Graphite

Graphite [or, popularly, pencil] has somewhat the same appearance as metalpoint and produces a similar line, but has a richer, more lustrous texture because of its softer substance which crumbles subtly with pressure. Graphite can be soft or hard, and can produce varying degrees of blackness and grayness. Very soft graphite can be rubbed with a "stump" [usually a cylinder of rolled paper] for shading large areas; and hard graphite, sharpened to very fine point, can produce extremely precise lines.

Graphite was first widely adopted in the seventeenth century, by Dutch artists. It lent itself to different styles of drawing; Gainsborough, Ingres, Delacroix, Degas, van Gogh, and Matisse, among many others, exploited its qualities, and range. In Ingres's drawing The Guillon-Lethière Family , the clear, fine lines of graphite variously convey the textures of heavy cloth coat, smooth hair, loose curls, and soft flesh gently modeled from light to dark tones. At the same time, the viewer enjoys the play of line, and the control and precision in the handling of the pencil.