Ebony black pencils

Jimmie Arroyo · 01-11-2004, 11:56 AM

Hi, I tried a search on this and only one thing popped up, so I apologize if it's been discussed before. My main medium is pencils, and the darkest pencil I have right now is a 9B. I like it but handling the 'shine' is a process. I've heard of ebony black and some other pencil made by General that is supposed to be 'black' without so much shine. Are these pencils in fact charcoal pencils or do they have the same lead in regular pencils. Pearl Paints near my house doesn't carry ebony black or the General brand so I can't test it for myself, but may have to find online. Anyone with experience using it, advice on advantages/disadvantages would be very appreciated. Thank you.

Julie Deane · 01-12-2004, 11:03 AM

Hi-

I think I have an ebony black pencil or two hanging around the house, and if my memory serves me correctly, it's more the consistency of a colored pencil. Hard to get real good darks from it without a waxy sort of shine.

Minh Thong · 01-12-2004, 12:55 PM

I've been struggling to produce a range of nine values in pencil. For the darkest values I tried General Ebony pencils, Cretacolor Negro pencils, Wolf Carbon, and a couple other things ... no luck. Everything I tried was still too light or so shiney it appeared too light.

I finally gave up and put a Faber Black Pastel Pencil in the set. Works like a charm.

Minh

BTW Jimmie ... I love your work!

01-12-2004, 01:08 PM

None of the graphite blacks are really black. I think you don't really suffer - by using as full a value range as possible, I think your work is not missing a deep black.

I just tried an Ebony, and it's not quite as dark as my Monolith 9B. Both are shiny. The Ebony seems to handle the same as the Monolith and feels like graphite.

If you want blacks, I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and go with charcoal. Vine charcoal of course is lighter and easy to brush out as a first step. The true charcoals have great blacks. General makes charcoal pencils that are graded for hardness and easy to use. Of course you'll have to develop that block-sanding habit to keep a point but it'd be worth it. The General charcoal white, btw, is my favorite, for use with graphite too.

I think your work would look great in charcoal, and I think the market for charcoal v. pencil might be better. It's unfair, I understand, but true.

Jimmie Arroyo · 01-12-2004, 02:33 PM

Thanks for responding so quickly.

I just received the Monolith 9B recently, had been using Derwent's 9B, but I prefer the woodless pencils. Sounds like no one likes the ebony, so I won't bother. I want to do charcoals, partially because of the market, but I've tried them and I'm horrible at them. I might be taking a life class Saturday mornings if my wife can take our daughter to her tennis lessons, so I'll take advantage of practicing charcoals then.

Thanks again.

Wayne McMichael · 02-05-2004, 07:44 PM

I've used Ebony pencils since the 70's. If I were to do a pencil drawing, I would definitely use an Ebony pencil. I buy them by the case now. I sketch on my water colors and it erases easily afterwards. Ebony rocks. If you haven't tried them, you should. I get mine from the office supply and they read : Eberhard Faber DESIGN EBONY JET BLACK EXTRA SMOOTH 6325

Minh Thong · 02-06-2004, 10:16 AM

A question ...

I absolutely LOVE using woodless pencils, and would use them exclusively (for graphite work) if I could find a set that didn't have hard spots. I like the kinds of products Creatacolor offers, but I have had problems with (often severe) hard places in their charcoal pencils, their Nero/Negro pencils, and now in their Monolith woodless pencils. Does any other manufacturer make a set of woodless pencils?

Still hopeful ...

Minh

Jimmie Arroyo · 02-06-2004, 03:51 PM

Wayne, thanks for the input. I guess trying one out is'nt going to kill me. (my blood is on your hands if it does!!!)

I did pick up some Wolf(sp?) carbon pencil, but have yet to try them.

Koh-i-noor has a woodless set called Progresso, but I think it only comes in even # B's.

Wayne McMichael · 02-06-2004, 04:00 PM

They may not do exactly what you are needing, but you will like them, they are smoooooth.

Minh Thong · 02-06-2004, 05:12 PM

Thanks for the info, Jimmie.

I went out at lunch and found the Koh-i-nor Progresso woodless set at Michael's. Since I never use a full range anyway, but rather use only even or odd numbered pencils to get a full nine values, the set make-up was perfect. I've already tried a couple quick sketches with them and they're working pretty well, so far. No hard spots yet ... kind of smooth and creamy ... I owe you!

Update 2/9 - Over the weekend I found the Faber woodless pencils, and since I dearly LOVE Faber's graphite, pastel, and charcoal pencils I bought a set of HB-3B-6B-9B. I am as impressed by these guys as I have been by everything else Faber makes. They're large and smooth and not a hard spot or gritty area in a whole weekend of breaking them in.

Minh "Faber Fan" Thong