Mechanical Pencils and Lead Holders

Mechanical Pencils and Lead Holders

 

 

The main problems of the pencil is that it has a very light weight and it's size changes with use and also it needs to be sharpen frequently.

 

So mechanical pencils came to the rescue. They are made of plastic or metal, or a mix of the two, and they hold an internal lead of graphite. They don't shrink with use and remains the same size and weight so the artist can get used to work with it. And sharpening it only involves sharpening the lead and not the case.

The differences between mechanical pencils and lead holders is that the mechanical-pencil lead can be advanced in steps and will not drop out, and don't need to be sharpened. The lead holders have a mechanism to hold the lead in place and the lead have to be sharpened.

Generally the mechanical pencils use leads from 0.9mm to 0.3mm size, and the lead holders goes from 2mm to 5.6mm lead sizes.

The main problem of the mechanical pencil is that the lead breaks easily, even if reinforced with a polymer as some manufacturers do. They are good for detail work, being the lead holders more suitable to other kind of work, like laying value on a area or general sketching, but it is the artist who must decide how they fit in their own workflow.

 Enjoy Drawing