STAEDTLERMars Lumograph Black, Carbon Blend Provides Jet Black Lines, Professional Art Pencils, Tin of 6 Assorted Black Sketch Pencils, 100B G6

I’m really impressed with the Staedtler Lumograph Black pencils. They’re way darker than regular graphite, with a rich matte look that makes sketches pop. They sharpen easily, don’t crumble, and feel really smooth on the paper. Great for shading, outlines, or just doodling when you want deep bold values without that excessive shininess that most graphite brings. They erase just as well as a comparable pencil made of regular graphite, and feel comfortable in the hand to use. My one complaint is that I feel the leads skew a bit harder than the listed firmness, but I think that just comes with the territory of a matte ‘black’ pencil. The upside is that they won’t smudge everywhere quite as easily as a lot of deep dark pencils do, where it somehow gets all over your hand, wrist, arm, shirt, and face.Definitely worth it if you like sketching!

I'm a novice artist working towards Hyperrealism. My tonal value needs work however these Staedlar Mars Lumograph black pencils are great tool in achieving dark black values. They layer well and are blendable when applied with light pressure. They don't break easily and have a strong core. The strong core prevents breakage while sharpening and drawing. I've brought so many because I didn't understand their use at first so I made a lot of mistakes at the onset of my journey. Now that I know better I do better. They are easy to use and adds dimension to your artwork. The lead is also made with quality being thick and strong. These are professional pencils at an affordable price. I'm still purchasing them and enjoy using them.

I hope I’m not the only one that wanted to see a comparison between these and the Faber Pitt-Matte set. I would first like to say I’m a fan of both brands but neither is my all time favorite brand, so I sway neither direction in a biased opinion. So let’s begin. After a scale hardness check, these pencils were exactly on scale where they are claiming to be. Paint on these pencils are very nice. While holding them, they feel exactly like the regular Lumos. And after a few hours of testing these, I will admit that these are better than the regular Lumograph set, and they are slightly above the faber-9000 series, however, they fall short of being as good as the faber Pitt-Matte set. Why? Well they just don’t have that matte charcoal finish that the Pitt set is able to achieve. I have also did a review on that set if you happen to stumble across it here on Amazon. Listen, don’t get me wrong, these pencils are definitely in a serious race here. And could possibly be in the top 5th or 6th place of the best woodcase pencils being made. And I don’t have to tell you there are thousands of wood case pencil companies. Hundreds of them claiming to be the best artist grade pencils. If you can make it into the top 10 on my list, your pencils are definitely worth buying. And these Lumo Blacks are definitely on my list. These are the types of pencils that make you want to draw. I know you are not bound down to artistic creativity by tools, however, any artist will tell you, you can only get as good as the tool will let you. So when you by cheap supplies, your progress will only go so far before you must upgrade to better supplies or your abilities will fall short of your capable talents. ...A set like this will not only help you achieve better work, but will also make you strive to push them and yourself to higher levels of progression. I definitely suggest buying this set and testing them out for yourself. Or if you are also a collector like myself, add this set into your collection. I always buy 2 sets of every pencil so I will always have a brand new set to put into my massive pencil collection. I hope this review helps out

The original Staedtler Lumograph 7B (EB) was always my favorite but the 7B & 8B (EE) never quite fit in with the rest of the Lumograph drawing pencils, they were a carbon & graphite mix while the rest of the grades were only graphite. Having them split into two lines gives so much more options. They are nice & dark, as dark as Cretacolor Neros & darker than Faber Castell Matte but not as smooth as either, you can feel just a bit of grab on the paper. You can erase but minimally & smudging/blending with stumps or tortillons is also minimal but that helps make sketchbook drawings stay less messy. This is a great & useful addition to any drawing toolkit.Update: after some use I find them to be a bit too "grabby" on the paper which interrupts my flow ( I took of a star for that), I much prefer the Cretacolors to these.

I just received these pencils; I have not been able to use them in a drawing yet but I have compared them to previous (pre-2016) Lumograph 100s and the Kimberly 9XXB on smooth Bristol board. I will update the review when I've had more experience with these pencils.These pencils are darker than the 100s. I would say: 100B 2B = 100 4B, 100B 4B = 100 6B, 100B 6B = 100 7B, and 100B 8B is slightly darker than the 100 8B. The biggest, and best, difference is that these pencils are matte with no graphite shine! The old 8B and 7B had some carbon content; the problem was that they could not get as dark as the 9XXB and could not fill in the paper as well. The new 100B 8B is every bit as dark as the 9XXB and fills in the paper just as well. Next to each other, the new 8B and the 9XXB are virtually indistinguishable. The 8B might be even a little darker!The 100B lead seems slightly smoother than the old 8B and 7B, which can feel waxy and sticky when any pressure is used. The 100Bs feel closer to the smoothness of the 9XXB. Overall, I felt more in control and able to lay the values more uniformly.I'm very excited and pleased with this purchase. I believe it will extend the range of tones, contrasts, and textures I will be able to produce. The thinner barrel means that the 100B 8B will replace the 9XXB in my tool box since it does not require a larger sharpener.

Nice dark pencils. Very good quality. Nice tin box to KEEP them nice as well. Was pleased with the drawings I did. Price good for pencils of artist quality.