Prismacolor Ebony 14420

[LindasPencils]

While lurking around my local factory outlet art store, Rossdale's, I found a graphite pencil I haven't used before, the Prismacolor Ebony 14420. A few test scribbles and I was hooked.
This pencil is a very intense dark, somewhere around a 6 or 8 B. But the lead is not grainy or crunchy, but smooth and velvet like. It has a thicker core so it can structurally handle sharpening to a fine point to create sharp black details. While testing it out I found you can create a full tonal range from light to dark by adjusting the pressure and layers as you draw. One thing I did find you need to be careful of is putting too much pressure on the strokes as this can cause graphite shine fast.
Currently I am running a class focusing on tonal values - trying to reduce the amount of outlining and filling in and only working in building up blocks of tone values. Our next subject is to take a common object, in this case a red capsicum, and draw it from three different angles in three different tonal techniques trying different types of paper. Here are the results, using only a paper stump, kneadable eraser and the Prismacolor Ebony 14420 pencil.

Angle1 CapsM.jpg

Capsicum, Angle #1: Approximately 1 hour drawing time, creating soft, smooth tonal graduations with the pencil and a little bit of paper stump blending in the initial layer. Paper is A4 Art Spectrum Toned White paper, 250gsm

Angle2 CapsM.jpg

Capsicum, Angle #2: Approximately 45 minutes drawing time, creating tone by using primarily hatching technique with some soft fills. Drawn in A4 Windsor Newton Visual diary, 210gsm.

Angle3 CapsM.jpg

Capsicum, Angle #3: Approximately 1 hour, creating tone with abstracted, tonal blocks - using 4 tonal values only, smoothing with the paper stump and blending on top with more pencil, plus paper white. Paper is A4, Art Spectrum Watercolor pad, 300gsm.

As you see, you can achieve a wide tonal range with this single pencil. That makes it a great travelling companion! But also, the dark intensity you can achieve with it means it is fabulous for negative drawing of the darks - I cannot wait to try it out on some of Mike's negative drawing exercises. Different paper grains also create interesting textures. The pencil is not overly expensive, around $3AUS in most art shops - but I got mine for a mere $1 at Rossdale!
So for those of you looking for an intense dark without resorting to charcoal, seek this pencil out and give it a try.

[PogArtTi]

Thank you very much for sharing your first experience with this pencil Linda, and for photos shared.
It's very knowledgeable lesson.
Thank you.