Cretacolor 'Monolith', deriving from the Greek for 'stone out of one flush', as objects consisting of one piece are termed 'monolithic', consist of pure graphite lead with a thin lacquer coating on the exterior. Monolith pencils can be used to create a precision mark or thicker, expressive marks and can be easily sharpened with a standard pencil sharpener. This water soluble solid graphite pencil will create washes as well as making a solid drawn mark.