Seattle artist demos graphite sketching techniques at first 2026 ‘Art Talk’ at Graphite Arts Center

The main room at Graphite Arts Center was quiet as a library Tuesday evening as 40 people watched Urban Sketchers founder Gabriel “Gabi” Campanario. He cross-hatched and brushed a pencil across the sketchbook as he copied a drawing of a stone arch in a ravine. In 10 minutes, the vague outlines turned into a black-and-white illustration one might find in Rembrandt’s sketchbook.

“The pencil – and graphite – is a tool that I’ve been fascinated with for a while because it’s easy to take for granted,” Campanario said. “What an amazing technology a pencil is. This wooden barrel with graphite and clay inside. Have you noticed the hexagon shape that most pencils come with? You know that allows us to hold them more comfortably.”

Campanario showed several sketches that highlighted the process of making more complex sketches, such as the construction of a building in downtown Seattle.

Using a pencil allowed him to lay out the foundation of the drawing, including the distance between objects and the perspective. If the artist makes a mistake or wants to make a change, they can always erase it and redraw, he said.

Campanario explained that pencil grades for sketching follow a European H/B system and an American number system, where a #2 pencil equals an HB pencil. In this scale, H means “hard” and B means “black.” HB sits in the middle and is a general-purpose grade. 

“The more graphite there is on the pencil, the higher the number is on the scale,” he said. “The less graphite and more clay, the harder the pencils.”

Campanario said he mostly uses 2H or 4H as a “safety net” to lightly compose scenes, establish perspective and scale, and place elements before committing with ink. These hard lines are faint enough that he often doesn’t need to erase them.

Campanario said sketching for him has always been to “record a moment, to look back at my sketchbooks and have that memory.” He recalled going to Green Lake in Seattle with his daughter during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and they sat at the park to sketch.

Campanario said using a pencil teaches the artist how pressure affects the lines that they make on the paper when they shade and texturize “The more I’ve drawn with pencil, the more I’ve been able to use other tools, like ink, watercolor at a higher level,” he said. “Why? Because I know how to control how much pressure I apply with the tool to the paint.”

The event was an extension of Graphite’s current exhibition “Graphite and Graphite II” that features local artists’ work done primarily or entirely with graphite pencils. It was also part of Graphite’s Art Talk, a free, monthly event that exposes the community to various artists, art movements and techniques, according to Graphite Events Manager Ray Munger.

“[It’s] everything from local artists presenting their work,” Munger said. “It can be an art history program. It can be people demonstrating.”

Munger said that he and the staff at Graphite have been playing around with ideas in public education. Considering that the studio houses artists and a gallery and was already involved with the Edmonds School District, having Art Talk “seemed like it was the next step,” he said. In February, Munger said Art Historian Lane Eagles from the University of Washington will present the meaning of love in art during the Renaissance.

“We have somebody coming up who’s going to talk about Surrealism and Abstraction,” Munger said. “In the fall, we have a printmaker who is going to talk about working in black and white and printmaking. And then I’m actually going to be probably doing a piece on German expressionist art.”

Campanario will return to Edmonds in July for the Fourth Annual Edmonds Sketcher Fest. 

For more information about Art Talk, contact Ray Munger at events@graphiteartscenter.org.