um different shapes and try to go from dark to light or you could go from dark to light back to dark again. It's totally up to you. Um just try to make it fun. Um practicing with pencils. Uh It can be very therapeutic.
You can um lose, lose a bit of time uh when doing that. And sometimes, you know, we just want to get lost in our art. So thank you for joining me for this video about um pencils and what the different uh numbers and letters of the pencils mean and what they can do for you.
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