My Favourite Drawing Supplies - Studio Supplies #1

Hi everyone, 

Since I keep repeating basically the same information in most of my process PDFs and videos, I figured it might be more efficient to simply create a few posts detailing my current favourite supplies. I use the same basic things for pretty much every piece I do, so this post is going to compile everything I love using and how I use each one. That way, I can reference these posts in the PDFs and you can refer to them directly if you need any information about my general process. 

This post is the first in my "Process Post" Series, and I will be detailing all my favourite tools and supplies for drawing sketches. That includes sketchbook sketches, final sketches for paintings, thumbnails, and everything where I need a pen or pencil. 

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Here are all my "Process Posts" :  

▶  My favourite drawing supplies (this post)
▶  My favourite brushes : LINK
▶  My favourite paints  : LINK
▶  My studio and set-ups  :  soon
▶  How I transfer a sketch to the final paper  :  soon
▶  How I prepare my paper before painting  : soon 

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✦ Sketching Pencils

- Prismacolor Col-Erase Pencils

These are my favourite sketching pencils, alongside the Blackwing pencils. I favour the carmine red, blue, brown and tuscan red but will occasionally be in the mood for black, vermillion, light blue, terra cotta or purple. They also have other colours in their range but these are the ones I personally prefer.
Col-Erase pencils are easily erasable (although not quite as easily as graphite pencils), and their lead is harder.
I like to use them to draw as I find drawing in colour less intimidating than graphite, and their harder lead means I can create very light marks. 

- Blackwing Pencils

Blackwing pencils are high quality graphite pencils that are a little softer than HB. They have a fairly good black rectangular eraser on the end.
They have a fairly wide range of pencils, although to be quite honest with you, I haven't found there to be a huge difference between each model of pencil....
I do find them more enjoyable to work with than regular graphite pencils, so they are my go-to graphite pencils when I feel like using some. 

⇫ I use this model the most. 

- Other Sketching Pencils

  ⇫  I use these on occasion. I have a wide range of hardnesses and use them according to my mood more than anything. I enjoy the variety of line quality they allow, and I like them particularly for life-drawing and gesture sketches. 

  ⇫  I have been sketching with mechanical pencils again a little lately, especially in my Doodle Diary. It isn't my favourite thing to use, but I do occasionally enjoy it.  

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 ✦ Other Pencils

These are pencils I use more partially, and more often in paintings than in sketches. 

- Grey Pencils

These are fantastic pencils that were in part gifted to me by an artist friend. They are so wonderfully rich and pleasant to use. I hope to be able to afford more Polychromos in the future. 

- White pens and pencils

Each of these white pencils work better on some surfaces and have a different finish and texture, so having a range allows me to experiment and pick the one best suited to my particular needs. 

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 ✦ Erasers

⇫ My favourite eraser of all time. 

  ⇫  This eraser is really fun to use, although very bulky, so unnecessary. It vibrates, which makes it fun to use to create textures or erase small details. But it's huge. XD

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 ✦ Sharpeners

I am yet to find a sharpener that I like enough to use regularly, so for the time being, what suits me best is sharpening by hand with a Stanley knife.
I like my leads long and rough, as it helps me get more sketchy lines and the lead tip stays stronger and sharper for longer. 

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 ✦ Watercolour Pencils 

I have been using watercolour pencils more and more lately, but less for their water-soluble properties, and more because I enjoy how soft their leads and how vibrant their colours are.

I use them mostly to intensify detail or draw texture. They work really well on watercolour paper, and over gouache, watercolour, and acrylic. 

I own two brands, Lyra, and Faber-Castell. I don't have a preference at this time, although I do tend to use my Lyra pencils more often, as I was given 2 tins by Strathmore, and I have a wider range of colours in that brand.
Watercolour pencils are quite soft and wear down fairly quickly, so using the ones I have more of makes sense. 

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 ✦ Fineliners

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 ✦ Brush Pens 

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  ✦ "Doodling" Pens

These are the pens I have started using in my sketchbook when I want to draw very loosely and freely, or when I want to get myself out of a funk. 

For this, I enjoy colourful, larger nibbed pens. There is no real rule here though, as I'm only using them for sketches and doodles, so there is no need for them to be lightfast or water-resistant. 

  ⇫  This is just one of the pens I have in this range. I have a variety of colours that I use whenever I'm in the mood. 

  ⇫   Again, I have quite a few of these highlighters and I regularly use them to shade the drawings I create with the coloured pens. 

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  ✦ Miscellaneous Tools

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That's it for pens and pencils for now!

I will update this post whenever I find new supplies I love, but you can be confident that every drawing supply I like using at the moment is in this list. 

If you have any questions, do leave them in the comments!

Take care everyone :)