9B or not 9B, That is the Question.

Every so often I get the urge to draw something. It's never anything museum worthy but it relaxes me (somewhat) and takes my mind off of pretty much everything, so I enjoy it.

Now to clarify what I mean by "drawing", I only draw with pencil in black and white. Color scares me, and whatever I draw has to come from a picture, or a comic, so I can't think, 'oh I want to draw a kangaroo riding a dolphin' unless of course there was a picture of such a thing. 


For the longest time I refused to use anything but a mechanical pencil, and what more, it could only have the normal lead, or graphite if you want to be technical.


Back in high school I was in art class and my teacher was beyond frustrated with this fact and threatened to grab a sharpie and streak the part of my drawing that was suppose to be the darkest black.


Never ever threaten to sharpie someone's drawing. If pysche's could cry, mine wept.


However, that did push me and 4 years later I'm happy to say that I bought a 9B pencil, the darkest a pencil can get, and it looks fabulous.


Here is a drawing done purely with mechanical pencil. It is alright. 

Note that the background is no different than the shading on the Riddler's face, tie, etc. Plus the pencil strokes, for lack of a better term, are awkwardly obvious. It does bother me. 

Then BAM. Introducing 9B. Be still my beating heart.
Look at that black! It is intense and bold and what contrast!
Why was I so afraid of this 9B? 
WHAT A FOOL.

Here is a comparison of the 9B background and the purely mechanical pencil background.
Whoa.  Sorry for the weird glare, but you still get how crazy a difference this is.
Why was I so afraid to color darker?!


There is a pretty good chance I'll go back and fix this Batman themed picture (more specifically from the Hush series). Or maybe not. I have a tendency to find flaws every time I return to a past drawing. It's a BIG drawback. 


Haha, drawback. Get it? 


Ahem. So now I can finally say, 


Thank you Mrs.(Dr.) Leggett. (high school sharpie wielder)