General's Layout Pencil, Extra Black Graphite, Box of 1 Dozen (555)

I was looking for a very dark lead to use for pupils, and other small areas where needed for portrait drawing. I’m a professional artist, but I’ve been doing my work on the computer for the last 10 years. I recently decided to start drawing the old fashioned way again, and thought I’d check out what’s new as far as what, and how art supplies have changed; only to find the old stanbyes are still around with a few pretty impressive new additions. As far as the dark black pencils: I chose three different brands to compare and purchase based on Amazon reviews. General’s Layout Pencil Extra Black Graphite, Hi-Uni 10B, and Prismacolor Ebony. 1) My favorite: ‘General’s Layout Pencil, Extra Black Graphite’. It is dark, not too soft, but soft enough to shade with, and hard enough to keep a point for those tiny areas I want to give depth to. This is one of the best pencils I’ve found for drawing. It’s smooth, It sharpens perfectly without breaking, and all of the pencils in the box appear to be excellent quality. Of the three I tried General is closer to a mat finish than the other two. I’m very impressed with the quality, texture and color. 2) Hi-Uni 10B: This pencil is velvety, very smooth and even, in fact the entire set is fabulous. It may be as dark as the General, but it does have a shinier finish when pressing to get the darkest shade I’m looking for. 2) Prismacolor Color Ebony: I didn’t care for this pencil for using it to deepen the dark areas I need. It’s dark, but it is lighter than the other two, and it has a silver cast to it, and shiny. I’ve never been a big fan of Prisma, preferring Derwent for the smother less waxy finish. I hope this helps for those of you who use a dark black lead.

I love these pencils. Nice and dark writing. Wish they had erasers but oh well. Still don’t like to use anything else.

I loved the layout for sketching, but found that this pencil fit well in my granddaughter's hand (2nd grade), and was durable against her pressure, allowed her to make her pandemic homeschool work dark enough for the scanner to upload to school. She loved my layout pencils as much as I do. It's been a few years. How fast they grow, but I've found myself with more personal freedom than in recent years, and I'm going to get back into sketching. I'm so happy to have found General's Layout Pencils are still available. They look good, erase well, are affordable, ship well, and fit well in the hand for a comfortable fit, and nice smooth dark lines. The tip is soft enough to wear down for thicker lines. They held up really well to the electric pencil sharpener. I just received my new box and they're perfect. One thing that does bother me though, is that I always have to wait so long to receive these, via U.S. mail! Amazon Prime delivery is way faster, and after all these years, these pencils are still in the snail mail. Anyway, YES, do get these top quality, affordable, comfortable, easy to erase, smooth drawing General's Layout Pencils, for sketching, hatching, depth, out-lining, and even homeschool assignments that will need to be scanned. This is an update, so apologies for redundancy.

The General's “Layout Pencil” is a favorite of mine. You can grab paper, this pencil, sharpener and eraser, then head out the door. The pencil will give you a nice little shade range, with light to bold-ish (1-2B values) lines, shading and moderately black details. I think it’s very useful for an amateur artist testing their skills. It’s much nicer than a typical #2, while being inexpensive enough to share with the kids. I would highly recommend the Layout to anyone that loves to draw and is looking for an economical, durable and “all-in-one” pencil.

If you are asking "what single pencil can I get that is good for sketching?" this is it. if you want an intermediate step between an entire sketching set of pencils and cheap non-art type pencils, this is a good choice - it's pretty responsive to pressure, so shading works pretty well. good range from light sketching to rather dark if you want.

I had been looking for a soft dense black pencil which could hold a point, so I decided to try these pencils on the basis of the recommendation that they are chosen by animators. My box of twelve pencils arrived from the US in super fast time and they have lived up to my expectations. A nice dense black, a good range of tonal greys, and a point that I don't have to sharpen so often. I use a scalpel to sharpen my pencils as I can get a longer, shallower angle to the point giving me a much better edge to the lead for shading. I am starting a new comic book project and I am keen to use these pencils on that. For note book writing or drawing they are the best I have used for a long time. I will certainly buy these again. Terence Collins UK

I've been a finish carpenter for over 40 years, and I use soft lead pencils which will leave a legible mark, yet not leave an indentation in the wood. This is especially true on vertical grain fir, which has the hard spring grain and the soft summer grain. When that gets a mark across the grain, it is very difficult to get out. I've tried a lot of pencils; I used to get Ticonderoga number 1 soft, but they are not the same anymore. The worst part is with sharpening; I sharpen my pencils to a chisel point, not a round point, and this has to be done with a very sharp knife. With most pencils, the graphite cracks and pulls out of the wood, which takes more time and wastes more pencil. Not the case with these Generals. Also, they are still fashioned from cedar, which makes sharpening easier and more controllable, unlike Chinese pencils which are made of just about anything they can get their hands on. I've used these for three years, and will continue to do so

After trying out different products, this is by far my favorite graphite pencil to use for drawing. The quality of the graphite is excellent and looks great on all the different paper types that I have tried. You can get some really great values in your drawings by using this pencil alone. It's both great pencil to carry with you when you want to draw something in your sketchbook and/or when you want to draw something more complicated. The only downside is that the graphite is indeed extra soft. That means you constantly have to keep sharpening your pen, especially when working with darker values. In other words, a single pencil can be used up fast. A great pencil for both beginners and professional artists.

I'm glad I bought these pencils. Awesome quality, they come sharpened and these pencils are perfect for outlining, shading and shadowing. Beautiful tone

I was delighted to get my hands on a box of these pencils. I had come across references to them in the instruction manuals of many of the 1930's American illustrators and artists whose work I revere but had assumed that they were one of these bits of kit that were no longer made. So I immediately ordered a box of them. I am so glad I did. Although they are nominally a 6B they are far darker than a standard 8b graphite pencil and lay down far more smoothly. They also don't give as much of a sheen as ordinary graphite does in heavy applications. They erase easily with a standard polymer eraser but a heavy line will not lift completely. This makes me assume that the core has an oil content. This does however mean that they easily sharpen to a perfect long point that neither shatters nor wears down quickly, unlike most of the other high carbon graphite pencils I've tried. (General's vaunted "Carbo-Weld" process used on these that bonds the core to the casing actually works which was a pleasant surprise and makes them far less frustrating to use and economical than most other brands.) Do be aware that all pencils of this type are only for adult artists and anything with an oil content should of course not be chewed or given to children to draw with. These are superb artist's pencils that are not only great value but also a real pleasure to use. Recommended.

Marque souvent vue dans des vidéos de dessins. Il est rapidement possible d'obtenir des variations de gris, presque vers le noir dans les dessins, la teinte reste mat et le crayon s'use peu. Je suis très agréablement surpris par ce crayon.

Son mi preferidos !

Pencils do what is required of them. I am quite pleased with the prouct.