Lyra Graphite Stick 9b

Product Information

Lyra make chunky hexagonal graphite sticks that don’t roll off the desk as easily as the round ones, which is helpful. It is worth practicing if you plan to use wet charcoal as the wrong ratio of water to charcoal can create a muddy effects.

They are exciting to use and perfect for expressive painting techniques – I’ve used them since they first came onto the market in 2010. Sure enough, as I ran the locos around the layout the graphite was spread around the rest of the track. Compressed charcoal is now commonly used as it breaks much less easily than vine charcoal and is harder to erase (although some artists will enjoy this quality of the stick variety of charcoal).

Artists working on large scale drawings might find traditional pencils too small – it takes longer to cover an area with a pencil than it does a charcoal stick. Charcoal has a considerably different chemical structure than Graphite, despite both being made from carbon.

The slightly gritty feel adds lots of texture to my drawings and they are superb to use on rough-textured surfaces. Another popular form of graphite is the woodless pencil, for those who prefer the convenience of a pencil in a long-lasting solid stick.This explains why graphite is less crumbly than charcoal, produces smoother, less dusty marks and is easier to control – although graphite sheets separate from one another they will maintain their uniform structure, whereas charcoal will fracture into irregular shards. Carbon pencils (as with any wooden pencil) have the advantage of keeping your hands clean when working. Whether you use sticks, pencils or powders – these two materials can produce anything from the lightest greys to the darkest blacks. Peco insulfrog and settrack have short non conductive parts Hornby settrack ones have quite a long dead section.