Top Tip. 

To all amateur artists out there who use a pencil I say ‘Make it sharp and keep it sharp’. 

If you use a pencil sharpener for that task then ‘dump it, lose it or crush it’. 

To sharpen a pencil correctly you need a very sharp knife, some sandpaper a little patience and a steady hand. Aim to expose a lot of wood and a lot of lead then carefully roll the pencil lead on the sandpaper to as sharp a point as possible. If you can’t spear the pencil through the eyes of an enemy it’s not sharp enough. See the picture.

I say pencil but what I mean is pencils, don’t just use one pencil in a drawing, use all the pencils from 7H-7B. The greater the range the greater the potential for mark making. Always think about which pencil and why.

Why Bother?

A blunt pencil drawing screams ‘Amateur’ and  no one wants that!.

The best reasons though are that with a correctly sharpened pencil you have more options available to you when making a mark in response to the subject and you will be forced to think about why that mark is best. 

Holbein kept them sharp, I keep them sharp and you should too.

The End