Drawing materials are very personal to all of us. For most of us, it is where it all began. Crayons, pencils, markers… My drawing materials are basic, and this kind of decision allows me to streamline my creative process and get to straight to that most immediate extension of the hand.

I prefer graphite pencils, in particular your common #2 pencil with a very sophisticated built on eraser. You can buy these beautiful creations in heaps for almost nothing which is nice because I have tendency to lose expensive pens and pencils. I enjoy the versatility of an “in the middle” softness of graphite HB or 2B, it seems to easily handle the full value spectrum as I see it and it saves me money as I have always felt that buying sets of pencils to be a waste. In the end, the wooden pencil just feels good in my hand. That being said, I will turn to a nice mechanical pencil for just about every watercolor I do. This is simply because I do contour drawings to set the painting up and it saves me an immense amount of time not have to sharpen in the process. For mechanical I have found the Pentel Orenz to be a lovely make. Inexpensive, light, a wide variety of graphite thicknesses available (I prefer .5) and it has a retractable tip which is a very useful feature as one drop could take the pencil out of the game and into the waste bin.

I am not picky when it comes to erasers. normally I find the pink eraser built on to my #2 pencils will suffice for normal drawings. I normally preserve my lights to some degree as force of habit from painting in watercolor for years. When I am doing a highly finished drawing and I need to erase some small details I will often turn to a Tombow Mono Zero. I find them super sleek, precise, and robust. Mostly though I enjoy using bits of white gouache as my highlights, using a fine sable for the job.

Pencil sharpeners are simple, if it is not the Kum long point sharpener then its a pocket knife. The long point sharpener is extremely handy, as the point it puts on the pencils is amazing and it captures all of your shavings which is essential for travel without making a mess.

This post is in a way a self reflection of my methods and materials. A reflection of just how simple the act of creating art can be if we get out of our own way with endless junk. Keep it simple and enjoy the process more. What are your favorite drawing supplies?

Thank you for reading, have a lovely day.