“Mechanical pencils, they don't smell like anything. The lead is so small you can get no line variation out of it," says Weaver. I heard this countless times i

“Mechanical pencils, they don't smell like anything. The lead is so small you can get no line variation out of it," says Weaver. I heard this countless times in art and architecture classes in college, but I disagree. My favorite pencil to draw with is the Alvin Draf-Tec Retrac, http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?IID=29525 http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?IID=29525, which they offer for 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7-mm graphite sizes. Both the 0.5 and 0.7 are good all-around but the 0.3's are great for fine details. I love the way the weight and balance of the pencil allows very responsive feel so I can easily shift from light to dark shading or thick to thin line weight intuitively. I've never found that it's harder to get a full light-to-dark shading gradient from that mechanical pencil. I also like to exploit the point the tip develops to have different edges to use for different strokes. As the tip develops, it's more predictable, where a wood enclosed pencil requires constant tip maintenance.