Art Supplies for Pencil Artists

Published: 2011-03-18

If you are a pencil artist, or you aspire to be, you're going to need some quality art supplies.

Now, you could just go on down to the local art supply store and pick out what ever has the most eye catching packaging, or you could educate yourself a bit and save some time and money by picking out the right supplies the first time.

The obvious first item on the list will be pencils. I just recently wrote an article all about pencil choices so I'll keep this part brief. You'll want to get a good quality set of pencil that have varying degrees of hardness.

Harder pencils are labeled with an H and give you a lighter tone. Softer pencils are labeled with a B (I don't know why) and give you a darker tone.

The pencil right in the middle is the HB and is equivalent to the #2 pencil we all used in school to do those multiple choice fill in the bubble tests.

Now lets move on to paper. If you're just doing some sketching or doodling then any paper will do. You can use your computers printer paper.

But, if you're getting a little more serious about your drawing and you want the finished product to last, you'll want to use a better quality paper. When you look at a pad of drawing paper, there is a weight on the cover.

It will say 50lbs or 75lbs sometimes more sometimes less. The "heavier" the paper the thicker it will be and the thicker it is the more abuse it can take. Abuse like lots of shading, blending, erasing etc.

The paper that I prefer to use is called Bristol Board. There are several different brands of Bristol Board and I don't really have any preference for one brand over another. Bristol Board is a very heavy weight paper and it feels like card stock.

You can get Bristol Board in a vellum finish or a plate finish. The vellum finish has a bit of a tooth or a texture to it. The plate finish is smooth and it happens to be my preference.

Some artists like to have a bit of texture on the drawing paper but I prefer the smooth finish so that I can determine the texture my drawing has by using shading and highlights rather than having the paper dictate the texture.

Whichever you prefer, if you're drawing something that you want to last, you'll want to use a good quality paper.