Hello all,

I've visited the local art store (Michaels) several times over the last several weeks and I can't find a Berol Turquoise HB pencil. They simply don't have them. They have everything else from 9B through 8H but no HB.

I was reading in one article that F is the inbetween hardness between H and B. However, most online stores sell H -> F -> HB -> B Berol Turquoise pencil types. So...

Well if F is the intermediate between H and B then what the heck is HB?

Thanks!

F and HB are pretty close to one another. For a company that uses one formulation for H and one for B, HB is going to be more similar to the B formulation, and F to the H formulation.

Why the interest in that particular brand of pencil?

Well I've been reading books and tutorials from about five or six different pencil artists so far.

They are about evenly split between Derwent and Turquoise pencils.

I've tried both kinds in a few drawings and so far I prefer the Turquoise brand. The Derwent seem more crumbly to me. I can control my lines much more easily using the Turquoise brand.

Anyways...urm. I'm supposing the Berol Turquoise and Prismacolor Turquoise are the same right? Apparently the Turquoise line has moved through a succession of companies over the years from what I've read.

Yeah, the Turquoise-branded pencils I own are made by Prismacolor. I personally don't like them, nor do I like the 2mm leads Prismacolor sells under their own name. In general, they're vastly harder than marked -- i.e., HB Prisma graphite would be sold as 4H by other vendors.

I find Derwent to be lovely, rich and dark. Actually the ubiquitous "Kimberly/General's" brand is quite nice too, and inexpensive.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it depends on the paper used more than anything. I think if I start using paper like the kind made for watercolors like some pencil artists do the Derwents may come into their own. Right now, though, I prefer flatter paper and personally like the way the Turquoise pencils work on them. I just can't seem to control the Derwents. They spill graphite everywhere comparatively.

I have only heard of a few people using watercolor paper -- still sounds strange to me, but I've never tried it -- but yes, paper with some "tooth" to it definitely affects how various brands of pencil behave. Both plate and vellum-finish Bristol board, Strathmore 500-series drawing paper, and Rising Stonehenge paper all respond well to the pencils I use.

I use Steaedtler Mars Lumograph with Stratmore 400 series drawing paper and I love the combo I never bought the turquois pencils because of their ugly apperance

I love Grafwood by Caran d'Ache..

these are just so smooth.. like drawing with silk.. Blick carries them..

http://www.penciltalk.org/2008/04/caran-da...wood-775-pencil

I use a mechanical pencil .2 I think ...its hard enought buying my colored pencils let alone if I had to buy special lead pencils lol ...but I can see how different hardness would work better as I have been doing a few graphit portraits and I really have to watch how hard i press .

try dickblick.com they carry the turquoise pencils in almost every hardness. I like them too but because mechanicals work best for me as far as always having a consistant weight I'm going to be investing in a set of the turquoise 2mm soon.