best mechanical pencil lead for drawing

Best Mechanical Pencil for Drawing & Sketching: The Top 5 Reviews for 2018

Whether you're a professional artist or you sketch as a hobby, you want the best materials, from the highest quality sketchbook to the pencils you use for your artistic creations.

Some artists prefer old school graphite pencils, wooden pencils, and colored pencils and there's nothing wrong with that. For those of you that prefer mechanical pencils for technical drawing, however, you want the best mechanical pencils there are for sketching.

This guide is to help you choose the best mechanical pencils with an eraser for technical drawing and sketching. These pencils are the best tools to bring to your artist table and make the perfect creation on that blank piece of paper.

What to Look for in a Mechanical Pencil for Drawing and Sketching

The gripis one of the first features you should look for in a mechanical pencil. The cheap and plastic pencils out there can cause blisters and callouses from constant use. They are also more likely to break if you draw using hard pressure.
Weightis another important factor in choosing a pencil. A balanced pencil uses less effort to sketch. If the pencil is too light, it can slip out of your hands if you're intensely drawing and a pencil that's too heavy can cause unwanted stress on your hand.
The leadis the biggest feature that should determine which pencil you purchase. There is no set lead thickness for artists. It should always be based on your preference and your project. If you're doing light sketching, you won't need a lead that's too thick. If you're making heavy lines, you're going to want a thicker lead. Some of the best pencils will give you the ability to switch lead sizes as needed.

Top 5 Mechanical Pencils for Drawing & Sketching

Modern Fuel Mechanical Pencil

The Modern Fuel Mechanical Pencil started as a Kickstarter program. This is their second design for an awesome mechanical pencil that will last your entire lifetime. It's a guarantee they promise or they'll fix or replace your pencil for free. Modern Fuel's pencil is the best mechanical pencil out there—by far.

This pencil is perfect for the dedicated artist. It's the perfect pencil, designed for easy use and to last forever. It's 100% metal, instead of cheap breakable plastic. You get to choose between titanium, copper, bronze, and stainless steel. You also get to choose between lead sizes so you can create the pencil to fit you.

Each and every pencil that's made by Modern Fuel is tested. They are tested for perfect weight balance from one end of the mechanical pencil to the other. American machinists that use to make high-quality aircraft parts, make these amazing pencils. And every pencil is made in Austin, Texas of the United States.

Pentel Arts GraphGear 1000 Premium Mechanical Pencil

Pentel is a brand that has been around for over 70 years. They have been dedicated to creating the best writing and drawing utensils around. The company offers recyclable products that are environmentally friendly. They've even won the Deming Award, an award given to companies that go above and beyond high-quality products.

This mechanical pencil is a great asset for artists. It has a dual action retractor that retracts the tip of the lead for protection against breaking the lead. You can change the lead hardness to your preference and the 4mm tip design is perfect if you're using rulers for your sketches. If you buy several pens from their series, they come color-coded so you know which is using what size of lead when you go to draw.

rOtring Rapid PRO Mechanical Pencil

rOtring has been one of the top companies for art products for decades. In 1919, the Bauhaus School of Art and Design decided to make art products based on designs that would benefit the artist, not just cheap production for a profit. This was how rOtring was created.

This pencil has a sliding sleeve for your hand's comfort while you're focused on your sketching. It's all made completely of metal with the perfect weight balance throughout the entire mechanical pencil. It even includes a built-in pencil sharpener under the push button cap.

Morning Glory Flat Lead Mechanical Pencil

Morning Glory is known for their reliability in their products. They produce reliable writing utensils, artist tools, and stationery for their customers. Most of their products contain cute characters for a whimsical touch.

Morning Glory's mechanical pencil stands out from most pencils. These pencils are made in a rectangular shape so it's easy to hold while you're drawing. It draws with a smooth touch and it's made to last. It uses a flat-shaped lead that works wonders with sharp lines.

Sakura 8 Piece Pigma Manga Comic Pro Drawing Set

Sakura is a known and beloved brand by manga and comic artists everywhere. They started as a mere crayon company in 1921 and has evolved into so much more. They create art materials and they even created the first gel-based ink.

This pen set is more than just a mechanical pencil but the high-quality pencil included in the set felt like a good product to include in our list. This pro inking and sketching set. Sakura created Pigma ink over 30 years ago, for the smoothest and realist Pigma for artists.

This set includes 6 different Pigma microns, 1 graphic black pen, plus a .7mm mechanical pencil with a fixed sleeve. This pencil is fantastic for sketching. The fixed sleeve provides comfort while drawing so you don't have to worry about blisters later.

Conclusion

For every artist out there, there's the perfect mechanical pencil for your needs. It doesn't matter whether you design ads, draw comics, sketch portraits, or just sketch for fun, you want a high-quality pencil with all the works.