Art Supplies for Pencil Drawing - Resources for Artists

If you don't have the room (or the money) to get an artist's or drafting table and chair, don't worry about it. I have a beautiful drafting table that I can't use right now, because my children are young and could tip it over and hurt themselves. So, I have been using art boards. In some ways, the art boards are preferable, but sometimes I really miss my table! It all depends on what works for you.

Now that I have been using them for awhile, I can really appreciate their portability and the fact that I can sit in a very comfy chair to draw. It also allows me to easily move to another room to work. A hefty drawing table will not allow you this freedom.

Korton Drawing Boards
The Korton Drawing Board is smooth surfaced and basic. There are other drawing boards (like the one below) that have handles and clips to hold the paper. There are benefits and drawbacks to either kind of board.

This is an example of the clipboard-style drawing board. Again, assess your needs. If you will be carrying the board with you a lot, then you might want one with a handle. The clips can be handy, too - but a drawback of clips is that they sometimes dent or otherwise damage the drawing paper. This
16" × 21" Board board solves those problems - having legs that fold easily underneath and one clip with non-marring rubber grips to gently secure the artwork.

Tombow Mono Professional Drawing Pencils were previously very hard to locate. I had to order them from an online animator's supply store. DickBlick now carries them - hooray! Buy them in quantity, because I'm sure you will absolutely love them like I do! If they ever stop making these, I'll break down and actually cry. They are that good.

Prismacolor Verithin Pencilshave harder leads than regular Prismacolor colored pencils and are non-toxic, blend-able and erasable. I really like these. You can get the smaller assortments and then later add colors, but you will spend about 75 cents to a dollar for each pencil, so it's more economical in the long run to just go for the larger assortments.

I have a whole additional page about pencil sharpeners and I think you will find it helpful. Click Here to check it out!

I find that a good mechanical pencil is indispensable for fine detail areas like eyelashes, eybrows, parts of jewelry, etc. Go ahead and get a good quality one like Alvin Draft/Tec Pencilsor Staedtler-Mars. They should last you for years, and the leads aren't expensive to buy at all either! Most of my earlier artworks were nearly all done in mechanical pencil.

Prismacolor Colored Pencils are the most popular in the United States for good reason.

They are very vibrant, have a wonderful range of colors, are non toxic, and have a smooth and creamy blending consistency. Downside? Non-erasable. They are waxy. If you make a mistake, you might be able to carefully scrape away some of the pencil, but that's it. I use a 'test paper' of the same type and shade as the portrait I'm working on, to pre-test pencil blends before committing them to the final artwork.



You might also be interested in a colorless blender pencil (shown above.) When you overlay colors and want to blend them even more than a blending stump can do, give these a try.

I have found that when I do colored pencil portraits on a colored matboard, the blenders can really help give the colored pencil a blended pastel quality. Something to watch for when using the blenders is that there can be some inadvertant transfer of colors - if you are working on something red, for example - and then you work on a yellow area, some of the red may still be on the tip and ruin your yellow. Rubbing it on some paper or wiping it usually helps avoid this problem. I have tried the blender markers and didn't find them very useful (were kind of messy and I didn't like the vapor it gave off).




I recently purchased a set of these Lyra Skintone Giant Pencils
and they are wonderful. Definitely a lot of fun, but I haven't used them for a portrait yet. This set of pencils mimics the most popular skintones, and the pencils have a wonderful consistency.

Smooth or Plate finish are recommended if you want to do the smooth blended style that I generally do - if you are working in charcoal or want more of a textured surface, then get the Vellum surfaced papers. The links below are acid free, wonderful art papers, and the kind I use.

Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Board


Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Board


Below is a link for a good economical student pad of Bristol paper in smooth surface. Note that this paper will not be good for longevity, it's basically for practice. They're good if you plan to go through a lot of paper and want to save money. However, the Series 400 pads listed above will be a better purchase over time, because they are acid free (resist yellowing) The Series 500 are the pads of paper I use.


Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Board Pads

You can also purchase Strathmore paper by the sheet, but I prefer the pads because storage is more practical for me. Pads can be kept high and dry on a bookshelf, whereas by the sheet, you need to have room to roll the paper for storage.

Design Kneaded Rubber Eraser

Old fashioned typewriter eraser, the kind with brush on end (optional)

~Use non-colored erasers - I highly recommend the following:~


Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser

Sanford Tuff Stuff Eraser Stick

You will want this handy dusting brush to brush off the bits of eraser and pencil gently - it keeps your fingers off your artwork. Best not to blow the eraser bits and dust off your artwork - if often ends up damaging your work (because of accidentally spitting on your artwork - argh!) Your artwork is worth the few extra bucks to get this brush. Also, keep your fingers off the brush bristles, to keep the oil from your skin off them.

Staedtler Mini Dusting Brush 10 in. brush mini drafting

Facial tissue, white, without lotion

Tortillions - Jack Richeson, small pack of 12.

Natural Chamois is a must-have for smooth skintones!

Cotton swabs (optional but handy to have on hand)

When I use fixative I use workable fixative - after spraying, you cannot erase any more, but you can add on to the portrait without smearing the areas you are happy with.

Winsor & Newton Artists' Fixative Spray

I advise you follow all manufacturer's directions and warnings when using this product. Use this in a well-ventilated area. I really recommend that you only use this if you feel it is a necessity. As long as artwork is handled around the edges and people take care not to wipe their fingers directly on the face of your artwork, it should be fine without fixative - but there are some times that you have an artwork that has a large amount of dark graphite areas that you will want to keep from smearing.

On some art websites, you might see artists say that the spray 'protects' the artwork. Technically, it does not protect the artwork - what it does do is keep the artwork from smearing. If you are going to be framing the artwork and you keep it protected from fingers in the meantime, fixative is not really needed. I personally feel that the fixatives could prematurely brittle or yellow art papers. I would rather protect the artwork from smearing without use of fixatives in the short term in favor of the pencil portrait lasting in the long term.

I really liked the Crystal Clear bags that Light Impressions Direct carried, however they seem to be continually out of stock lately.

I recently purchased some clear 'digital print' sleeves from Blick Art Supply and have been very happy with them. A nice feature they have is a fold-over flap, instead of adhesive - so now there is less worry about adhesive sticking to the artwork and damaging it. Here is the link to that product in various sizes: Lineco Digital Print Sleeves

Associated Bag Company and Veripack are some other good sources.

Copyright 2007-2012 Darla Dixon
This Squidoo lens was written by Darla Dixon, a professional pencil portrait artist in Snellville Ga.
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