I have the tendency to be either too light- or heavy-handed with graphite when rendering deep-sky objects on white paper. It’s a coin toss as to how the object might look after inverting the scanned drawing to a positive image — the faint details could disappear, or the denser areas could become overly bright.
Switching to black paper eliminates the guesswork. By using white media in lieu of graphite, you can create a positive image directly at the eyepiece. Along with quality black paper and blending stumps, the basic sketch kit includes (in white) colored pencils, a gel pen, and a pastel or charcoal pencil. I’ll use a sketch of the Fetus Nebula (NGC 7008) as an example.
Astronomy magazine subscribers can read the full column for free. Just make sure you're registered with the website.