What are hard pencils for? What types of pencils are there? Graphite pencils "Painting", "Youth", "Color"

New disposable pencil with a wooden frame, the lead must be sharpened (sharpened) before first use. In addition to disposable pencils there are reusable mechanical pencils with replaceable leads in a permanent frame.

Pencilsdiffer in the hardness of the lead, which is usually indicated onpenciland is indicated by the lettersM(or B- from English blackness) - soft andT(or H- from English hardness) - hard. Standard (hard-soft) pencil in addition to combinationsTM And HBdenoted by the letterF(from English fine point). Softness levelpencilsdenoted by a letterM(soft) or 2M, ZMetc. Capital letter beforeMindicates greater softnesspencil. Solid pencilsdenoted by a letterT(solid). 2 T harder than T, ST harder than 2 T, etc.

Unlike Europe and Russia, in the USA a numerical scale is used to indicate hardness.

Hardness scale correspondence table

The hardest Average The softest

Usually they start pencil medium soft - TM or M- and then move on to softer numbers" -2 M And ZM.

Choice pencilsdepends on quality and on the creative task that the artist sets for himself. For example, fast it's easier to make it softpencils, and when working on long time for like half-whatman, you can start with light ones pencils T or TM. On smooth fits better soft pencil , on rougher surfaces it is convenientpencilmedium soft -2 M.

History of pencils

Since the 13th century, artists have used thin paper for painting.silver wire, which was soldered to the handle or stored in a case. This type pencil called « silver pencil » . This tool required a high level , since it is impossible to erase what he has written. His other characteristic feature it was that over time gray, applied silver pencil, turned brown.

There was also "lead pencil" , which left a discreet but clear mark and was often used for preparatory. For , completed silver and lead pencil, characterized by thin . For example, likepencilsused by Dürer.

Also known is the so-called"Italian pencil" , which appeared in the 14th century. It was a rod made of clayey black slate . Then they began to make it from burnt bone powder, fastened with vegetable . This tool made it possible to create intense and rich Interestingly, artists still sometimes use silver, lead anditalian pencilswhen they need to achieve a certain effect.

In the XV-XVI centuries. on parchment or painted with a silver or lead pin ( German Stiff - "base, tool"). A silver stylus is especially good for this purpose. It gives thin and clear and similar to a chisel. These are so dense almost do not wear off. Silver pin, or stylus , many painted Italian artists as well as Northern Renaissance - R. van der Weyden, A. Dürer, H. Hohlbein (Holbein) Junior, J. fan Eyck.

In the era and XVI-XVII centuries artists preferred soft or liquid materials - , , , , . Since the end of the 14th century. began to use lightly burnt clay grayish slate ( "black chalk") or red-brown ("red chalk").

In the 17th century became widespread"Italian pencil" (French region d'Italie). It was made from burnt bones , crushed into powder, with the addition of vegetable . " Italian pencil" (later -retouch) is capable of creating juicy black matte , and when rubbing - a wide scale transitions. This material was a favorite in creativity Venetian artists, for example Titian, it is convenient for them to make preparatory To . And " Italian pencil"the artists painted - and romance of the late XVIII-XIX centuries.

known since the 16th century. First description pencilwas found in the 1564 writings on minerals of the Swiss naturalist Konrad Geisler. The discovery of the deposit dates back to the same time. in England, in Cumberland where sawed into pencil leads. English shepherds from the Cumberland area found a dark mass in the ground, which they used to mark their sheep. Because of, similar to lead, the deposit was mistaken for deposits of this metal. But, having determined the unsuitability of the new material for making bullets, they began to produce thin sticks pointed at the end from it and used them for drawing. These sticks were soft, stained your hands, and were only suitable for drawing, not writing.

In the 17th century usually sold on the streets. To make it more convenient and the stick not to be so soft, artists clamped these « pencils "between pieces of wood or twigs, wrapped inpaper or tied them with twine.

The first document to mention woodenpencil, dated 1683. Production in Germany pencilsstarted in Nuremberg. Germans mixing with sulfur and , we received a different rod high quality, but at a lower price. To hide this, manufacturerspencilsresorted to various tricks. In wooden casepencilat the beginning and at the end pieces of clean , in the middle there was a low-quality artificial rod. Sometimes the insidepenciland was completely empty. The so-called "Nuremberg product"did not have a good reputation.

It was not until 1761 that Caspar Faber developed a method of strengthening by mixing ground powder with resin and antimony, resulting in a thick mass suitable for casting more durable and uniform rods.

At the end of the XVIII century, the Czech I. Hartmut began making pencil leads from a mixture and clay followed by firing. Appeared rods reminiscent of modern ones. By varying the amount of clay added, it was possible to obtain rods of varying hardness.

Modern pencil invented in 1794 by the talented French scientist and inventor Nicolas Jacques Conte.

At the end of the 18th century, the English Parliament introduced a strict ban on the export of precious from Cumberland. For violating this prohibition, the punishment was very severe, including the death penalty. But despite this continued to be smuggled into continental Europe, which led to a sharp increase in its price.

On instructions from the French Convention, Conte developed a mixing recipe with clay and producing high-quality rods from these materials. By processing at high temperatures, high strength was achieved, but even more important was the fact that changing the proportion of the mixture made it possible to make rods of different hardness, which served as the basis modern classification pencils by hardness.

It is estimated that pencilwith a rod 18 cm long you can carry out 55 km or write 45,000 words!

Modern leads use polymers, which make it possible to achieve the desired combination of strength and elasticity, making it possible to produce very thin leads for mechanical pencils(up to 0.3 mm).

Hexagonal body shape pencil suggested in late XIX century, Count Lothar von Fabercastle, noting that pencils round cross-section are often rolled off inclined writing surfaces.

Almost ²/ 3 material constituting a simplepencil, goes to waste when sharpening it. This prompted the American Alonso Townsend Cross to create in 1869metal pencil. the rod was placed in a metal tube and could be extended to the appropriate length as needed.

This invention influenced the development of a whole group of products that are used everywhere today. The simplest design is mechanical pencil with a 2 mm lead, where the rod is held by metal clamps ( collets) - collet pencil. The collets open when you press the button on the end pencil, resulting in extension to a user-adjustable length pencil.

Modern mechanical pencilsmore perfect. Each time you press the button, a small section of lead is automatically fed. Suchpencilsno need to sharpen, they are equipped with a built-in (usually under the lead feed button) eraser and have different fixed thickness (0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1mm).

pencil have a grayish with a slight shine, they do not have intense blackness.

Famous French Emmanuel Poiret (1858-1909 ), born in Russia, came up with an aristocratic-sounding French-style pseudonymCaran d'Ache , with which he began to sign his works. Later, this version of the French transcription of the Russian word"pencil" was chosen as the name and logo of the Swiss brandCARAN d'ACHE , based in Geneva pencilssharpened with fine-grained sandpaper), reminiscent italian pencil . Pencil « Retouch"There are four numbers: No. 1 - very soft, No. 2 - soft, No. 3 - medium-hard, No. 4 - hard. Rodspencil « Retouch» are made from finely ground birch charcoal, clay and a small amount of carbon black.Pencils « Retouch» give an intense, bold black feature , which shades well. , made in pencil "Retouch", may not be secured with a fixative. In addition to the black pencil "Retouch", another pencil is being produced "Painting» with marking 2 M- 4 M.

Pencil "Blueprint"

Except , in quality . Gives a blacker and more contrasting stroke, better perceived by various photocopiers. , produced for marking on wood, as well as"Carpentry". For this work " Carpentry» pencil Convenient due to its length and thick lead.

Italian pencil

Italian pencilis one of the types of freestyle pencils. Distinctive feature its a deep matte velvety black , easy to shade .

Italian pencilused when performing, and also naked human body.
Italian pencilsknown since the 15th century. They come in hard, medium and soft.

WHAT A PENCIL CAN DO

graphic artist Stanislav Mikhailovich NIKIREEV

If we turn to painters, graphic artists, monumentalists and even sculptors with this question, then everyone would find in an ordinary pencil, in its artistic and technical capabilities, something they love, and we would not hear a definite answer. But that's probably allwithThey say that the pencil was not invented in vain, and drawing begins with its help - in the form of sketches and sketches. A great many works of art were created pencil.

Pencildraw. But what isdrawing ? This question is not easy to answer briefly. Every significant artist makes his contribution to the art of drawing, although there is a general opinion about drawing as the basis, the backbone of fine art. I remember the words of the wonderful Soviet artist and teacher, academician E. A. Kibrik, with whom I was lucky enough to study. He said:

“It took more than a decade before I understood what drawing was.”

He had in mind the drawing of the highest, most difficult in its artistic style, realistic art, where line and stroke build objects, figures, landscapes in a volumetric, weighty, characteristic manner.

Quite often I had to spend a long time working with pencils, plain and colored, and now I need to remember ( because it's mine creative path already at the age of three decades), what did I draw for them and how.

Draw with a pencil with complete seriousness, giving this activity most of creative time is not easy. It is necessary to overcome the temptation of paints and colors and feel confident that you can express, along with clear constructiveness, a tonal and picturesque mood in a silver or black image. To decide on this means to win, the first, significant one. The second victory of extreme importance is when you are able to understand that an artist can create masterpieces not only with paints, but also with a pencil. Magnificent drawings will help you with this with the clearest clarity.

In the artist’s work, the pencil performs a great deal of auxiliary work, allowing one to make sketches, sketches, and quick sketches, which serve as a preparatory stage for works of easel and monumental painting, and prints. The work is responsible and extremely necessary. The maximum value of the qualities of a pencil is manifested in independent drawings, when the artist needs to express his ideas more fully and definitively. And the pencil will not let you down with its endless scale of elusive shades, delicate shadings and richly velvety spots, from the thinnest cobwebs to decisively tense, elastic lines. If we add to this the varying softness and degree of gray-black gradations, then the pencil’s abilities surpass any otherart material .

When working with pencils, I never feel annoyed that at some point they may be powerless to express my desires and intentions. Using a simple pencil, I studied casts, still lifes, portraits and figures of sitters during long sessions, diligently shaded and carefully worked out the details. But with a special desire I paint landscapes - grass, flowers, trees, earth, buildings. At the same time, I study not only their design, materiality,invoice , but I strive to convey different “moods” on paperlandscape .

The pencil is light and easy to make corrections, which is especially important when working in wildlife, and is almost indispensable on trips where you meet a lot of interesting moments, which I would like to capture, while it is impossible to use other artistic materials due to limited time.Line Andspot , which the pencil provides, help to easily and quickly record exciting moments and necessary details in the artist’s travel album.

It is difficult to imagine the life around us, so to speak, in black and white, without color. It turned out that I parted with watercolors and oils a long time ago, devoting all my time and energy to graphics, but I acquired a reliable assistant -colored pencil, which fully satisfies my needs to work in color. The opinion has become stronger that colored pencil is poor and limited in color range. Is it worth demanding, however, from him complexity and wealth?oil painting ? But we must strive to use its capabilities to the fullest.

Sometimes drawing comes down to either imitating children's drawings, or admiring mannerisms: the sweep of a stroke, line, spot, pure
formal compositional solutions. Many professional artists sometimes paint as if on a break, while taking a break from painting or other activities. Hence the frivolous approach to pencil, the lightweight drawings that you often see at exhibitions.

When I first tried to work seriously with a colored pencil, as a student, I admired the unusual elasticity and texture of the lines and strokes.

I wanted to see the motif in sweeping and sometimes random lines and in no case allow shading. The paper breathed and the lines were really beautiful. But if the goals of art were reduced to solving such problems, then artists would, as they say, be a dime a dozen. Thinking about what I draw and why made me look at working with a pencil differently. Gradually, a different charm began to be revealed, other virtues, less flashy, but noble and necessary for the expression of ideas. The amazing ability of the pencil to convey the smallest objects and details with extraordinary clarity of form was revealed, while simultaneously enveloping these forms with the finest fluffiness of a stroke or coloring them with a rich, sonorous spot. This technique corresponded to my understanding of the world, and I could not achieve this in other artistic materials. It turned out that the color possibilities of a pencil are much wider and deeper when you try to convey the mood and state of a landscape. At the same time, a purely pictorial technique is used - scraping, when it is not possible to immediately guess the color, texture, and tone of objects. It would seem that the drawing is dry, in places it is careless due to scraping, but the completeness of the sheet, dictated by the content, and not by formal aspects, acquires true meaning and beauty.

In such work, many times he went so far from drawing with strokes and lines into purely shading spots that the sheet took on the appearance that artists casually call “oilcloth.” But if this technique is warmed by great, genuine love and passion for what was shaded so imperceptibly under the “oilcloth”, then, I assure you, the success of this discreet sheet is guaranteed with a greater guarantee than a “tasty” solution. This revealed the ability of a colored pencil to work in multiple sessions, starting a drawing easily and bringing it to a meaningful conclusion.

With each drawing I learn about new possibilities of the pencil. You just need to look carefully and sensitively at the small stylus in a wooden frame, and it will give you great joy and success.

I love a pencil because you can draw with it. I love him jealously, because he is capable of much more - drawing, writing. I love it for its amazing accessibility and simplicity, because I drew my first work from life with a simple pencil, and then the dream of becoming an artist arose in me.

Simple pencils, differences. What is a pencil? This is a kind of instrument that looks like a rod made of writing material (charcoal, graphite, dry paint, etc.). This tool is widely used in writing, drawing and drawing. As a rule, the writing rod is inserted into a comfortable frame. pencils can be colored or “simple”. It’s these “simple” pencils that we’ll talk about today, or rather, what types of graphite pencils exist. The very first object vaguely resembling a pencil was invented in the 13th century. It was a thin silver wire soldered to the handle. This “silver pencil” was stored in a special case. To draw with such a pencil required remarkable skill and skill, because it was impossible to erase what was written. In addition to the “silver pencil”, there was also a “lead” one - it was used for sketches. Around the 14th century, the “Italian pencil” appeared: a rod made of clayey black slate. Later, the rod began to be made from burnt bone powder mixed with vegetable glue. This pencil gave a clear and richly colored line. By the way, writing instruments of this kind are still used by some artists to achieve a certain effect. Graphite pencils became known in the 16th century. Their appearance is very interesting: in the Cumberland area, English shepherds found a certain dark mass in the ground, with which they began to mark their sheep. Since the color of the mass was similar to lead, it was mistaken for metal deposits, but later they began to make thin sharp sticks from it, which were used for drawing. The sticks were soft and often broke, and they also got your hands dirty, so it was necessary to place them in some kind of case. They began to clamp the rod between wooden sticks or pieces of wood, wrap them in thick paper, and tie them with twine. As for the graphite pencil that we are used to seeing today, Nicola Jacques Conte is considered its inventor. Conte became the author of the recipe, when graphite was mixed with clay and subjected to high temperature treatment - as a result, the rod was strong and, in addition, this technology made it possible to regulate the hardness of graphite.

Lead hardness The hardness of the lead is indicated on the pencil in letters and numbers. Manufacturers from different countries (Europe, USA and Russia) mark the hardness of pencils differently. Designation of hardness In Russia, the hardness scale looks like this: M - soft; T - hard; TM - hard-soft; The European scale is somewhat wider (marking F does not have a Russian correspondence): B - soft, from blackness (blackness); H - hard, from hardness (hardness); F is the middle tone between HB and H (from the English fine point - subtlety) HB - hard-soft (Hardness Blackness - hardness-blackness); In the USA, a number scale is used to indicate the hardness of a pencil: - corresponds to B - soft; - corresponds to HB - hard-soft; ½ - corresponds to F - average between hard-soft and hard; - corresponds to H - hard; - corresponds to 2H - very hard. Pencil is different from pencil. Depending on the manufacturer, the tone of the line drawn with a pencil of the same marking may differ. In Russian and European pencil markings, the number before the letter indicates the degree of softness or hardness. For example, 2B is twice as soft as B, and 2H is twice as hard as H. On sale you can find pencils marked from 9H (hardest) to 9B (softest). Hard pencils start from H to 9H. H is a hard pencil, hence the thin, light, “dry” lines. Use a hard pencil to draw solid objects with a clear outline (stone, metal). With such a hard pencil, thin lines are drawn over the finished drawing, on top of the shaded or shaded fragments, for example, strands in the hair. The line drawn with a soft pencil has a slightly loose outline. A soft stylus will allow you to reliably draw representatives of the fauna - birds, hares, cats, dogs. If you need to choose between a hard or soft pencil, artists take a pencil with a soft lead. An image drawn with such a pencil can be easily shaded with a piece of thin paper, a finger or an eraser. If necessary, you can finely sharpen the graphite lead of a soft pencil and draw a thin line similar to the line from a hard pencil. Hatching and drawing Strokes on paper are drawn with a pencil inclined at an angle of about 45° to the plane of the sheet. To make the line thicker, you can rotate the pencil around its axis. Light areas are shaded with a hard pencil. Dark areas are correspondingly soft. It is inconvenient to shade with a very soft pencil, since the lead quickly becomes dull and the fineness of the line is lost. The solution is to either sharpen the point very often, or use a harder pencil. When drawing, gradually move from light areas to dark ones, since it is much easier to darken part of the drawing with a pencil than to make a dark place lighter. Please note that the pencil must be sharpened not with a simple sharpener, but with a knife. The lead should be 5-7mm long, which allows you to tilt the pencil and achieve the desired effect. Graphite pencil lead is a fragile material. Despite the protection of the wooden shell, the pencil requires careful handling. When dropped, the lead inside the pencil breaks into pieces and then crumbles when sharpened, making the pencil unusable. Nuances that you should know when working with pencils For shading, you should use a hard pencil at the very beginning. Those. the driest lines are obtained with a hard pencil. Draws with a soft pencil finished drawing, to give it richness and expressiveness. A soft pencil leaves dark lines. The more you tilt the pencil, the wider its mark will be. However, with the advent of pencils with thick leads, this need disappears. If you don't know what the final drawing will look like, it is recommended to start with a hard pencil. With a hard pencil you can gradually type the right tone. At the very beginning, I myself made the same mistake: I used a pencil that was too soft, which made the drawing turn out dark and incomprehensible. Pencil frames Of course, the classic option is a lead in a wooden frame. But now there are also plastic, lacquered and even paper frames. The lead of these pencils is thick. On the one hand, this is good, but on the other hand, such pencils are easy to break if you put them in your pocket or accidentally drop them. Although there are special pencil cases for carrying pencils (for example, I have a set of KOH-I-NOOR Progresso black graphite pencils - good, solid packaging, like a pencil case).

IN everyday life and work, each of us, to one degree or another, needs pencils. For people of such professions as artists, designers and draftsmen, the hardness of a pencil is important.

The history of pencils

In the 13th century, the first prototypes of pencils appeared, made of silver or lead. It was impossible to erase what they had written or drawn. In the 14th century, they began to use a rod made of black shale, which was called the “Italian pencil”.

In the 16th century, in the English town of Cumberland, shepherds accidentally stumbled upon a deposit of a material that looked very similar to lead. They couldn’t get bullets or shells out of it, but they were great at drawing and marking sheep. They began to make thin rods from graphite, sharpened at the end, which were not suitable for writing and became very dirty.

Somewhat later, one of the artists noticed that drawing with graphite sticks fixed in wood is much more convenient. This is how the body of simple slate pencils appeared. Of course, at that time no one had thought about the hardness of a pencil.

Modern pencils

The form in which pencils are known to us today was invented at the end of the 18th century by the French scientist Nicolas Jacques Conte. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Several important changes were made to the design of pencils.

Thus, Count Lothar von Fabercastle changed the shape of the pencil body from round to hexagonal. This made it possible to reduce the rolling of pencils from various inclined surfaces used for writing.

And the American inventor Alonso Townsend Cross, thinking about reducing the amount of material consumed, made a pencil with a metal body and a graphite rod that could be extended to the required length.

Why is hardness so important?

Any person who has drawn or sketched something at least a couple of times will say that pencils can leave strokes and lines that differ in color saturation and thickness. Similar characteristics are important for engineering specialties, because first any drawing is made with hard pencils, for example T2, and then final stage- softer, marked M-2M, to increase the clarity of the lines.

Pencil hardness is no less important for both professional and amateur artists. Pencils with soft leads are used to create sketches and outlines, and harder ones are used to finalize the work.

What types of pencils are there?

All pencils can be divided into two large groups: simple and colored.

A simple pencil has this name because it is structurally very simple, and it writes with the most ordinary graphite lead, without any additives. All other types of pencils have a more complex structure and the mandatory introduction of various dyes into the composition.

There are quite a few types, the most common are:

• ordinary colored ones, which can be either single-sided or double-sided;
• wax;
• coal;
• watercolor;
• pastel.

Classification of simple graphite pencils

As already mentioned, simple pencils have a graphite lead. An indicator such as the hardness of a pencil lead is the basis for their classification.

IN different countries Various markings have been adopted to indicate the hardness of pencils, of which the most widely used are European, Russian and American.

Russian and European markings of black lead pencils, as simple pencils are also called, differ from American ones in the presence of both letter and digital designations.

To indicate the hardness of a pencil in the Russian marking system, it is accepted that: T - hard, M - soft, TM - medium. To clarify the degree of softness or hardness, numerical values ​​are introduced next to the letter ones.

IN European countries hardness simple pencils also denoted by letters taken from words describing hardness. So, for soft pencils the letter “B” is used from the word blackness (blackness), and for hard pencils the letter “H” is used from the English word hardness (hardness). In addition, there is also a marking F, coming from the English fine point (subtlety) and indicating the average type of pencil. It is the European system of marking hardness with letters that is considered the world standard and is the most widespread.

And in the American system, which determines the hardness of pencils, the designation is carried out only in numbers. Where 1 is soft, 2 is medium, and 3 is hard.
If there is no marking on the pencil, then by default it is of the hard-soft (TM, HB) type.

What does hardness depend on?

Today, graphite is also used to make graphite pencil lead. The hardness of the pencil depends on the proportions of these substances mixed at the initial stages of production. The more white kaolin clay is added, the harder the pencil turns out. If the amount of graphite is increased, the lead will be softer.
After mixing everything necessary components the resulting mixture is fed into the extruder. It is in it that rods of a given size are formed. Then the graphite rods are fired in a special furnace, the temperature in which reaches 10,000 0 C. After firing, the rods are immersed in a special oil solution, which creates a surface protective film.

Graphite pencils , which exist to this day, were invented by a French scientist Nicola Conti in 1794. Typically, a graphite pencil is called a “simple” pencil, in contrast to colored pencils. Graphite pencils can be divided into two main types: soft And solid. The type is determined by the softness or hardness of the lead located inside the body of the pencil. The type of pencil can be determined by looking at the letters and numbers written on it. The letter “M” means the pencil is soft, and the “T” means it’s hard. There is also a type of TM - hard-soft. The degree of hardness or softness of a pencil can be determined by the numbers written in front of the letter. For example, 2M is twice as soft as M, and 3T is three times harder than T. In many countries abroad, for example, in England and the USA, the letters H or B are written. H means hard, B - respectively soft, and HB is hard-soft.

A striking example for comparing pencils can be seen in the figure:

The choice of pencil depends on the type of paper, on the work being performed and, also, on the personal preferences of the artist. For example, I prefer HB pencils from Faber Castell. It is more convenient to sharpen pencils with stationery knives. Historically, knives for sharpening stationery (pen) were called “penknives”. It is very important to protect pencils from falling. The impact may cause the lead to break into small pieces. It is also important to protect pencils from excessive moisture. When dampened and then dried, the pencil jacket may become deformed, which will lead to a violation of the integrity of the lead. There is also another type of graphite pencil called a “mechanical pencil”. They are convenient because they do not require sharpening. These pencils have a movable lead. Its length can be adjusted using a button. Mechanical pencils come with very thin leads (from 0.1 mm). There are also mechanical pencils with intermediate lead thicknesses. The thickest mechanical pencil lead I've ever gotten my hands on is 5mm. Professional artists often like to draw with such pencils.

Marking pencils by hardness

Pencils vary in lead hardness, which is usually indicated on the pencil.

In Russia, graphite drawing pencils are produced in several degrees of hardness, which is indicated by letters, as well as numbers in front of the letters.

In the USA, pencils are marked with numbers, and in Europe and Russia with a mnemonic combination of letters or simply with one letter.

The letter M stands for a soft pencil. In Europe, they use the letter B for this, which is actually short for blackness (something like blackness, so to speak). In the USA they use number 1.

To designate a hard pencil, the letter T is used in Russia. In Europe, the corresponding letter is H, which can be deciphered as hardness.

A hard-soft pencil is designated as TM. For Europe it will be HB.

In addition to combinations in Europe, a standard hard-soft pencil can be designated by the letter F.

To navigate these international issues, it is convenient to use the scale hardness correspondence table given below.

History of pencils

Beginning in the 13th century, artists used thin silver wire for drawing, which was soldered to a pen or stored in a case. This type of pencil was called a “silver pencil.” This tool required a high level of skill, since it is impossible to erase what was written with it. Another characteristic feature was that over time, the gray strokes made with a silver pencil turned brown.

There was also a “lead pencil”, which left a discreet but clear mark and was often used for preparatory sketches of portraits. Drawings made with silver and lead pencil are characterized by a fine line style. For example, Durer used similar pencils.

The so-called “Italian pencil”, which appeared in the 14th century, is also known. It was a rod of clayey black shale. Then they began to make it from burnt bone powder, held together with vegetable glue. This tool allowed you to create an intense and rich line. It is interesting that artists even now sometimes use silver, lead and Italian pencils when they need to achieve a certain effect.

Graphite pencils have been known since the 16th century. The first description of a graphite pencil was found in the 1564 writings on minerals of the Swiss naturalist Konrad Geisler. The discovery of a graphite deposit in England, in Cumberland, where graphite was sawn into pencil leads, dates back to the same time. English shepherds from the Cumberland area found a dark mass in the ground, which they used to mark their sheep. Due to its color similar to that of lead, the deposit was mistaken for deposits of this metal. But, having determined the unsuitability of the new material for making bullets, they began to produce thin sticks pointed at the end from it and used them for drawing. These sticks were soft, stained your hands, and were only suitable for drawing, not writing.

In the 17th century, graphite was usually sold on the streets. To make it more convenient and the stick not to be so soft, artists clamped these graphite “pencils” between pieces of wood or twigs, wrapped them in paper or tied them with twine.

The first document to mention wooden pencil, dated 1683. In Germany, the production of graphite pencils began in Nuremberg. The Germans, mixing graphite with sulfur and glue, obtained a rod that was not of such high quality, but at a lower price. To hide this, pencil manufacturers resorted to various tricks. Pieces of pure graphite were inserted into the wooden body of the pencil at the beginning and at the end, and in the middle there was a low-quality artificial rod. Sometimes the inside of the pencil was completely empty. The so-called “Nuremberg product” did not enjoy a good reputation.

It was not until 1761 that Caspar Faber developed a method of strengthening graphite by mixing ground graphite powder with resin and antimony, resulting in a thick mass suitable for casting stronger and more uniform graphite rods.

At the end of the 18th century, the Czech I. Hartmut began making pencil leads from a mixture of graphite and clay, followed by firing. Graphite rods appeared, reminiscent of modern ones. By varying the amount of clay added, it was possible to obtain rods of varying hardness. The modern pencil was invented in 1794 by the talented French scientist and inventor Nicolas Jacques Conte. At the end of the 18th century, the English Parliament introduced a strict ban on the export of precious graphite from Cumberland. For violating this prohibition, the punishment was very severe, including the death penalty. But despite this, graphite continued to be smuggled into continental Europe, which led to a sharp increase in its price.

On instructions from the French Convention, Conte developed a recipe for mixing graphite with clay and producing high-quality rods from these materials. By processing at high temperatures, high strength was achieved, but even more important was the fact that changing the proportion of the mixture made it possible to make rods of different hardness, which served as the basis for the modern classification of pencils by hardness. It is estimated that with a pencil with a lead 18 cm long you can draw a line 55 km or write 45,000 words! Modern leads use polymers, which make it possible to achieve the desired combination of strength and elasticity, making it possible to produce very thin leads for mechanical pencils (up to 0.3 mm).

The hexagonal shape of the pencil body was proposed at the end of the 19th century by Count Lothar von Fabercastle, who noticed that round pencils often rolled off inclined writing surfaces. Almost ²/3 of the material that makes up a simple pencil goes to waste when sharpening it. This prompted the American Alonso Townsend Cross to create a metal pencil in 1869. The graphite rod was placed in a metal tube and could be extended to the appropriate length as needed. This invention influenced the development of a whole group of products that are used everywhere today. The simplest design is a mechanical pencil with a 2 mm lead, where the rod is held by metal clamps (collets) - a collet pencil. The collets open when a button on the end of the pencil is pressed, resulting in extension to a length adjustable by the user of the pencil.

Modern mechanical pencils are more advanced. Each time you press the button, a small section of lead is automatically fed. Such pencils do not need to be sharpened, they are equipped with a built-in eraser (usually under the lead feed button) and have different fixed line thicknesses (0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm, 1 mm).

Drawings graphite pencil They have a grayish tone with a slight shine; they do not have intense blackness. The famous French caricaturist Emmanuel Poiret (1858-1909), born in Russia, came up with an aristocratic-sounding French-style pseudonym, Caran d’Ache, with which he began signing his works. Later, this version of the French transcription of the Russian word “pencil” was chosen as the name and logo of the Swiss trademark CARAN d’ACHE, founded in Geneva in 1924, producing exclusive writing instruments and accessories.

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