Lead comes in various levels of hardness and softness. Harder lead makes a lighter line, while softer lead leaves a much darker mark. Here's an image of the lead scale which I snagged from Pencils.Com.
The reason I drew the page sketch with a harder lead was because of my initial plan. I was working with the idea that the pencils would need to be erased so, I wanted a lighter line. As a result, I used the 2H lead. I've been going back over the lines today to darken them using an HB. (Own a No. 2 pencil? That's an HB.) I use an HB when I don't plan on inking or erasing the lines.
You can see the difference in this scan. The lighter lines still need to be redone.
While I occasionally use a 2B it's rare. Unfortunately the softer the lead, the easier it is to smudge. I'll be doing all future pages with the HB lead. That way if we decide to go with the clean sketch option the lines will be richer. If we go with the ink option, well, that's what erasers are for.
edit: Here's the finished page darkened with the HB pencil. Personally I like it and am very pleased with the results.
"Every line tells its own story, even the very tentative ones."
-- Gillian Redwood
4 comments:
I knew the basics of lead hardnesses, I just didn't realize there are quite so many!
My sketching is done with a 10-year-old -cheap- mechanical pencil (Pentel) and HB lead on cheap printer paper. (plus a -lot- of eraser!)
Once I'm relatively happy I darken the lines with the same pencil, then use a lap-sized light box and tech pens (0.1 and 0.05) to trace onto card-stock. Coloring is either with colored pencils or via Photoshop after scanning the inks. Lately everything been colored pencil, then scan and upload to Deviant Art. :-)
The number of lead options is impressive. Though I've never seen much use for anything about an 4H. Those are a little too light for me to see easily.
The enhanced clean sketch is like painting with graphite!
@TheFOX: Thanks. :D That's what the clean sketches will look like once finished. Using an HB lead instead of the 2H gives it a richer look. A 2B will give an even darker look, almost like ink. But the fixative I'd need to spray to prevent smudging reeks. :(
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