Faber-Castle has a selection of graphite pencils for sketching. I always try to have my selections complete, which means everything from the set: 8B, 7B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, and 2H. For some reason, I always run out of the 7B. The stores usually have them all available in one set. If I run out of any of the pencils then I would have to buy the entire set, and that is rather expensive. My experience has taught me that if you need to stock up on the pencils, do stock up on the 5B, 6B, 7B and up. Make it a priority to look for their availability on the stores so that you can use them when you need to sketch or complete a drawing. Drawings made with these are easier on the scanner, and buying a new set each time is hard on the wallet.
I have never used special pencils for drawing but I should probably check this out. How much do these sets usually run for? I would expect it would cost a bit more than normal art supplies because of the graphite. Will definitely check these out whenever I am in a crafts store.
Most pencils out there right now are graphite pencils, which are the same ones people use in schools. The yellow ones are also graphite pencils. Unless the name says lead or mechanic or others. I was been able to find a complete set of this Faber-Castell brand, in some art shop for about US$25. Each type, for example just the 2H, usually also comes in packs of 10 or 12 for no more than US$15. I've seen the packs of 5 graphite pencils (HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B) sold with a water brush for about $15.
Do you happen to live near a Pat Catan's? They are similar to Micheals, but they sell these pencils individually in addition to buying them as a set. I believe Michaels sells them individually too. I used to buy these all the time back in the 90's and early 2000's, and ultimately I stopped buying the full set all together, since I rarely used most of the pencils in the set - I pretty much only did drawings with the 2H and 6B pencils. Anything higher than 6B was constantly breaking on me, so I found them hard to work with. You could also check out Dick Blick, they sell art supplies online and you could likely order the pencils you most often use in larger quantities.
Those are excellent ideas, @ohiotom76. I would give their sites a visit and see what things are on offer from each of them. It's very thoughtful for art stores to have the individual pencils on sale for a change. They don't have to be from the same brand, but I would usually prefer using the brands that I have tried out before. Or the ones suggested by the stores. I might also need to adjust my pencil work or sketching strategy to be more effective with my drawing exercises.
