Art Supplies Every Beginning Artist Should Have

Good Afternoon, everyone!

Today I am going to go over a few things that every artist needs to be able to start drawing.

I know how it can be daunting and complicated to find good quality art supplies without getting too expensive. This is an especially difficult thing for beginner artists.

Many beginners buy art supply sets or boxes and many of the art supplies inside are poor quality. However, this isn't always the case, but the higher end sets still tend to be very expensive.

When I decided I wanted to try out some better quality art supplies, I purchased them individually for a few reasons.

• Better Quality
• Price (Sometimes you'll find sales)
• Choice on art supplies to purchase.

Most beginning artists start off either drawing, painting, or both. I will first go over drawing supplies and then painting supplies. I will be updating this post with links to reviews of products I personally have tried and suggest.

Paper

Paper should be of good quality and made for the Media you wish to work with. For beginner's I suggest, Canson XL Mixed Media paper. You can find it easily and you will get good quality paper for the price. For something a little more basic, I suggest Bienfeng Take-Me-Along Sketchbook. They also make good quality paper.

Pencils

As for pencils, for beginner's General Pencil Company is a good way to go. They are made in the USA and they come in a variety of degrees. Their charcoal products are also very nice. I began with General's Semi-Hex drawing pencils. I later got the Tombow Mono pencils, which are very useful for colored pencil drawings as the graphite is very dense and does not smear. Tombow is a Japanese company with some unique products. However, I still use General's for when I do want to smear it!

Erasers

There are many forms of erasers on the market right now. I have quite a few myself. I will have an article comparing the erasers I have personally used up soon. However, I will give you some basics to have.

One important thing to remember is, to try to get erasers which don't have any dye in them as this with age can come out and mark up your paper.

Rubber Eraser

Rubber erasers are the most basic form of eraser and are used for general work. They are usually the cheapest and easiest to get. Be careful as some may tear your paper. General's All Art, Papermate black Pearl, and Derwent white eraser are good choices.

Kneaded Erasers

These erasers are fun as you knead them into shapes with your hands. This allows you to lighten and lift whatever it is you are trying to erase out of the paper. They clean themselves as well when you knead them again.

Plastic Erasers

There are a lot of these out there. The ones I have personally used and found useful are, Factis Eraser,and Tombow Mono eraser.

Crayons

Good old crayons! I grew up using crayons and still love them for certain projects. I recommend Crayola and Prang crayons as these are my personal favorites and have very consistent quality. Crayola has perhaps the most colors of all crayon companies. All the colors! 

Colored Pencils

My other favorite medium to use! I will be doing a colored pencil comparison with all of the colored pencils I currently have soon as well. There are wax and oil based colored pencils. There isn't a whole lot of difference between them except that Oil based do not get a waxy film on the paper called wax bloom and you can get some different blending effects with them.

Colored Pencils are a really neat medium as you can blend them in different ways, provided you have good quality artist pencils to do so. This can be done with colorless blender pencils as well as other things like odorless paint thinner, mineral spirits and the like,

A few brands I would recommend include:

Koh-I-Noor,
Marco Raffine
Derwent
Prismacolor

I will update this review with these posts as well.

Pencil Sharpener

It is always good to have a good quality pencil sharpener.

I recommend a hand one as it is less likely to break the pencils. Pencil sharpeners for the most part are inexpensive as well.

General's All Art red sharpener is good to begin with and then later on, the Bostitch Twist N' Sharp. 

Other Accessories which are optional

Chamois - a small piece of leather or some are synthetic for shading and softening pencil, charcoal and even colored pencil

Eraser Shield - a small metal stencil-like thing, which allows you to erase smaller areas and avoid places you don't!

Tortillions and Blending Stumps - Pieces of paper wrapped very tightly to shade, blend and even move color or charcoal around. Also useful for Oil and chalk pastels!



I think that is everything! I hope you all look forward to product reviews and I have posted links to where you might purchase these products on this page.

Thank you for reading!