Basic tools for sketching with coffee are pencils and coffee. Brewed in the man-shaped Italian espresso maker, black coffee tarts the tongue.
Placing the coffee down and picking up the pencil is the piano key note progression. What this mystical alliteration means is that drawing in pencil while sipping coffee is the step-note to calm. Each time the pencil tags the paper, the drawing builds.
Black or dark gray graphite is the material in pencils. It is not actual ‘lead’ which is Pb on the Periodic Chart of Elements. Holding an equal size lump of graphite and galena (lead ore) will quickly distinguish the two gray hand sized stones. Experimenting with the weights, I had a young student in 1st grade hold out her arms with locked elbows. Placing the galena (in a plastic bag for health safety) and the graphite in her right and left hand palms, the arm that held the galena dropped immediately. This proof came to each child; each child gasped. The masses of the two different mineral stones differed massively.
Pulling the graphite chunk on a piece of paper produced line. Pulling the galena along a piece of paper produced shaky flakes of not much. Since drawing is the consequence of friction, I can well believe that artists figured out first what scientists call “streak”. Streaks help identify the mineral. Artists use graphite because of its extensive personal expression properties.
The history of being called “lead” in pencils came from when the lead stylus helped guide stone carvers. That was back in Roman Empire times. Medieval artists used silverpoint which was noble silver metal in a stylus shape on clay treated paper. It layed down shiny and tarnished for a darker shade. Silverpoint is still used but only marginally. It excels in very tight drafting drawings such as those found in architecture.
I’ve used silverpoint but graphite is my home base. Graphite has far more possibilities than silverpoint. It can be as precise as what medical illustrators need or as personally expressive as any modern art explosion on canvas or paper. It can even be watered down and moved around by brush.
My favorite graphite is the one stuck in my first finger. I hope I become a diamond someday.