Drawing Mediums and Inconsistencies

I want to make a post about the drawing mediums I use, and I want to warn you allll!!!!!
First, I use HB charcoal pencils, vine charcoal, conte crayon, and compressed charcoal shown above in that order from top to bottom.

Vine charcoal is like powdered soot in stick form. The picture below shows what the conte, compressed charcoal, and the HB pencils look like from left to right respectively. I can't really see the difference between conte and compressed, the difference lies in the feel of each. Conte is smoother and waxier, like a crayon, and compressed is dryer, like charcoal.



Here is the warning!

There are many many many inconsistencies with art supplies. Here is the first example. HB charcoal pencils are all different even though they are supposed to be the same. The last two strokes on the paper are from two charcoal pencils, both stating that they are HB Hard. One is still drastically softer and darker than the other.

So watch out!!! Save yourself from some frustration and check the pencil lead before you buy.

I still use both though- the harder one normally for smudging and smoothing the pencil strokes of softer mediums, in a small tight area. I wrap masking tape around the end of one of the HB pencils so that I can tell them apart immediately without having to test it out each time.


There are so many inconsistent art supplies. Why!?!? You can be sure I will make a post about all of them. For now, this is just on drawing supplies. You would think that it would be especially important to have art supplies be consistent and reliable! Ha.