MY FAVORITE
SUPPLIES
I’ve listed everything I use to create my pencil and pastel drawings. No secrets here! With the exception of the colored pencils, most of these supplies are very affordable!
PAPER FOR PENCILS
I absolutely love the Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth Surface Paper for drawing portraits of people. It’s 100lb, so it has a little bit of thickness to it, and it’s smooth, which I personally love for human portraits. You can buy it in rolls or in pad form - it’s a pretty affordable drawing paper, and one that I am always using in my drawings. (Link for this paper)
The other paper I use with my drawings is Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Vellum Surface Paper. This paper has the same thickness as the previously mentioned paper, but it also has a little texture to it, which can be fun with colroed pencil drawings. I have used it with drawing portraits of people, and while I like the look, I find the smooth surface helps my drawings appear more realistic with human drawings. This is a great paper choice for drawing landscapes and animal portraits. (Get this drawing paper here!)
PAPER FOR SOFT PASTELS
I am somewhat new to pastels, but so far I have found this paper to be really nice when working with soft pastels. I love that there are a few different color options - my favorite are the earth tones and grays. (Link for the pastel paper)
GRAPHITE PENCILS
Some people are surprised when I say this, but oftentimes I use a mechanical pencil that I buy in bulk because I love how soft the lead feels on the paper and how well it blends! BUT, I won’t use them throughout my entire drawing, and this Faber-Castell 6-Pack of Graphite Pencils are my favorite. They provide a good range of lead hardness to softness and the brand is great, for a really good price! (Grab these drawing pencils here!)
COLORED PENCILS
I could talk about colored pencils all day! There are a lot of options out there, but not all colored pencils are made equally. For example, I love to use Prismacolors for bold backgrounds that don't require a ton of layering, or sometimes even for a good base layer with my drawings (not always something I use them for), but I don't use them a lot with my pet portraits because they are a wax-based pencil, meaning the more layers you use, the more pencil that builds up on your paper, creating almost a muddy effect. You can quite literally scrape the pencil off your paper. Artists refer to this effect as "wax bloom". Layering is very difficult with these. So if you only need to use the colors to create a bold background, or pop of color, or highlight, then these are great! But, if you know you're going to need fine lines and details and will layer a lot of pencil, these are not my first choice.
The colored pencils that I use for EVERYTHING, are these Faber-Castell Polychromos. They are my go-to, oil based pencil, so they are a bit of a harder pencil than the wax-based Prismacolors, blend beautifully and make it so easy to lay layer upon layer without the wax bloom. They're pricey, but worth it if you're serious about drawing. You'll find that after you purchase a set of these, there are quite a few that you stick to and use more than other colors, so going forward you only need to purchase a few colors at a time!
I want to mention one last pencil that is amazing for highlights! These Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils are much like the Prismacolors, with both being wax-based. They can be used in much of the same way - for highlights, bold colors and backgrounds, however, these pencils have higher lightfastness ratings. If you have no idea what that means, that's okay, I didn't either at first. It basically is a fancy phrase for - the colors are less likely to fade over the years. So, if you're looking for a great pencil for bold backgrounds and bright highlights, this is a premium choice. For me, I typically only use a couple of their colors - white and a baby blue color for highlights in eyes. Are these necessary for beginners? No - I would stick with Prismacolors. However, if you become more serious about your drawings, I would suggest trying these out!
SOFT PASTELS
I'm fairly new to pastel, but so far I am loving these Faber-Castell Soft Pastels! They are so smooth and seem to layer very well. I really enjoy using these to create a background layer and for other details that I don't need to be super crisp and clear! My style with pastel is a bit more loose than with colored pencils, so they're super fun to play with and get a little messy!
PASTEL PENCILS
These Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencils are absolutely amazing! I have used them to create pet portraits in pastel and really love them. The best part is that they're not as messy, since it's in pencil form. You can use sand paper (like this one) to sharpen them by simply rubbing them on the sandpaper. I also use an exacto knife or box cutter to CAREFULLY trim away the wood on the pencil around the pastel lead. These pastel pencils are great to create details in pastel drawings.
SETTING SPRAY FOR GRAPHITE AND SOFT PASTEL DRAWINGS
Let me introduce you to the scariest part of graphite and pastel drawing - sealing them! It's important to seal your drawings so that they don't smudge. But this part is the most anxiety inducing part of drawing (ahh! haha). There are actually two different fixative sprays to use for your art - a workable fixative and a final fixative. The workable fixative (like this one) is something I will spray occasionally when working on pastel drawings to keep the background and foreground from blending into each other too much. At the end of your drawings, you'll want to seal them with this to keep them from fading and smudging. I prefer a matte finish to not add any extra shine to my drawings - just not the look I am going for. However, there are three different finishes you can choose from - glossy, matte and satin.
PENCIL SHARPENER
You don’t have to get the most expensive pencil sharpener. I love grabbing cheap little hand-held sharpeners for $1-$2. I also love using this electric sharpener. I like the long pointy tip it gives my pencils, but I don’t love that it seems to eat away at my pencils faster - however, this specific sharpener allows you to adjust the sharpening length. If you want, stick to the cheap hand-held sharpener and call it a day!
ERASERS
I love using this battery operated eraser to pull out those fine details like whiskers and highlights in my drawings - specifically graphite drawings. I sharpen it using some sandpaper and give it a bit of a point to really get those thin, fine lines in my drawings! It’s one of my favorite tools to pull out hair details. The best part about this particular eraser, is that it comes with two different eraser sizes and plenty of extra erasers to keep you set for a while!
The other eraser that I use often is this mechanical eraser. I use it similarly to the electric eraser, but when I want a little more control over my strokes, I will typically reach for this one!
The final eraser I ALWAYS have on hand, for any drawing I do - pencil or pastel - is a kneaded eraser. These erasers are amazing because not only do they work as regular erasers, but they feel like play doh where I can mold it into whatever shape I need to work for me and my drawing. If I need to pull up a little pencil for a highlight, I just roll the eraser between my fingers to make it come to a point and then dab at the pencil on the paper until it is picked up all the way. I also like to use this to pull up my oultines, because once you lay down colored pencil over graphite pencil, there is no getting rid of it. The kneaded eraser allows me to pull up just enough pencil for me to not have that problem, while still leaving enough behind for me to see where my outline is.
Questions about how to use any of these supplies? I'm here for you!
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