This photo is #nofilter to demonstrate the darkness of the pencils (although sometimes filters are actually necessary to make photos look more like real life and compensate for the camera, but I digress). I actually did this for myself and afterwards decided to post it, so I don't know how readable it is, but basically I'm comparing two brands of a 6B, an 8B and a 314. The 314 was recommended to our fashion sketch class. I've also had it recommended by a life drawing teacher I once had. But I learned how to draw on a 6B. All these numbers are referring to the quality and hardness of the graphite in the pencil. A 6B is pretty soft. It flows very nicely, and it can draw a fairly dark shade. It almost feels like cheating to draw with it. I learned today that I was spoiled by learning on one of the nicest brands of 6B the Berol Turquoise. I also have a 6B by Eberhard Faber and I learned on this paper that it's not as good. And as for the 314? It's not so good either, but it's cheaper than the 6B and it erases easier, which is probably why it is recommended in a learning situation. My conclusion? It's still all about the Berol 6B... If you actually got to the bottom of reading all of this, you should seriously think about making this time you spent useful and acquiring a pencil for doing some sketching yourself ;-)