Review on ✏️ Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Carbon Blend Pencils - Jet Black Lines, 6 Assorted Sketch Pencils in Tin, Professional Art Supplies - 100B G6 by Doris Tran

I really don't understand what the negative reviews are about volume . The reviewers seem to understand art and art materials. I can only surmise that due to a packaging error they may have something wrong or different. These will not be charcoal pencils. Or conte. It's more of a mixture of carbon and graphite. But they don't have the luster of a pencil and are much blacker, which doesn't necessarily mean they're darker. Basically, graphite is gray and no matter how low the value goes, it will still be gray. These are black. They are flat and then get a bit rough as you would expect from carbon. But still smoother than civilian pencils. If you don't receive the kits, just exchange them. Raven is good at it. But these things are great for sketching on their own or for adding shadows to a graphite drawing. They have a small tooth, which is good so they can pick up the texture of your paper. I'm using very rough paper for my samples here so you can see how you can get it. You can always wipe it smooth, but I always prefer the texture of rough paper. I rarely use blenders as I prefer blending with value and texture preservation. The last picture shows some graphite squares for comparison and I was trying to get an angle where the graphite picks up the highlights but the black pencils don't.