Product Review: Moleskine Drawing Pencils

Moleskine graphite drawing pencils

Last year Moleskine released two sets of pencils as part of its Art Collection – watercolor pencils and graphite drawing pencils. In my review of the watercolor set, I mentioned features that are common to both, such as the unique square barrel, matte black finish and semi-gloss end caps (please read the introduction to that post first). In this review I’ll talk about specific qualities of the graphite drawing pencil set.

Like their colorful cousins, the Moleskine graphite pencils have the same design esthetic that fits well with most Moleskine products. While the colored pencils have end caps of consistent length, the graphite pencil set’s end caps are stair-stepped to indicate the different grades. I love this kind of detail that makes the set look wonderful in the tin.

The five graphite grades – H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B – are sensible and functional, and they span the range I use most often. Although most drawing sets include every grade within a range, I usually find that there’s so little difference between, say, a 3B and a 4B that skipping grades is perfectly adequate.

The grades are clearly stamped in black on the silver end caps, which I appreciate for clarity and ease of identification. My only complaint about this clean, unfussy appearance is that I wish the grade were stamped on each of the four sides so that the pencil wouldn’t have to be turned to identify the grade.

Like the Moleskine colored pencils, these look so pretty in their box.

On the colored pencil set, the (overblown) color names are printed in glossy black on matte black. To match that lovely (though difficult to read) design touch, the graphite pencils are stamped with nonsensical descriptions such as “Echo” (4B) and “Respire” (HB). The enclosed brochure explains these descriptions this way: “From the rumbling echoes of smooth and dark 6B and 4B. . . to the natural sigh of HB. . . How are your sketches sounding today?” (The color names are silly, but these are downright ridiculous.)

Despite the names, like the colored set, the printing is in the southpaw direction, which delights me because I encounter it so rarely in the pencil world.

I compared the cores grade-for-grade with Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and Staedtler Mars Lumograph, the two drawing pencil lines I’m most familiar with. Moleskine is easily comparable to Hi-Uni in darkness. In feel, however, it’s closer to Staedtler, which is rougher than Hi-Uni at these grades. While sketching with the Moleskine pencils, I also hit gritty spots occasionally. Despite being spoiled by the silky smoothness of Hi-Unis, I didn’t find the feedback of the Moleskines objectionable; in fact, it’s pleasant, especially in a Baron Fig notebook, which I used for these test swatches.

 

Core grade comparison in Baron Fig sketchbook

Using grades H through 4B, I made the small test sketch in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, which is much toothier than Baron Fig paper. I tend to prefer a smoother core on toothy paper, but sketchers who appreciate more feedback might prefer Moleskine. 

1/3/18 Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Another surprise was using the square barrel. Hex, round, triangle, even pentagon – I’ve used ‘em all for writing and most for drawing and coloring – but this was my first square-barreled pencil for either writing or drawing. I thought it might be uncomfortable, but the square didn’t faze me at all. In fact, the barrel looks so sleek and distinctive that I wish more pencils came square. 

Unlike their colored pencil counterparts, which I deem an overpriced novelty, the Moleskine graphite drawing pencils are a decent, functional set that I will happily use. At $14.95 for five pencils, they are a bit pricier than Mitsubishi Hi-Uni, which is considered high-end for pencils. Wearing the Moleskine name, however, they are priced as expected for those lovely design elements. If you’re a pencil geek like I am, I think the square barrel alone is worth it.

Product Review: Moleskine Watercolor Pencils

Back in the day, this rack of Moleskines would have made
me swoon. I guess it still does.

As it may have been for many stationery addicts, the Moleskine notebook was my gateway drug. Way back (and I mean way back, like before Facebook, blogs, maybe even the whole Internet), I’d occasionally find Moleskine journals in nicer stationery stores and fondle them lovingly, imagining the possibilities. When I began sketching, one of the first sketchbooks I bought was a Moleskine (the kind with the weird manila-envelope paper; see one on my archive page). Eventually as the paper quality declined and so many other notebooks and sketchbooks came onto the market, I stopped buying them. But every now and then I’ll pass a spinner rack of the huge variety of notebooks they produce, and on some level, the name Moleskine still gives me a small tingle from the memory of that stationery high.

It’s no wonder, then, that when I discovered that Moleskine had come out with sets of colored and graphite pencils, I felt that tingle again. (This post will cover the colored pencils; tomorrow I’ll review the graphite drawing pencils.)

Moleskine watercolor and graphite pencil sets

Before I get to the details of the Naturally Smart Palette Watercolor Pencils, I thought I’d point out a few things that are common to both pencil sets, which are part of the Moleskine Art Collection. Designed in Italy, both sets of cedar pencils are manufactured in Vietnam. 

Both pencil sets feature a matte black barrel with sparks of narrow stripes, text and M logo in glossy black. But the more distinctive physical feature is that the barrels are square with semi-gloss end caps (the colored pencil caps indicate the core color; the graphite caps are silver). In my vast collection of colored pencils and growing collection of drawing pencils, these are the only ones with a square barrel. At first I wondered if the square shape would hinder drawing, but I forgot about it immediately, so it wasn’t a problem at all.

Square barrels and shiny end caps

I love the way they look in the box!

My initial thought was that these colored pencils are slightly over-designed (perhaps to justify the price), but the more I looked at them, the more I liked them. They fit beautifully with the rest of Moleskine’s design esthetic – mostly matte black, touches of color, squared off and tidy.

As mentioned earlier, the end cap colors indicate the core colors. A color number is stamped on one side of the end cap. For the name of the color, however, you have to tilt that side of the pencil toward the light so that you can see the glossy black text. And those color names? “Breathe Green,” “Plunge Blue,” “Rave Purple,” “Pulse Red.” A bit over the top, though not as bad as the copy on the mandatory brochure: “Hold your breath as you explore plunging blue depths, or capture the fleeting reflection of dazzling pure white.” (Whew – I’m sweating.) But I give Moleskine bonus brownie points for printing the pencil text for lefties!

Left-handed pencils with silly color names

The color range is typical of a set of 12, although the two greens are too similar to be useful. Relatively dry in application, they feel like average novelty colored pencils (which is disappointing after that blush-producing copy). Activating the swatches with a waterbrush takes quite a bit of scrubbing, and the washed colors are not as rich as I want them to be. That said, the hues are true to their dry state, which is often not the case with water-soluble colored pencils. 

 

Swatches in Canson XL mixed-media sketchbook

I also tested them in a couple of other ways that I like to use water-soluble pencils. First, I smeared water on the page with a waterbrush; then I ran a pencil through it. In the second test, I “licked” the pencil tip with a waterbrush and applied the color to the paper with the brush like traditional watercolors. In both cases, if there’s plenty of pigment, the color will show as rich and vibrant. These are somewhat lacking.

Tests in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

Given the test results, I didn’t have high expectations for performance in a sketch. Again, I find the pencils to be very average in vibrancy and ability to blend and activate with water. 

1/2/18 Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

I mentioned earlier that Moleskine watercolor pencils fit the brand’s esthetic perfectly. Unfortunately, similar to the notebooks with engaging concepts and designs but inferior paper, these pencils look and feel better than they perform. They really are no worse than most novelty watercolor pencils, but at $24.95 for 12 pencils, they are not novelty priced.

Car Not Included

1/2/18 Wedgwood neighborhood

Typically I don’t see many urban couches in winter. Even people getting rid of their furniture don’t want sofas getting soaked in the rain. Our brief run of dry days lately, however, must have been encouraging to people doing end-of-year cleanup. Running errands in the Wedgwood neighborhood, I spotted two couches. The first was on a street where I couldn’t park nearby, but this one was directly across the street from an ideal parking spot.

Not-So-Still Lives

1/1/18 junco

Recently an artist showed me a lovely photo she had taken of birds at her feeder. I immediately asked if she had been sketching the birds, and she said she was planning to sketch from her photos as “practice” for sketching them from life.

After spending 25 weeks studying colored pencil and graphite drawing from landscape photos last year, I’d be the first to tell you that there’s much to be gained from learning that way. Classwork, concentrated hours of weekly homework and regular instructor feedback expanded my understanding of values and form in ways that I don’t think I could have duplicated through other methods in the same length of time.

12/10/17 pine siskin

And yet I will also be the first to tell you that I don’t think drawing from photos is ever “practice” for drawing from life. A couple of years ago I did some drawings from magazine photos of vibrantly colored birds – a cardinal and some hummingbirds, for example – mainly because I wanted to use lots of color, and it’s hard to find things in the urban landscape in bright hues. I suppose I did learn a little about cardinal and hummingbird forms from those sketches, but if I ever saw such birds in real life close enough to sketch them, I don’t think that “practice” would help me one bit. Because in my experience, the only thing that gives me practice for drawing from life is drawing from life.

I’ve been having so much fun sketching the small birds that have been feeding at our feeder the past month. It’s very challenging – those tiny critters flit and fly off so quickly that sometimes it seems like they literally disappear – but it really is getting a bit easier over time.

12/1/17 nuthatch

It goes something like this: I spot a junco, nuthatch or pine siskin perched on the feeder, on the nearby fence, or in the shrubs, and I decide on a pose I want to capture. I look down at my sketchbook to make the first lines, and when I look back up again at the bird, more often than not, it is no longer there. So I have to rely on my memory from what I saw to finish the sketch (or not). Often if I wait a short time, another bird of the same species will take the same position, so I can reinforce my memory with that image.   

Greg has been taking lots of photos, and we have an informative book that helps us identify local birds, so if I wanted to, I could sketch from photos and illustrations, which might be useful in getting things like markings right. But to learn to capture life, I’m convinced that it’s essential that I practice drawing from life.

12/21/17 junco

12/30/17 junco

12/31/17 junco

A Bite Out of the Middle

12/31/17 View Ridge

It’s been ages since I sketched a tree with a bite taken out of its middle. It’s not that I lost interest, and certainly there’s no shortage of such trees, but I guess I got distracted by urban couches and other amusements. 

A few days ago, I spotted the tall fir below just up the street in my own Maple Leaf neighborhood. The next day, the last day of 2017, was cold but bright and sunny all afternoon in the View Ridge neighborhood (at left). As much as I hate the short days of winter, I love its long shadows. 

12/30/17 Maple Leaf

Two Dogs and an Apple Pencil

12/28/17 Waiting patiently.

Lots of people take off the week before new year, so a few days after Christmas, I expected Zoka Coffee to be fairly crowded. I was surprised to find it even less busy than usual – my “victims” were few and far between. I spent quite a bit of time (and several tries, below) on this one guy who was busily writing with his Apple Pencil – his foreshortened arm and the odd angle of his head gave me a lot of trouble. 

I was happier with my canine victims – two pups patiently waiting outside for their human to return.

Happy New Year from Seattle

12/23/17 Wedgwood neighborhood

On one of the last dry, sunny days of 2017 (the next day it snowed, followed by many consecutive days of rain), I drove a little further east than I usually go in the Wedgwood neighborhood and parked at the crest of a hill. I looked out past the end of the street and realized I could see Lake Washington (that bit of blue) and the Cascades beyond it. Although I wasn’t thinking about it at the time, this little sketch – conifers, the mountains, the lake – is about as quintessential Seattle and Pacific Northwest as I can get in one composition.