Tombow Eraser

Product Review

Today I’d like to take a moment to talk about the Tombow Eraser, which found its way onto my drawing table not too long ago. I don’t normally do many product reviews, but I just had to do one for this eraser.

As many of you know, part of my inspirational and motivational routine is to peruse other artists’ Instagram and YouTube channels. In doing so, I came across several artists who were getting amazing results and crazy detail with the Tombow Eraser. It’s a Japanese product. I’ve been a huge fan of Japanese art supplies my whole life. What I wasn’t a fan of is that much of what I wanted came with a large price tag. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

When I’m doing animal portraits, I often have to get fur detail against a darker background, which can be tough to do. Now, I’ve learned many tricks over the years to get this effect. But this little eraser has kicked things up a notch or two as far as fur and whisker details go and it definitely adds to the range of detail I’m able to pull.

Tombow eraser

The Tombow is a clicker type refillable eraser. It’s got a pencil size silver barrel and works like any mechanical pencil by clicking the end to expose the eraser. The eraser itself is a white eraser, which eliminates any chance of leaving color on your paper (which does tend to happen with pink erasers). Another plus is being able to hold it like a pencil. This adds to ease of use and precision. It’s not always easy to be as precise with a kneadable eraser, especially once your eyesight starts going bad, like mine! Aside from my eyesight, my hand itself actually gets in the way. With the Tombow being held like a pencil, I don’t have any body parts blocking my vision.

Size Matters!

The eraser also has a very small 2.3 millimeter diameter. This means I can really get in there and erase very thin lines by using its edge. For years, in order to get whisker thin lines, I’ve used a trick which involves using a sculpting tool that looks like a long needle to scratch the whiskers into the paper. When you run a pencil over the scratches, the indented whiskers remain white. (Yes, I know this technically damages the paper, but it’s a method I’ve used for over 25 years and it works like a charm!) The problem with that technique is that I don’t like to overuse it. Almost like overusing highlights, it can kill the effect by having too much. Now, I can get a very sharp, thin line with the Tombow (but still thicker than the scratch method and not quite as white) and use the kneadable eraser for wider patches of fur, or fur that appears a bit out of focus.

Fur detail. Super thin lines created via the scratch method. The rest is a combination of kneadable and Tombow erasers.

While you can get a relatively sharp edge (essential for fur detail!) from a kneadable eraser, you need to continue to pinch that edge to maintain it as well as to keep it clean in order to pull off as much graphite as possible from your paper. The Tombow on the other hand, is a rigid, white eraser, so the edge is maintained for much longer. In the event that you lose that edge, you can take an Xacto knife and slice off a very thin sliver to get that edge back. But I’ve found for the most part that it holds up well. Instead of having to knead it in order to get it clean, I just rub the flat end over a clean sheet of paper to take off any accumulated graphite. This also helps maintain that edge.

New kneadable eraser on the left. Completely saturated one on the right. (Photo credit: By Mrs Scarborough – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2942858)

Kneadable erasers also end up getting completely saturated with graphite and eventually need to be replaced. The Tombow is refillable, so you can order replacement packs to keep on hand. It’s always good to be prepared and comforting to know you have backup supplies at the ready.

Understand that I’m not switching completely over from a kneadable to the Tombow. But I am happy to add it to my arsenal of drawing tools. For the same reason that I use two different brands of drawing pencils on the same project…they both have different strengths that I like to use. These two erasers have very distinct characteristics and I can use both of them to achieve the variety of effects that go into any given drawing.

And now back to the price…

This is what I ordered on Amazon.

The bonus is that this little eraser is super cheap! I bought mine on Amazon. It comes in a two pack, so you get not just one but TWO silver, clicker barrels, which already come loaded with an eraser and two packs of refills (total of 4 extra erasers). The grand total for this little gem was $9.31. Well within my budget and I’m sure yours too! Who doesn’t love that?