I get so excited when I try a new supply and it turns out to be AMAZING. This was the case with the Faber-Castell 9000 Graphite pencil set. While these have been around for a while I for some reason never thought to try them out.
These pencils sharpen to a very fine point and it seems like they hold that point longer than other graphite pencils I’ve used in the past. This made getting fine detail quite easy. This also meant that the graphite really got into all of the crevices of the paper better than pencils I’ve used in the past. Why is that important? When the graphite isn’t getting into all the little nooks and crannies of the paper, little bits of white from the paper show through giving your work a more gritty feel. This is fine if that is the look you’re going for, but with these pencils I felt I had more control in avoiding that.
At no point did I find any of those hard scratchy bits within the lead. That is a pretty big deal when working in graphite. Those scratchy bits can mess up your paper pretty badly. Not once was it a problem with these.
My favorite part about this set was the 8b lead. WOW was that a dark pencil!! I did build up with lighter (harder) pencils, like the 2h or h before I went to the darker b leads to create the super dark areas on the piece. This is one of the darkest leads I’ve ever used.
These are currently my absolute favorite graphite pencil. I will be testing out the Caran d’Ache Grafwood pencils in the next few weeks, but I can tell you right now that the 9b grafwood isn’t quite as dark as the 8b Faber-Castell.
A full set of these will run you around $14 on Amazon. All of the supplies I used are listed below (amazon affiliate links)
Faber-Castell 9000 pencil set http://goo.gl/MXZsV0
Tombow Mono Eraser http://goo.gl/Jr58zj
Stonehenge http://goo.gl/ZO79A5
brush http://goo.gl/xcPMiG
blending stump http://goo.gl/qIhNkk
black masking tape http://goo.gl/nieYaj
Value Finder: http://goo.gl/zFxTjW
Reference photo from http://Wildlifereferencephotos.com
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