What makes this tool so unique and useful? In a word, graphite, a soft claylike mineral. Graphite’s malleability allows it to be sharpened to a fine point. It also makes it possible for a pencil’s tip to be formed with both a sharp edge and a wide shape. This flexibility allows for a great range of markmaking. Due to graphite’s softness, the mark the pencil makes is significantly darker than that of the drawing tools that preceded it. Before graphite pencils came into use, artists used metal styluses with copper, silver, or lead tips that made much lighter marks. The pencil’s phenomenal mark-making range is the subject of this book. We’ll explore its full range of possibilities and discuss its refined precision and bold, expressive capabilities. We’ll look at the myriad ways that contemporary artists are making use of it today. We’ll also look at how the simple pencil became responsible for some of the greatest artistic achievements from the sixteenth century onward. All these things point out the most remarkable thing of all about the pencil: that the humblest and least expensive of art tools can be carried in your pocket with a sketchpad, taken anywhere, and is always ready to help you create works of the highest potential genius.