Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Pencil Set – Test

Can an extra dark drawing pencil also be matt and non-reflective. The Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black tries to do both and we put a set of these through their paces to test out their strengths and weaknesses in producing figure drawing, photo studies and even some clean-edged pencil lettering.

Samir: One of the biggest challenges with using graphite pencils in art is that the darker you make the sketch, the shinier it gets. But can you make a darker graphite pencil that’s less shiny?

Vishal: Hello and welcome to Stationery Test Drive, the show where even properly artistic tools are not safe from our weirdness. I’m Vishal.

Minjal: This is Minjal.

Samir: I’m Samir.

Minjal: And today we’re looking at the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Pencil Set.

Vishal: These are as Samir said in the intro trying to be as dark as possible without being shiny, which is a weird thing but is not so weird in the world where everyone does take photos of their work and puts them on social media. And, yeah these are matte black, they’re handsome looking pencils. Why don’t you guys tell us more about these pencils?

Minjal: One of the reasons why we actually decided to test the Lumograph Black is because we have tested the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 pencils – the blue, hexagonal Staedtler pencils.

Samir: The classic blue Staedtler pencils.

Minjal: We’ve seen a lot of blogs that compare the two pencils and we thought we’d just see if these are actually as matt as a lot of the reviewers claim they are.

Vishal: Well, I don’t know about matt, but they’re definitely as dark as they claim they are!

Samir: Staedtler in its marketing claims these pencils are both harder to break and darker in their pigmentation. They don’t actually mention the lack of shininess as much as they could have. They mention that these have a lot more carbon than your average drawing pencil.

Now of course for those who know all graphite is carbon anyway, so I assume what they mean is that there’s a bit more of a charcoal like pigment in it, mixed in with the graphite to give you that deeper black color.

Vishal: Well, it’s funny you should mention charcoal because that is one thing that we both, and maybe even you did Minjal, thought of when we were using these pencils.

They kind of go down like the best, most easy to use charcoal pencil that you ever have used and anyone who has used charcoal pencils knows that they’re not actually very easy to use.

Minjal: I think the the tactile experience of using these pencils, like you mentioned, is actually like using some of the charcoal sticks or charcoal pencils without the mess. And they also don’t really glide as smoothly on paper as even the Staedtler Mars Lumograph did. There is a little resistance which I assume comes from the fact that the composition is more carbon so that’s why they feel a little grainy?

Samir: I mean as we were saying technically graphite is carbon, charcoal is carbon too, but carbon is a very interesting material. I mean diamonds are carbon too.

Vishal: You are mostly carbon!

Samir: Also. The reason a higher graphite level pencil is smoother is because graphite is a very smooth substance, it’s used as a lubricant industries. So a pencil that’s made of mostly graphite is very smooth on even a rough paper.

Charcoal on the other hand is not a smooth, lubricating kind of substance, so you have more of that textured feeling while you’re drawing it but then on the other hand you get a much darker shade.

Vishal: Apologies to anyone who does not like the sound of nails on a chalkboard because this thing is approaching it. You may need to wear ear muffs while you’re using it.

Samir: I think on a rough paper you will get that scratchiness.

Vishal: Yeah, and even on this fairly smooth paper it does sometimes squeak and and it does make quite a pleasing sound. I like that sometimes – that very chalky, carbony thing. But here enough of test sheets, we are on test drives here, artistic ones, so Minjal why don’t one of you show us what you done?

Samir: That is very clean and lovely.

Vishal: And dark and and not shiny, so top marks for that.

Minjal: I have started liking pencils for a lot of my lettering work. The Mars Lumograph Black, I have to add, they’re really jet black. One of the things I have to say is I usually hate using HB grade because really it is very light and mostly serves no purpose. I mean you would need it when you’re doing your basic drawings and everything but this particular HB is really one of the best HB grades that I would have used. The tip doesn’t break, you get these really nice, sharp outlines and I used the darker grades to fill in the colors.

It pretty much felt like you were using a charcoal stick or maybe a really nice, pigmented color pencil. The experience was not really of using a pencil at all, it felt like you were using something that is meant for actually filling in colors. I’m going to use this set so much more for lettering because it makes the whole process fairly enjoyable. One of the things I didn’t really like is that this pencil is not easy to erase.

Samir: And that actually comes back down to the pigment used. So graphite over now centuries we have developed it to the point where it’s easy to erase but charcoal or carbon as they like to call it is not easy to erase. It’s just not the same thing.

Minjal: This is probably the only time when my favourite Nataraj Plasto Eraser fell short and I had to use some six – seven different combinations to actually clean this piece up. As much as I love the pencils you have to be a little careful when you when you’re putting down the darker shades.

Vishal: Well, I was not careful and in fact I was not even very diligent in making a clean drawing as you can see there are like stains around this one. I also used only one pencil, I believe it was the 8B, because I thought okay let’s just go full in and see what we can do with it.

This is a study of a picture, a photograph by Philippe Halsman, who was a renowned photographer. If you have seen a black and white picture of a celebrity jumping somewhere it’s probably by Philippe Halsman. He’s done pictures of Dali, which is what started off the thing, all the way to the Duke of Windsor.

And in this one which is based on a picture of Oppenheimer, there’s a movie coming out (*already out!) so maybe that was the reason I remembered it. But it’s always been one of my favorite pictures and this study is obviously not photographically correct but I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed using just the one pencil to get this charcoal – like look without the charcoal fuss. I think it was very successful. I would love to try the other ones now especially that I think that 6B is almost darker than the other ones.

Samir: I think we’ve come across that with pencils before where as the grades go higher people need to change the constitution of what they’re mixing in as a binder. So sometimes you can find that a middle grade pencil like somewhere around 6 or 8B can feel darker than a 10B because the 10B needs to have more binder to keep it strong.

Minjal: Samir why don’t you show us what you did with the pencils?

Samir: I guess I did something that’s not quite as free form as Vishal’s and not quite as neat as Minjal’s. I mean as soon as I started scribbling with these pencils I just had to use it for a figure study because it just has such a deep, black pigment when you push it into the paper, I thought this was the perfect way to test it out.

I ended up using I think two or three pencils at the most, probably the 8B and the 4B for the most part. Yes, absolutely a joy to use. I think you need to lean into the the roughness of it a little that’s why Minjal had to struggle with it when it came to cleaning out and keeping things you know pure white and black.

But, this was just great to work on. The fact that you can layer them like you would a normal pencil and you can continue to layer them. The thing about graphite pencils is that once you have them down in a layer it’s very difficult to add in more darkness on top of it.

Whereas I guess because there’s more charcoal in these you can kind of continue to darken portions like this over two or three layers. And that really helped. So areas like this on the side of the torso and the hair, went through probably three or four layers of me shading it with a darker grade. And yeah this was just a lot of fun to do.

Vishal: Hopefully all of this comes through in the photographs of the test pieces because in person these look just stunningly deep and dark and the range of grays and blacks, actual blacks from graphite that you get are unusual.

Minjal: One of the claims of the marketing for this particular set is that they don’t give the shine like other graphite pencils do. So should we actually test and see?

Vishal: And why not? I have the Apsara Platinum which is my favourite. And why don’t we two see what we can get out of this? Okay, this one is very shiny. Let’s try the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 classic pencils now and the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black pencils now. (Watch the comparison demonstration here – https://youtu.be/t9zzufimvlM?si=c40HMjHD4rhMHzfQ&t=706 )

Samir: And I think what will really show up is if we kind of tilt it to the light and you can see that these bits of the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 classic pencils graphite pencil are just reflecting a lot more. I think the shine is quite different when it comes to these more graphite ones and the carbon ones.

Vishal: Well, I don’t know if we had any real complaints with these other than the fact that you know the using the eraser on them is a bit tricky.

Minjal: I think for you’ll because you’ll are artists and the little unfinished edges add to the overall finished product. For somebody like me if you’re actually trying to make a finished piece or you want a clean thing that you want to kind of scan in, then I would probably use the classic Mars Lumograph 100 and not really the Mars Lumograph Black because if you can’t use an eraser it’s very difficult.

Vishal: Since Samir brought up that you can do layering, maybe there’s a hybrid technique where you start your first layers off with the Lumograph and then use the blacks to fill in.

Samir: But Minjal is right in that I think a lot of the experience of using this is more like using a really rich color pencil rather than a graphite pencil. And if you look back at some of our episodes, Vishal has got very similar results with color pencils and Minjal has got kind of a similar texture with color pencils and so have I, so it is something to keep in mind when you’re using these, you need to think about them a little differently.

Vishal: Yes, it would be interesting also to try to mix them with color pencils because color pencils rarely have these dark darks. So, there’s plenty more to depths to plumb with, deep dark depths to plumb with the Mars Lumograph Black. Do we recommend this? Absolutely. Right?

Samir: As far as doing a figure study or sort of shading, pencil drawing this is by far the best shading pencil I’ve ever used.

Vishal: This is by far the best pencil for just doing a random study with you know a bit of texture, a bit of value. And it was one pencil, so it’s not even like you need to get the set, although the set is pretty good, it’s a great range as we have shown you.

Samir: And speaking of ranges one sort of aside is that there has been a lot of talk over the past year or two about pencils that are less reflective. As Vishal said people take pictures of their drawings on social media and that’s where the less shine kind of becomes an important thing to get a good picture. The one that’s been sold the most has has been the Faber – Castell Pitt Matt, if I’m not mistaken?

Minjal: The Faber – Castell Pitt Graphite Matt.

Samir: We actually tried to get our hands on some of those and they’re quite expensive and also difficult to find because they’re kind of a new thing. I’d say if you’ve been looking for one of those this is actually a good alternative. It just doesn’t have the the word matte in its title but it does the same thing.

Minjal: These are cheaper, these are available for $10 – $12 in the States and maybe some 800 Indian Rupees.

Samir: So if you’ve been trying to look for a dark pencil or the Faber – Castell Pitt Matt specifically for your graphite work so that you can take pictures of it cleanly, the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black is a great option. Please try it out.

Vishal: Well, that’s it for this episode. I think next week we have more normal things or maybe not so normal things. You’ll have to come back and find out! Until then, I’m Vishal.

Minjal: This is Minjal.

Samir: I’m Samir. And if you like this episode on pencils, as we have mentioned we have done one on the Staedtler Mars Lumograph – The Classic Blue Drawing Pencil, and the one on the Apsara Platinum which is one of our favorite general use pencils.

Vishal: You know the best part about this? None of them are the Carpenters Pencil!

1. Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Artist Wooden Lead Pencil – Box of 6 – https://amzn.to/3AQjlPT
2. Staedtler Mars Lumograph Graphite Drawing and Sketching Pencils 100 G6, Set of 6 – https://amzn.to/3ZcgbOi
3. Apsara Platinum Extra Dark Pencils – https://amzn.to/49aQHFG
4. Derwent Charcoal Pencils, Metal Tin, 6 Count – https://amzn.to/3B13YnA
5. General Pencil Compressed Charcoal Sticks 4/Pkg-Black – Soft Assorted – https://amzn.to/3OuaR3Q
6. Set of 20 Nataraj 621 Plasto Erasers – https://amzn.to/3AZc2W2
7. Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matte Pencil Set, Metal Tin of 8 Graphite Pencils and Sketching Accessories – https://amzn.to/3OubdHI
8. Irwin Tools IRWIN Carpenter Pencil, Medium Lead, 6-Piece – https://amzn.to/3CHyPWI