F These

My favorite sketching pencil for watercolor is the Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencil in "F" 

(Top one in the photo)  

It has a nice, light touch, easily erasable -- important for me!  But as I keep using and sharpening it, I wanted to stock in a supply.  Unfortunately, this is not a common degree and rather hard to find selling separately outside of the sets locally.  (I did find an online source at Dick Blick, surprisingly it was not available individually at the Staedtler website)

I thought I would try two other brands of F pencils.  I try to buy locally and support independent stores, and I found these two at Texas Art Supply.

The Prismacolor Turquoise 2260 (bottom) was very easy to sharpen, but the lead seemed harder and draggy.  This will probably live out its life as all-purpose desk pencil in the pen/pencil jar.  Bonus it is a pretty color.

The Tombow Chromo-Graph Mono (middle) took a bit longer to sharpen, but I thought it had a smoother and softer feel.

While the Mars still remains my favorite, the easier to find Tombow is a close runner-up.  

Always have a back-up plan...and a back-up pencil!