Best Pencil For Beginners
Choosing the best graphite pencil can be hard for beginners. In this review I break down my top four choices so you can know before
The Pencil Room can help by:
1. Teaching you the essential skills needed for pencil drawing
2. Helping you improve through direct feedback on your work
3. Showing you how to see your subject so that your drawing starts to actually look like what you want it to!
Hi, I'm Emily Armstrong. I'm a professional drawing teacher with a Masters degree in Art & Design. I've developed my drawing courses from years of experience helping adults to overcome common drawing mistakes and challenges.
Get clear direction on what to practice and how to improve with personal feedback on your class work. Sketch Club is my $25/monthly membership, providing courses and tutorials for beginners and improvers. Take step by step tutorials on a wide range of subjects including still life, landscapes, objects and portraits, or take one of my full learn to draw courses.
I joined Sketch Club as a beginner and what I’ve learned has exceeded my expectations! Emily’s tutorials and lessons have been a joy. Her instructions are clear, skills are broken down into manageable steps and you get to choose from a wide variety of lessons to build your skills. Emily’s feedback is timely, detailed and always constructive. I highly recommend The Pencil Room to anyone wanting to begin or extend their drawing adventures! – Vivien
I appreciate the way Emily doesn’t use technical language. She very calmly walks you through the steps of building a drawing. In the true sense of the word she shows rather than tells. And what she shows you is how to see what is actually there, rather than what the brain is telling you is there. I have found her process enormously helpful and the improvement in my work, even as a complete beginner, has been surprising and gratifying. – Chris
Learning to draw just takes time, practice and good tuition. I can help you get there!

A highly practical course for beginners. Packed full of exercises, worksheets and practice sessions, this course will take you from basic shapes to a finished still life drawing. (Also included with Sketch Club membership).

A complete drawing course for beginners. Learn practical skills and observational techniques including: shading, proportion, gesture drawing and more. (Also included with Sketch Club membership).

A course for people who want to start drawing realistic faces. Includes drawing the features of the face, face proportion, and how to get an accurate likeness of a person. (Also included with Sketch Club membership).

Create a sense of 3D form by working through a four step drawing process of structure, sketching, shading, detail.

Draw along with me to create this drawing of a cheeky robin. I'll take you through every step from start to finish.

Learn how to use one point perspective in a drawing to create an accurate sense of distance and perspective!
Choosing the best graphite pencil can be hard for beginners. In this review I break down my top four choices so you can know before
Here are three ways I recommend practicing drawing ellipses or circles. Try each one out and see what works best for you.
Not sure what the pencil grades mean or how to use them? Read this!