[Tesseract]

Just like the title says. The reason I ask is because I've been using only pen and sometimes marker for the past year or so. Now that I've returned to using pencil, I realized I can make much more subtle values and edges than I was doing with pen and I love it.

However, after a few days, the pencil drawings smudge and fade away in my sketchbook. What do you guys do to prevent this? I don't want to waste cans of fixative on every page in my sketchbook and I think most people use pencil, but I've never heard anyone complain about this issue.

I use B and 2B mechanical and wooden pencils. Thanks.

[Russo]

Hi, what is the brand of your pencils and sketchbook?

[Tesseract]

I usually buy Canson sketchbooks and I use all kinds of pencils. Derwent wooden, cretacolor woodless, mechanical pencil lead, plain old yellow pencils, and those drafting mechanical-type pencils that use big sticks of graphite. They all smudge or fade in value over time.

I might have this problem because I don't treat my sketchbooks like sacred texts and when I don't handle them with tongs and latex gloves, I rub the pages together or something like that.

[Russo]

It looks like you don't use poor quality material.
I do use a moleskine sketchbook with Tombow/Staedtler mars/Cretacolor fine art and it doesn't smudge too much. I see some smudge when I use too much graphite on both pages.
Even if you spray a little fixative it should help. Don't need to make your page realy wet to fix the graphite.

Hope it helps. You could use hairspray.. it will fix but it may yellow quite a bit with time

[Tesseract]

Thanks, Russo. Maybe I'll just be more careful with my sketchbook, I'd hate to carry a can of fixative everywhere I go haha

[frozen-scumbag]

I use generic ticonderoga #2 pencils on smooth surface Bristol board. I spent a couple years working in a tattoo shop and I discovered that this was the best method of preserving my work. If you're serious about keeping a sketch there's always hair spray or clear wood finish.

[Gobsmacked]

It sounds to me like you are using very soft pencils, which allow to draw very dark tones, but also smudge more easily. Try out hard pencils.

[WASPart]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

. . . after a few days, the pencil drawings smudge and fade away in my sketchbook. What do you guys do to prevent this? I don't want to waste cans of fixative on every page in my sketchbook and I think most people use pencil, but I've never heard anyone complain about this issue.

I would say that if you wanted to preserve the original look of your sketches, you should scan them into a computer as quickly as possible so that you have them on file for future portfolios and the like.

[jpstudio]

In my sketchbooks I have taken to drawing on one side of a page