STAEDTLER 100B G6 Mars Lumograph Pencils, Black, Pack of 6

These pencils are exceptional. They are very black, not grey and leave no graphite shine.I do not use these for skin or shading because they don't blend out well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are parts you don't want to smudge, like eyelashes.I use caran d'ache grafwood for my skin as they are very soft and blend out well. Not great for detail though. Then I use Faber-Castell pitt matte pencils for most other parts of a drawing.Using all 3 brands enables me to get the best of them all.

For detailed artwork

Staedtler makes very good product. I was looking for a pencil with very dark lead for hair and other dark shadows in my drawing. Its more like crayon texture than a typical graphite pencil. I rather use polychromos black or Prismacolor black if I needed the same. Some folks might like it. Nevertheless it can be useful in your drawing arsenal.Edit: Finally seeing the results of this pencil its very nice and very black than a normal graphite pencil. I actually love it and I wouldn't have said it😂. Only problem is that it lead breaks quite easily if over sharpen. Make sure you use decent sharpner.

I've just taken up drawing as a hobby (so not a expert or anything!) and having done some internet research wanted to treat myself to some nice new pencils. I want to try hyperrealism, or at least make my drawings look as realistic as possible, so got the 12 set of Faber Castell 9000 - and these so that I can have some really black pencils, and a wider range of values to choose from just as im starting out to see what works for me. First up - the pencils which came in the tin are HB, 2B,4B,6B,7B and 8B,different to the description, but Im happy about that as I didnt want 2 2Bs/4Bs. Ive attached a photo of them tried out against the FC 9000's - you can definitely see a difference. So Im glad I bought these because now I have a much wider range of values to work with as Im just getting into my new hobby. I saw a youtube artist video recommending use of a Faber Castell polychromos black pencil alongside her FC9000's to use for the bits she wanted to be really black. I have a set of FC Classic coloured pencils so tried this out next to them for comparison - its a good idea to use if you only have normal graphite pencils, but I found it to only be about as black (in my untrained eye) as the 6B in this Staedtler Black set, and even that isnt as 'black' as these new pencils, it seems a bit of a warmer black, if that makes sense? So on a positive note, these pencils - all 6-do have blacker values compared to the FC9000's and are worth buying for that reason. On a negative - its only really the 4-8B's that are really what I would have bought if I was buying them individually, because to me, testing them on my cheap paper, the HB, 2B and 4B dont seem much blacker/matter than the FC9000 6,7 & 8Bs (they still contain some graphite I think) - thats why I didnt give 5 stars for value for money, because you can probly buy the 6,7&8B black pencils - the ones that really stand out as being something different to what you get in a normal graphite pencil set - for less than the price of a full box of these. Still glad I bought them though, to experiment with - its always good to have a bigger range of things to work with and try out when youre learning something new. And glad theres no duplicates in the tin like it says on the description.

I'm very happy with these good quality pencils, expect exactly what it says in the description

These arrived today, and I immediately did a quick doodle of a goldfish (as you do) to see what they were like.I love to sketch but have always found it hard to get a deep black with pencil sketches and I don't like the shine of the pencil strokes that show up when the light is on it.These pencils are excellent and great value for money.The harder pencils are very black in colour and you get no shine.A must have for any artist who likes to sketch.

Blacks are black. No shine. Perfect.

The depth of dark tones that can be reached with these pencils need to be studied! I have to add, the kind of darker tones they produce are as close to the ones that people buy charcoal pencils for.