There we go!" Shields said as she finished. While Shields' Prismacolor Ebony Graphite Drawing Pencil gives her the dark brows she loves, dermatologists warn about using non-makeup pencils on the face.

In 1795, a French artist named Nicolas-Jaques Conté started mixing powdered graphite with clay to make pencils. Depending on the amount of graphite and clay used, it produced a different darkness ...

The harder pencils avoid being scratchy thanks to the finely ground graphite and clay, and even the softer ones hold a point for a long time. This set of a dozen pencils comes in a handsome green ...

I used 8B, 2B, and 2H graphite pencils to render the star magnitudes in my sketch. I created the faint base layer ofthe nebula with the tip of a blending stump that had graphite on it.

Standard pencils like your classic Ticonderogas or artist-grade Fabre Castells are made of graphite mixed with clay, which is why they tend to smudge under the heat and pressure of a hand.

Carved from the graphite in a normal pencil: A highly-detailed boot Credit: DALTON GHETTI / SOLENT NEWS A miniature graphite chair Credit: DALTON GHETTI / SOLENT NEWS ...