The Only Eraser That Actually Works: Why I’m Still Using a Staedtler Mars Plastic After a Decade
If you grew up in a house like mine in Kansas, you learned pretty early that tools matter. When I started art school in 2011, I brought that mindset to the school studio. From 2011 through 2014, my life was a blur of late nights and early mornings in fluorescent-lit classrooms. I went through dozens of sketchbooks, but I only ever needed one type of eraser.
I’m talking about the Staedtler Mars Plastic Vinyl Eraser. You’ve seen them: the white blocks with the blue sliding sleeve.
Stop Using Those Gritty Pink Erasers
Let’s talk about those classic pink erasers we all used in grade school. I honestly can't stand them. They have a sandy, gritty texture that feels like you’re rubbing a brick against your paper. Half the time, i’m not even removing the graphite, i’m just wearing down the eraser itself into a pile of pink dust, or tearing a hole in the page. It feels like they were engineered to be disposable so you’d have to go buy another pack of three.
The Staedtler is different. It’s a vinyl-based plastic. It doesn’t "scrub" the paper; it absorbs the graphite.
Why it’s the "King" of Erasers
The Clean Factor: When you use a Staedtler, the shavings don't turn into a million tiny crumbs that get stuck in the binding of your notebook. They tend to roll up into long, manageable strands that you can just brush away.
Longevity: I am not exaggerating when I say I still have one of these in my desk drawer from my college days. They don't dry out and get brittle like rubber erasers do. They stay soft and effective for years.
No Ghosting: If you’re drawing something detailed and you mess up a line, you need that line gone. The Mars Plastic gets it back to the white of the page without leaving that grayish smudge "ghost" behind.
The Reality of the Studio
Art school wasn't all "creative breakthroughs" and inspiration. Most of it was just hard, repetitive work. It was frustrating. You’d spend six hours on a charcoal perspective drawing only to realize your vanishing point was off by an inch. In those times, when you’re tired and annoyed, you don't want to fight with your tools. You want something that works the first time so you can fix the mistake and move on.
It’s a small thing, a piece of vinyl that costs a few bucks, but it’s one of the few things in this world that actually does exactly what it claims to do. No fluff, no marketing gimmicks. Just a solid tool for people who have work to do.
If you’re tired of smudging your notes or ruining your sketches, do yourself a favor and grab a pack. You can find them here: Staedtler Mars Plastic Erasers (Full disclosure: that's an affiliate link, which helps keep this site running).
The Staedtler Mars Plastic: No grit, no smudges, just a clean slate. I’ve been using this exact brand since my first day of art school in 2011.