How To Make a Pocket Sized Pencil Drawing Kit

Have you ever had the urge to draw, but didn't want to lug around a bulky kit of drawing supplies? Here's a way to make a pencil drawing kit with paper and multiple pencils that fits in your pocket!

Step 1  

Measure the length of your pencil lead holder. The pencil lead holder in this example was 12cm.

Step 2  

Decide how many hardnesses of pencil lead you want to include in your kit.

Step 3  

Divide the length of your pencil lead holder by the number of hardnesses you want to include. In this example, pencil leads of 4 different hardnesses were used, resulting in 4 pieces of pencil lead which were 3cm in length, allowing all 4 pieces to fit inside the pencil lead holder.

Step 4  

Cut a piece of pencil lead of the length determined in the previous step from each hardness of pencil lead you want to include in your kit.

Step 5  

Mark your pencil leads by making a small nick toward the end of the lead using a sharp knife. In this example, the leads were marked as follows: 1 nick - H; 2 nicks - HB; 3 nicks - 2B; 4 nicks - 4B.

Step 6  

Load the pencil leads into your pencil lead holder for storage.

Step 7  

Put the pencil lead holder and tiny drawing pad in your pocket, and you're ready to draw anywhere!

Tips

• Start your drawings with the harder leads (H, HB) for sketching and outlining and switch to the softer leads (2B, 4B) for emphasis and shading.
• Using this method, it would be possible to include up to 6 different pencil hardnesses in your kit by cutting the leads into smaller pieces.
• Try a number of different hardnesses of lead in your kit. The hardnesses used in this example (H, HB, 2B, and 4B) are very common, and allow for a decent range of lights and darks in the drawings.
• A small eraser would be an easy addition to this kit; so would a tiny sharpener made especially for this kind of lead.
• Various brands of lead holders have sharpeners at the tip of the pencil (Staedtler makes a nice one). If you take off the metal tip of this particular lead holder, you can turn it around and put the piece of lead in the small hole and sharpen it easily.

Warnings

• Be careful while using the sharp knife as it may cut your finger.

Things You'll Need

• Pocket-sized drawing pad
• Mechanical pencil lead holder that holds 2mm pencil leads. (The one used in this example was a "KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH Versatil 5201"
  
  )
• 2mm pencil leads of various hardnesses. Hardnesses H, HB, 2B, and 4B are recommended.
• A ruler for measuring the length of the pencil and leads
• A sharp knife for cutting and marking the pencil leads