Why the fuss over pencil sharpeners?
A pencil sharpener is a pencil sharpener, right?
Oh no, grasshopper.
Colored pencil artists are pretty darned emphatic about the kind of pencil sharpeners they’ll use.
Pencils are a tool and tools need to function properly.
Your pencil sharpener can make coloring life easy or hard.
Not kidding.
A badly sharpened pencil is complete torture. A great pencil sharpener makes drawing or coloring a breeze.
Which is why artists and artistic colorers are sticklers about what we’ll use and which sharpeners we treat like glowing toxic ooze.
Today, let’s look at the long point pencil sharpeners recommended by Amy and several of her advanced students.
Long-Point versus Short-point
Some people like long points on their pencils. Some people like shorter points.
Short point people feel like they waste less pencil lead from breakage. Shorter points do have less core exposed, so even if you toss ‘em across the room, the breakage is minimal.
Note, I do not recommend pencil tossing, thank you very much.
But security comes at a price.
Short or shallow points give you a much fatter mark.
That fat mark feels as if it’s going down gently but this is misleading.
Paper isn’t as smooth as it feels. Under a magnifying glass, you’ll see that paper is covered by a mountain like texture which we call tooth. Tooth is basically all the wood and cotton fibers sticking up in random directions.
Hot press paper has very little tooth. Cold press paper has lots of tooth.
When you use a shallow point sharpener, your pencil lead is wider than the tooth.
Your marks look light in color because the pencil lead isn’t getting down into the little valleys. You’re only coloring the mountain tops, not the valleys.
When the valleys stay white, your coloring looks light, even if you’re physically pressing hard.
Shallow points and fat lead to gritty, grainy looking coloring.
Thanks to Vanilla student, Kathy for sharing her scarlet hydrangea drawing. Kathy used Copic Markers and colored pencils, applying Vanilla Arts depth techniques covered in: Splashy Hydrangea and Ink & Hydrangea.
I find short-points frustrating because I want my coloring to look vibrant, not grainy.
With a shallow point sharpener, the lead is dull after only a few strokes.
Dull leads can’t fill the tooth properly.
With shallow point sharpeners, I’m constantly headed back to re-point my pencil. And seriously, if I’m forced to sharpen every ten strokes, remind me how that saves lead?
So I like a long narrow point. I want my pencils sharp enough to kill a bear.
Pencil Points of Death (or PPDs for short)
You can see the longer style points on my pencils here. They were sharpened with the red KUM sharpener, shown bottom right.
However, there comes a point where sharp is too sharp.
I do often knock the very tippy tip off the lead within the first couple of marks. That’s a given. And you do have to learn not to press hard with a PPD, but that’s good for your technique.
But some brands of colored pencils simply can’t hold a long taper. In that case, you’ll either not sharpen all the way, or you can adjust the point by adjusting the sharpener.
The trick is to experiment and see what works best for your taste and the brand of pencil you’re using at the time.
We Love Long-Point Sharpeners
My advanced students all seem to collect pencil sharpeners. Lots and lots of sharpeners.
Hey, don’t judge! Trying out new sharpeners is just one of the hazards of the hobby.
Here are the long-point sharpeners we keep reaching for:
Please note: this article was written in January 2020 and reflects sharpeners available at this time. We can not guarantee future availability or predict design changes.
KUM 2-Hole Automatic Long Point Sharpener - A great all-around manual sharpener, perfect for travel. Provides an extremely long point. Comes with replacement blades. The two blade sharpening process can be confusing if you do not read the directions the first time.
Dux Legendary Adjustable Sharpener - A sturdy sharpener with an adjustable dial for 3 different point lengths. Comes with replacement blades and a small travel case. Smallest of the sharpeners shown here but incredibly durable.
Zmol Long Point Artist’s Sharpener - Recommended with reservations; please read further before purchasing. This model was designed for sketch artists who traditionally hand-sharpen with utility knives. It gives the longest point of all the sharpeners listed here. Zmol is too long of a point for most colored pencils. We’ve included it here because Amy has received several inquiries and she does use it… but she uses it for charcoal pencils, not expensive colored pencils. Rechargeable via USB. Automatic stop. Five length settings. Amy uses the shortest setting for Col-Erase colored pencils, but let’s stress one more time, this sharpener is recommended for sketching pencils, not for coloring.
Derwent Super Point Manual Sharpener - A beautiful hand crank sharpener which comes with a table clamp option. Auto feed allows for easier cranking. Shavings collect in removable drawer.
X-acto School Pro Classroom Electric Sharpener - Highly recommended. Large desktop sharpener with six diameter settings. Automatic stop to prevent oversharpening. Plugs into standard wall outlet. Shavings collect into a gigantic removable bin. This one is loud though and takes up desk space.
Uni KH-20 Hand Crank Sharpener - Similar to the Derwent Super Point minus the table clamp. This model features a red press-button on the handle to adjust the point length.
See more of Amy’s favorite art & coloring supplies, click above.
Looking for More Pencil Sharpener Information?
Check out this article:
Long-Point Pencil Sharpeners:
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