Pesky pencil lines

This graphite pencil hack will save you so much time!

I shared this on my Instagram a couple of weeks ago, as I had a few other artists and illustrators ask me what I was using to draw after seeing a reel I posted. The reel in question was of me creating a snake drawing to celebrate Chinese New Year. You can view it here if you like.

I created a dark green background, and to draw onto it, I didn’t use a graphite pencil!

Yes you read that correctly…I did NOT use a graphite pencil!

Instead, I use one of my Caran d’Ache Supracolor pencils, and this is why it is such a game changer when you are drawing!

Have you ever been frustrated that your graphite pencil lines are showing through, even when you’re using a light pencil? Or rubbing them out causes your paper to crease, or leaves weird marks? The weird mark thing might be exclusive to me, I never ‘clean’ my rubbers and they always seem to become so dirty with the darkest and smudgiest of materials!

I can solve that! No more pencil lines peeking through for you.

Unless I am drawing entirely - or almost entirely - in graphite pencil, I don’t draw or sketch using it.

I got fed up of having to rub it out all the time, and it was an arm workout I didn’t sign up for thank you very much. Making sure the rubber I was using was clean was also just an extra admin step, and also trying not to crease the paper I was using. That always seems to happen to me on commissioned pieces or really important drawings…why?!

Instead, I started using my Caran d'Ache Supracolor 2 colour pencils to draw for the simple reason that they are water soluble. So when I start adding inks, gouache or water based markers to my drawings, the lines essentially disappear.

No rubbing out, no covering up graphite lines, even the very feint ones.

I tend to use the following colours:

Ash Grey - 401

Light Beige - 402

Cream - 491

Granite Rose - 493

Light Ochre - 032

Other colours are of course available - there are so many lovely ones - but these are the ones I use most often.

You could of course draw using a colour that is exactly the same, or a very similar match to an ink, watercolour or gouache colour you are going to use over the top. That would make it even more seamless!

This graphite pencil hack will save you so much time! It sounds like such an obvious thing, but I only realised I could do it about 2 years ago, and I’ve been an Illustrator for over 10! But better late than never eh?

Let me know if you have tried this too, or if you have found another way to get round all the endless rubbing out!

Until next time,