Leadholders 101: Where to Find Leadholders for sketching and drawing

During my drawing classes students get the opportunity to try and draw with a variety of specialized sketching tools. One of the most popular happen to be one of my favorite mechanical pencils for doodling on the go: leadholders. I have gotten many of mine through JetPens.

The "Drafting Tools" section of your local office supplies store would also be a good bet for finding the reliable German Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholder. Its main advantage would be the built-in lead pointer in its push button. Though refills available in brick-and-mortar stores are usually limited to standard HB graphite drawing leads.

You can find a greater variety of 2 mm graphite lead grades online, and even some red and non-photo blue leads.

I would recommend getting one or two Uni leadholders and a selection of your favorite lead grades. If you plan to sketch lightly and then ink your drawings, you might want to use harder leads like 3H or H. If your style relies more on linear strokes, you might want to go with F or HB leads. If you prefer bold dark lines and prefer to draw with lots of shading, a 2B or 4B would be good choices. If you need a lead pointer to restore your sharp points, I would recommend the KUM Automatic 23 or the Kum Automatic Brake Long Point sharpener that also features 2 mm & 3.2 mm lead pointers on its sides.

Doodling with Mitsubishi Uni 2 mm graphite leads and other leadholders

Spent a couple of hours sketching at the Target food court. Advantages of using a leadholder: constant barrel length of the drawing tool since it doesn't get shorter after each sharpening and easily adjustable length of the exposed lead for creating a variety of marks by simply activating its push button.Started this session with a woodless pencil which facilitates making broad marks for quicker shading when used on its side. The Derwent 2B Aquatone sample sketches produced rather light washes when blended with the waterbrush.
The substantially larger Lyra Watersoluble 2B Graphite crayon was used to sketch this cartoon athlete. The dry marks were partially blended with the Aquaflo waterbrush. The moistened marks turned out quite darker than the Derwent 2B Aquatone example.
Some of my favorite 2 mm leadholders from my daily sketching kit. Comparison chart of Mitsubishi Uni graphite leads' marks. Demo video using assorted leads.
Doodling a sample comic layout on Georgia Pacific 110 lb white card stock with a 4B Lamy 3.15 mm graphite lead.
While I started this sample page with the Worther 3.15 mm Shorty leadholder, decided to switch to the Mitsubishi Uni H 2 mm lead for narrower clean lines.
Second H lead sample doodle page.
Third H lead sample doodle page. Middle character inspired by a customer having lunch across the room.
By the fourth page, the point of the H lead still remained quite sharp and functional. Good choice for long drawing sessions in the field since it requires less frequent sharpening.
The HB lead sample doodle.
The B lead sample doodle. This lead grade got blunt quickly and required more frequent sharpening. Still like the rest of the Mitsubishi Uni graphite leads, it is quite smudge resistant. These 2 mm graphite leads are non-crumbling, of uniform darkness, and smooth throughout without any surprise scratchy bits that could interrupt your work flow while sketching.
The penciled outlines can easily be inked and later erased. This pencil dragon sketch was inked with Sakura Pigma 05 black pigment pen and labeled with a couple of color pens with the same size nibs.