What’s the best pencil pressure to use?

Pencil pressure makes a huge difference to your results!

When you want to achieve a realistic style in your drawing, using the right pencil pressure is essential.

In general my advice on pencil pressure is ‘lighter is better’.

This is because you want to build your layers slowly so that you have more control over the depth and tone you’re creating.

This is particularly important when you’re just starting out and still learning how your colours and layers work together.  

Going in too hard too soon gives you less control over the result.

I like to use a 1-10 scale to describe my pencil pressure and you may be surprised to hear that I use no more than a 4 or 5/10 most of the time.

I start out with a 2 or 3 for the base, then maybe build up to a 4 or 5 for the middle layers and only use 8 or 9 for the finishing touches and adding detail if needed.

I don’t think I’d ever use a 10/10 in my drawings.

I hope this helps if you were a little confused about what pressure you should be using. 

Happy drawing :)