Faber-Castell Polychromos Black Pencil: A Simple Upgrade for Graphite Drawings

Introduction

If your graphite drawings never quite reach the deep, rich darks you want, the missing piece may not be a softer graphite pencil at all. It may be a black colored pencil. The Faber-Castell Polychromos black pencil is a simple swap that takes the place of your 8B for the darkest values, and it changes two things at once: you get a deeper black, and you get noticeably less shine on the paper.

The best part is that it does not ask you to learn anything new. It shades, blends, layers, and erases in almost exactly the same way your graphite pencils do.

Why Use a Black Colored Pencil with Graphite

Two problems hold back many graphite drawings: shadows that never get dark enough, and the reflective shine that soft graphite pencils leave on the paper. That shine can really detract from the realistic illusion of a drawing. The black Polychromos addresses both. It reaches a level of darkness that helps drawings pop, and it has less shine overall than an 8B graphite pencil, with more of a soft sheen than a distracting reflective glare.

It also works seamlessly in conjunction with graphite. You can shade the two together, layer one over the top of the other, and blend them into each other. When you look at a finished drawing, it simply reads as a normal pencil drawing, not as two different mediums.

Who This Pencil Is For

This technique suits anyone drawing realistically in graphite who wants deeper darks without changing their whole workflow. Because you use your ordinary shading techniques, the only change is substituting the black Polychromos for your softest graphite in the shadow areas.

It is especially useful for portraits and hair, where crisp individual strands and deep shadows make the difference between a flat drawing and one with real depth. The extra contrast is what makes a drawing stand out and stop looking bland.

Main Strengths

The Polychromos layers beautifully over graphite and blends into it, whether you use a blending stump, a cloth, a tissue, or a cotton bud. A cloth blended across graphite and Polychromos shading together produces a nice, airbrushed result.

Sharpness matters too. With the pencil finely sharpened, you can get crisp details such as eyelashes and individual dark strands of hair, and you can build dark values without heavy pressure. It also erases cleanly with a stick eraser, which is handy for pulling highlights back out of your darkest areas.

How to Layer It Over Your Graphite Work

Start with a graphite pencil in the HB to 2B range and block in your values, structures, and a first layer of shading. Keep your pressure light, keep the pencil sharp, and resist the urge to make the shadows dark at this stage. That is the Polychromos pencil’s job later, and pressing hard now only makes it harder to layer on top.

Next, blend out the graphite shading with a stump, tissue, or cloth before applying the Polychromos. Blending pushes the graphite into the paper and helps the black pencil adhere and layer more seamlessly on top. You can skip this step if you prefer an unblended look; the Polychromos still works either way.

Then go in with a well-sharpened Polychromos to establish your darkest shadows. This is what brings the drawing to life, adds the contrast that makes it three-dimensional, and takes it to the next level.

Erasing and Blending Behave the Same Way

A practical strength of this pairing is that your existing finishing techniques carry over unchanged. A stick eraser pulls highlights and details out of the black Polychromos just as it does from graphite, with the same results either way. A blending stump will also nicely blend the color pencil back into the surrounding graphite if an edge needs softening.

In practice, the Polychromos behaves so much like graphite that you can treat it as simply your new darkest pencil rather than a separate medium to manage.

Things to Consider Before Buying

This recommendation is based on the Faber-Castell black Polychromos specifically, as that is the pencil tested and used with this technique. Other black colored pencils have not been tried in the same way, so results with alternatives are not guaranteed.

Also expect a slight sheen rather than a completely matte finish. Any colored pencil drawing has a bit of sheen, but it is a gentle sheen rather than the distracting reflective shine that soft graphite pencils produce, which most artists find acceptable in the finished piece.

Buying Advice

If you draw in graphite and want darker values with less shine, replacing your 8B with the black Polychromos is a low-effort experiment with a visible payoff. The before-and-after difference in contrast on a portrait can be striking, and you lose none of your usual techniques in the process.

Conclusion

The Faber-Castell Polychromos black pencil is an easy, practical upgrade for graphite artists. It layers and blends over graphite, erases like graphite, delivers deeper shadows, and keeps shine to a subtle sheen. For a single pencil, it can genuinely transform how much your drawings pop.