Review on Faber-Castell 9000 Design Pencil - Pack of 12, FC119064 by Linda Diaz

I don't know why I waited so long to buy good drawing pencils! I've been sketching with every mechanical pencil I have in my bag for years with very little preference, but the way my sketching has improved with these pens has been amazing! Now I'm comfortable creating full fledged artwork in greyscale, whereas previously I did light sketching and then used other materials to complete the work. Looking back after ten years of sketching with a very bad product, I'm confident that this is just what I needed to take the next step in improvement. That is very high quality. They arrive sharpened, which is nice as I'm used to crayons that come in dozens and take hours to sharpen. They sharpen well with a standard or premium sharpener, and the graphite (even in softer pencils) is strong enough not to crack in the body (a problem I had with some student pencils in high school art classes). The body is also comfortable, soft to the touch, matte. I suspect it will warp and be less than ideal if you're putting it in a backpack full of other materials, but if you're storing it between notebooks it probably has a long life ahead of it. I bought a set for my best friend and she is in love too. This would make a great gift for any artist in your life and a good investment in your own arsenal of supplies if you are an artist too.