Like a Comfy Robe

 

1/28/26 photo reference (Chocolate Derwent Drawing pencil in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook)

Sometimes my Doomscrolling Prevention Program turns into simple media appreciation.

I began making monochrome mark-making exercises with an Ivory Black Derwent Drawing pencil because the set happened to be handy on my desk. It seemed like a good substitute for a soft graphite pencil, and it is. After having made several sketches with it, though, it’s much more than that: It’s like pulling on a comfy, old robe.

1/27/26 photo reference (Ivory Black Drawing pencil)

Unlike Holbein, which I deemed to be the colored pencil closest to graphite in the way it feels and applies, Derwent Drawing doesn’t feel like graphite; it’s too creamy and “lipsticky” for that. But that creaminess is what makes it so comforting to apply. A super-soft Japanese graphite pencil (8B? 10B?) would also feel luxuriously wonderful, but it would also smudge way more than a Drawing pencil does. And unlike graphite, Drawing pencils impart no reflective shine, so they appear as matte as velvet.

Although my monochrome sketches began as loosening-up exercises inspired by Orla Stevens’ YouTube, they morphed into value studies and then into basic monochrome sketches. It’s been a long time since I sketched in monochrome, and I’d forgotten how much I love this elegant simplicity, especially while “wearing” a comfy, old robe.