A new love...
Blackwing pencils have been around since the 1930's when they were manufactured by the Eberhart Faber Pencil Company. The original Blackwing pencils were discontinued in the 90's, but in 2010 a California based pencil manufacturer purchased the Blackwing trademark and reissued the pencils under its' Palomino division. From all reviews I have read these new pencils are exactly the same as the originals made in the 30's. WikiLink
Blackwings are possibly the most famous of the 'high-end' pencil you can find. They have been used by writers such as John Steinbeck and musicians like Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. My favorite animator, Chuck Jones who created Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes characters swore by them. I remember my Dad used one and as a child I loved the strong black mark it made - but he didn't let me use it often! So when I saw that Pencilly were selling Blackwing pencils I couldn't resist buying some. Unfortunately they had sold out of the 4 sampler set so I purchased a Palomino Blackwing Legacy Branded matte black and a Palomino Blackwing Natural. (4 pencil sets are now back in stock).
Matte Black (top) and Natural (below)
The first thing you notice is that the pencils are slightly longer than standard. The extra length affects the balance slightly if you are used to using a standard pencil or a shorter clutch pencil. Don't worry, you soon adjust and anyway, you are going to sharpen it shorter soon enough. At this larger size they don't fit into a standard length pencil box; as I said this will be sorted out over time.
The pencils have a hexagonal body with a graphite core encased in wood. The Natural has a cedarwood casing which smells lovely when sharpened. Each pencil has a gold ferrule on the end that holds a rectangular eraser - and the eraser works well! Erasers are replaceable and come in different colors, but I tend not to erase too much so replacement shouldn't be an issue. Nice to know though.
The lead in these pencils are wax based, so they have a smooth and velvety feel. No crunchy feel in the leads, but a creamy, flowing line. Don't let the idea of wax put you off, they still sharpen and hold a point well. The lead is not brittle and doesn't break when sharpening. One confusing thing I found is that these pencils don't follow the European grading system of H to B range. As all the Blackwing pencils are considered 'soft' you can take it as a given that there is no 'H' or harder version. You will need to read about them before you purchase and once you own them do test sheets to discover how soft or hard they are and how they compare to a standard graphite pencil.
Test Sheet on Art Spectrum drawing paper 210gsm
You can see from my test sheet above that the Blackwing gives a good, dense dark coverage. I used my standard Staedtler Clutch pencils as a comparison and found that the Natural is slightly darker than the HB, more like a B, and the Matte Black is very close to a 4B. As the Blackwings are wax, I thought it would be good idea to test it against a few waxed color Prismacolor pencils and compare to using with standard graphite and against Karat waterrcolor (unwaxed) pencils. They seemed to blend better with the Prismacolor pencils than the Karat or graphite and with less smearing. Additionally they are darker in tone so create better blacks.
If you are really into collecting pencils, Blackwing introduced the Volumes series in 2015. Each quarter they bring out a limited edition pencil celebrating an artist, writer or special event. These would be great fun to collect and display, but I would be too tempted to use them for drawing!
Speaking of drawing, to test out these two pencils I did a quick sketch of a hibernating Pygmy Possum using the Matte Black, Natural and Prismacolour 1070 pencil on 210gsm Art Spectrum drawing paper. 10cm x 10cm so it also falls into our 'Small' prompt for this week.
Pygmy Possum by Linda Weil
Conclusion
I love the way these Blackwing pencils feel and draw! Smooth and velvety the marks they make are almost sensual. The smooth lines, rich blacks, high quality material, feel of the pencil, usable eraser all make this a pencil to consider including in your arsenal. Will it ever replace my beloved Staedtler pencils? Not for the finer detail drawings I like to do where I really prefer a hard pencil, but for sketching, travelling, use with Prismacolor pencils I think it will be a tight race. The price of these pencils are slightly higher than standard brands, but the quality is well worth the price. Give one a try and let me know what you think.
*Note, this review is a personal opinion and I am not paid by any particular brand or company for these comments.
