Ok, so I have down the very basics of pencils, varying degrees of hardness etc. My question is this: Is a layout pencil and an HB the same thing? My new drawing pencils came (yeah no more dollar store #2's!) and in them is a layout pencil I am just curious!

Thanks in advance!
Sam

A layout pencil is actually a very dark, fairly soft pencil, roughly similar in effect to a 6B or 8B. It's not only soft, but the graphite is ground super-fine, so that the marks look very black. Usually they have very fat (3 or 4mm) leads. It is quite dissimilar to a standard #2 pencil, which is HB hardness and has a roughly 1mm lead.

Some people really like them. I've done a few drawings using nothing but a General's Ebony Layout Pencil and had really good results. My fellow moderator Venus also likes them.

I think your layout pencil should be very soft and make dark lines equivalent to 6B. You can compare it to the numbered pencils to make sure just how dark it is.

That makes sense, I started playing with it right after I posted and figured out it was in no way close to HB...but now I have an idea to its equivalent. Thanks for the answers!