We’ve all used a pencil in our lives, and most of them had erasers, but why do drawing pencils not have erasers?
Drawing pencils don’t have erasers because artists use them regularly, and little pencil erasers don’t last long enough. Also, because artists require different erasers depending on their drawing style, drawing pencils and erasers usually are acquired separately.
However, there is much more to it. Here are the reasons why artists prefer it this way still.
1. Little Pencil Erasers Can Damage The Paper Faster
Pencil-included erasers weren’t meant for drawing artists but for students. Because these pencils are for writing and not drawing, the eraser doesn’t need to have any special care on the paper. Also, having high-quality erasers in such a small format would make production too expensive, and it wouldn’t solve artists’ demands anyway.
If you ever drew with a regular pencil and then used its eraser, you probably had this problem: after you erased what you wanted to fix, the paper’s area you rubbed looks damaged, and when you draw over it, the line quality or shading looks terrible. Although there are many factors why this happens, including the quality of the paper, the eraser’s quality is a big one. Especially these low-quality erasers. They are not designed to take care of the paper.
Paper is made of pulp fibers put under pressure to achieve a smooth finish. Breaking this fiber will permanently damage the paper and potentially ruin your drawing. You can damage your paper using any eraser, but using a drawing eraser will make this much less likely to happen.
2) Different Pencils Need Different Erasers
Any artist who has covered the basics of sketching and drawing will know there are many types of pencils, and they require different erasers. Here’s a comparison table of different pencil leads and what eraser is best for each of them.
The focus here is how well an eraser can completely erase hard lines. A soft line would be more like shading, without putting too much pressure on the paper, and that’s pretty easy to erase with any erasers.
| Pencils / Erasers | Gum | Rubber | Kneaded | Vinyl |
| Charcoal | Hard | Hard | Hard | Hard |
| 6H | Hard | Medium | Easy | Easy |
| 5H | Hard | Medium | Easy | Easy |
| 4H | Medium | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| 3H | Medium | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| 2H | Medium | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| H | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| F | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| HB | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| B | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| 2B | Medium | Medium | Medium | Easy |
| 3B | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| 4B | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| 5B | Hard | Hard | Medium | Medium |
| 6B | Hard | Hard | Hard | Medium |
| 7B | Hard | Hard | Hard | Medium |
| 8B | Hard | Hard | Hard | Medium |
Tip: Vinyl erasers are very good at erasing because they are hard, but this means they can damage the paper more easily. It would be best if you were careful when using them.
As you can see, some erasers work best for some pencils, so it wouldn’t make sense for an artist to have such a small eraser on the top of the pencil because it would be a mess to have so many different erasers. If all pencils had the same eraser, even if it is a good one, you would need a different one eventually. High-quality erasers need to be independent of the pencil.
3) Drawing Erasers Can Erase More Precisely
Another reason why drawing pencils don’t include erasers is that it limits the eraser’s potential to have different shapes. Erasers included in pencils can be useful for a very short period because they lose their shape pretty quickly. Although this doesn’t seem very important as a beginner, you will need more from your erasers as you get better at drawing.
Here are some pictures to see how pencil erasers evolve compared to erasers made for drawing artists.
Pencil-included Erasers
(I know it’s not a pencil, but it’s basically the same eraser they have and it proves the point)
Eraser Made For Drawing Artists
There is plenty of erasers made for drawing artists, and they all have different ways to help the artist. I personally like this one very much.
This drawing eraser is, by far, my favorite and the one I use the most. When drawing, you will always find details you need to erase that are too close to other lines you don’t want to erase. But this eraser took away those problems and allowed me to use it in many different ways.
In case you would like to know the exact drawing eraser I use, you can see it here.
As you can see, drawing erasers are created with a goal in mind: helping the artist in all possible ways. Since little pencil erasers fall short in this aspect, drawing pencil makers prefer not to include them.
4) Pencil-included Erasers Don’t Last Long Enough
As we said, pencil-included erasers are mostly for students and writing, meaning that you won’t need them often. Nevertheless, in drawing, having access to an eraser at all times is essential.
Depending on how you create your art, the number of times you use your eraser can increase or decrease, but you will always make it part of your process. For example, many artists would start a drawing by creating a sketch of it, then stroking more precise lines to give a more concrete form to the drawing and proceed to the details. Since many of the beginning lines are more for guide and reference, you will have to erase them from your drawing in the end.
Now, Independently of your skill level, every artist uses erasers to correct imperfections. If you’re a beginner, I would recommend picking an eraser based on the specific pencil you use utilizing the table on point 2.
The other reason they don’t last long is that as you improve your drawing skills, the eraser’s use will be more common. Not because you need to correct imperfections, but because you will use it for shading and other purposes, which we will discuss in the next point.
5) Erasers Do More Than Just Erasing Imperfections
Another reason why drawing pencils don’t have erasers is that artists use them for other purposes, such as shading, adding highlights, and blending. It becomes an artist tool.
In the following video, you can see an excellent example of it.
Drawing pencil makers know what artists demand from erasers, and that’s why they don’t add them to their pencils. It would give them a bad reputation, and although it would be possible if they sold them with many replaceable little erasers, drawing erasers will always outperform the little ones. It is not worth the problem.
As you could see in the video, the drawing before and after using the kneaded eraser was significantly different. As an artist, he correctly uses the eraser to add the highlights, but be careful when trying yourself! Erasing the same spot over and over again can damage the paper and your drawing, so we want to use it moderately. You can use the eraser all you need to, and there’s no better way to learn than real experience. Find the limits of how much you can push it.
One drawing teacher once told me:
“Don’t erase too hard. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see what your mistake was, and you will make it again.”
And boy, you can also apply that to your life.
One great tip I could give you is to see your eraser as a tool to make your drawings better, even if you’re not adding highlights or improving shading with it. Every time you erase a mistake is because you’re getting better at identifying them.
Remember: erasers exist because humans are not perfect.
The things you can add to your drawings with an eraser are limitless; you just have to be creative.