I have a few more things, but these are the basic ones: all off them easy to get, relatively cheap and great to work with in my opinion.
The basic, cheap, yellow and black Staedtler Noris pencils are a staple of my school days. It is fair to say I have been using these all my life. They are very consistent, so I never get any surprises when I use them and come in handy packs of B, HB, H for about 2€. They are smooth writers and leave a good consistent line. I find the H just perfect for those initial lines and the HB is great for shading. I find the B nice for some deeper shadows and filling the iris'.
Overall I use these all the time - a lot more than I go for the Lumograph tin - so while not the best pencil you can get quality wise, they are the best thing I have when I just want to doodle and sketch without concern for the cost or if the result looks good or bad. If I think about it, that makes them the best!
As for the mechanical pencils:
The Parker 45 Flighter twist pencil is great. Heavy, with the 0.9 lead, it can do very fine lines or heavy shading with the AIN pentel leads.
Note that this is more of a writing tool than a sketching tool, so the lead has some play: it moves a bit up and down when you sketch with it.
The Kuro Toga 0.5 is light and easy to use. The whole "always sharp" feels like a gimmick, considering 0.5 is a very fine line, but it handles well and I think makes the little details really pop out: things like eyelashes and cross hatching look good. The Faber leads glide well and the lines have a nice texture to it.
The 788 is also an old companion. It was my father's clutch pencil and works like a plastic pencil. The Bic leads rival the Staedler B pencil in darkness, although they feel a little greasier than it.
I really feel like I should use it more, but I don't go immediately for it when doodling. I use it mostly for adding some line weight.
The Staedler fineliner... nice and cheap. Black enough, fine enough... I still prefer the Derwent or the Sakura (I'll go through my impressions of those later), but it's serviceable enough and at 4€ per 3 pens it is good value.
So, last, for a comparison of the progression with everyday practice:
In January
Not a great improvement, but I guess some is better than none.
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