PENCIL, an instrument used by painters for laying on their colours. Pencils are of various kinds, and made of various materials. The largest sorts are made of boars' bristles, the thick ends of which are bound to a stick, larger or smaller, according to the uses they are designed for. The finer sorts of pencils are made of camels', badgers', and squirrels' hair, and of the down of swans, which are tied at the upper end with a piece of strong thread, and enclosed in the barrel of a quill.