Sketching gear - what does the beginner need ?

All of my drawing lenses:
How to draw a tree
Landscape drawing - Improve your skills
How to draw a pine tree
How to draw deciduous trees (mostly apple trees:).)
How to draw coniferous trees (some spruce trees)
How to draw buildings and houses
Drawing the urban landscape
Draw people in a landscape
The self portrait - somewhat of an adventure
How to draw a face
Artists sketchbooks - little nothings turn into big somethings
Sketching gear - a guide for beginners

There are many choices available for the sketcher nowadays. It can be really confusing and tempting to buy sketchbooks of all sorts. I have to confess that this is one of my rare shopping weaknesses I hardly can withstand to buy a decent sketchbook; my radar for those is always on alert.

However for the beginner I would suggest to look for sketchbooks that fullfil the following requirements:

paper weight : the paper weight per sqm should be more than 120gr/sqm! This is the minimum that I want to recommend. Thinner paper is not really fun to work on. I prefer books with 150-170gr to make sure that in case I want to use water colours the paper does not curl too much and that it is possible to work also on the backside of the pages still.. There are special water colour sketchbooks available which usually start at around 200gr/sqm paper weight.

paper quality The better the paper quality the longer your drawings will last. Imagine your grand grand children passing your notes and sketches on to the next generation. Therefore you should buy only sketchbooks with acid free paper that will withstand aging best.

book binding Try to get books with strong sewn binding. Do not use sketchbooks with Wire-O or spiral binding! Books with glue binding will fall apart very soon. Sketches will get feet and easily been torn out of your book either by you or somebody else... and you will regret it!
Sketchbooks should withstand the test of time and a couple of minor accidents.
One time a water bottle leaked in my backpack and the sketchbook was soaked partly. It took only 2-3 days for drying and I could use it further thanks to good binding quality !
Sketchbooks fall down on the floor. So also strong covers are recommended. Last not least sketchbooks often are used for years also after they have been filled.

Size of sketchbooks The size of a sketchbook is already a kind of artistic decision. Over time everybody develops certain preferences. If you want to scan your sketches for digital use the page size should not be too big.

Sewn binding

I recommend to select your sketchbooks directly at a shop. If you are too far away from suitable retailers Kunst&Papier,Palo Alto might be the right source for you.

Moleskine is a brand meantime known worldwide for very good sketchbooks. Except of the water colour books I do not use Moleskine for sketching as I find the paper too smooth. Moleskine books are very strong and durable.
Get some more inspirations at Artists sketchbooks little nothings turn into big somethings

My equipment is relatively spartanic, because I have learned that it is not easy to change media frequently. But for beginners I really want to recommend that they try everything they can get. This is the only way to find out what they like best. Also it is important for the further developement. One person might go for the brushes and painting others more for drawing in linear ways and some might prefer a combination.

india ink Sketching with india ink offers a wide range of applications. India ink is also light fast and your sketches will have a maximum of duration.
You can use very fine or broader feathers for drawing and the ink can be used in a painterly way with various types of brushes. India ink is a fantastic medium and I really recommend to try it.

Brush pens for india ink There are brush pens that can be loaded with lightfast ink containers. As far as I know these brush pens are very common in Japan. I bought an inexpensive pen(Pentel) in France. I feared that it would dry and block very fast, but I have to say that the pen never failed whenever I used it. It is not that easy to draw with these brush pens,but once you get used to it it is a great tool at a very good price.

Ink pens There are ink pens availabe,some of them even rechargable. In theory this should be ideal drawing and sketching tool. I have tried a couple of brands, but never used them on a regular basis as the tip of these pens quickly wears off and then drawing gets impossible in the worst case. Also the ink is used up fairly quickly,which makes this tool rather expensive. Also the line is comparatively uniform (dead) it always has same thickness and I found that it is necessary to hold these pens in an unatural almost upright position to get best results.


I use cheap plastic vessels(for chemicals or cosmetics) to carry india ink. These bottles have a double closure. My experience is that ink will go through most of the simple closures of bottles. As support for detailed drawings I use a plywood board.

Fountain pens Fountain pens are comfortable to handle. I like best that you can move your hand more freely with a fountain pen in comparison to the traditional ink nib. Also you do not have to worry about having enough ink on the nib. The speed of drawing can be much faster. For these reasons my favorite tool is a small fountain pen. A more detailed description can be found in my lens How to draw with a pen The ink in fountain pens usually is not light fast.
However there seems to be one exception. I found a recommendation on the blog of Mattias Magnuson. He uses a Namiki Falcon fountain pen, with American eel from noodlers ink.

The ink for fountain pens I prefer black ink because you can achive very dark blacks. With blue ink the range of tonalities is not that wide.
However I experienced that there are different qualities of black ink. Some brands might not work that good in your pen. I have one pen that gets immediatley blocked when I use black ink cartridges, it works only with blue ink. Black inks contain carbon black, depending on the viscosity and the particle size certain brands might not flow that easy. Before drawing I usually have to shake my pen until the black ink drips on the ground.
At present I use PELIKAN 4001 "Brilliant black" and a very nice french brand HERBIN.

pencils The world of pencils is a something special. Pencils are the oldest and the most versatile black and white medium. It always good to have a set of pencils in various grades from very soft to soft with you. The hard ones I do not like that much. I prefer the range from B6-B0 I rarely use H grades.
I also have always a thick graphit piece with me (see image). There are special holders for these available.

Charcoal Charcoal is a great sketching and drawing medium, probably the best with a maximum of expression. However I don´t recommend to draw with charcoal in a sketch book as the surfaceof a charcoal drawing iis sensitive. Charcoal drawings should be fixated with a special spray or with hair spray (also possible). There are also different brands of charcoal and the products differ also. Some testing is necessary. I have some quite soft and very deep black and a harder one which is not that dark.

Oil pastels I have used oil pastels as sketching medium and for small painting studies. There are many differnet brands. Some of them have relatively hard sticks others can be very soft. I used mainly Sennelier oil pastels. These colors are very close to real oil colors, in heat they get very soft and might even melt. I would not recommend to work with these very soft oil pastells in a sketchbook as the colors will smear and get together when the book is closed. Oil pastels NEVER dry !
In sketchbooks I have used Carandache and similar hard ones, but still these colours will transfer from one page to the other a bit when the sketch book is closed. For more information on oil pastels visit How to use oil pastels.

For years I have used cheap oil crayons on craft board. Unfortunately the craft was not 100% virgin craft and tends to bleach out. Also cheap oil crayons fade away under natural light in short time ! So these precious memories of Dresden are kept in a drawer most of the time.

Water colors A small set of watercolors with 6-12 colors is great for sketching. In combination with pencil you already have the ultimate "Willliam Turner set". In fact one does not need anything more for a quick sketch or a decent piece of art. Purist even do not use any pencils and work free without pencil pre-sketch.
My advice is to buy good colors which seem quite expensive on first sight, but they are not. Good water colours carry much more and better pigments. So they will last much longer not only in use, but also on your paper and do not forget the decent looks !

On the right you see my Schmincke Mini-set and a plastic palette for guache colors that I have broken in the middle to make it fit better in my backpack.

Gouache Gouache is a water soluble opaque color. The advantage is that one can put layers of colours on top of each other and the layer below will not show through or only very little. Also there is white guache for mixing and to mark bright areas in your sketch. As to gouache I would also recommend not to make any compromises in quality.
For sketching you need only very small amounts and if necessary you can restrict yourself to a basic set. The basic colors blue,yellow, magenta plus white and a dark brown (van dyke brown) are sufficient to mix all other colors you might want to have.

Gouache is also an ideal medium in combination with many other media mentioned above.

Acrylic colours Acrylic colours are similar to gouache and they can be used in same way as gouache colors. I recommend to test acrylic colors. I prefer gouache as I find acrylic colours rather agressive and cold. But this is definitely a personal decision. Acrylic colours are permanent as soon as they dry. Gouache will solve any time as soon as it gets in contact with water.

Coloured pencils I do not have much experience with these materials, but I have a Derwent colored pencil set of 12 colors in my sketching gear. I use water soluble pencils by Derwent because they can be used also as a watercolor substitute and because they do not break that easy.

There is a excellent resource on Squidoo by an expert on colored pencils Katherine Tyrell. She has tested a lot of brands and you can get very valuable information on her lens Coloured pencils - resources for artists.

A good pencil sharpener is very helpful. I use a rather expensive one made of brass which can be adjusted to the thickness of the pencil with a screw. I was tired of the cheap sharpeners that break your pencils all the time on day. This one has served me to full satisfaction for years now.

Marker pens are used by many illustrators and designers. Unfortunately the colors fade quickly and the colors tend to bleed through paper quite massive.
I like those sets that offer a range of rey tonalities, but in fact it is not necessary to buy such a set as you can get the same effect by using several layers of the lightest shade.

In this sketch I have combined pen,coloured pencils and marker pen.

This is the basic set that fits into my smaller bag. It consists of:

Sketchbook landscape format 6"X8"
Fountain Pen
Small water color set Schminke (12 colors, +2 extra I squeezed in)
Small Windsor Newton brush (Metallic look, can be closed)
Piece of cloth and some more brushes
A broken plastic palette
A small water container, this type of container is great also for india ink

There is no special clothing for sketching needed. Of course one has to bear in mind that there could drip a bit of color or ink on the cloth. The recommended cloths for sketching outdoors are the same that one would recommend for a hiking tour.

hat or cap As protection in heat and for situations with strong counter light a hat or a cap are absolutely necessary.

rain and frost It can be great to sketch outdoors when it is raining, so some raincoat as protection is necessary and there are special umbrellas that fishermen or hunters would use. It is quite easy to sketch with an umbrella one hand when sitting on a small chair. Meantime I have an umbrella with a little piece of rope at the top. If necessary I can hang the umbrella to a branch of a tree and sketch under it.

As protection against frost I recommend the investment into skying underwear and clothes which are perfect for this purpose.

The seat A seat is a very useful tool even though one can also sketch while standing or sitting on some available support on site. With a seat the sketcher can chose the best place and the best point of view. Therefore on most of my excursions I have a seat with me.
I have broken several seats meantime, one dropped me into a potato field much to my amusement. Depending on your weight I recommend a sturdy and robust version. I use a folding stool with three strong wooden legs and a leather cover as it is offered by Dick Blick (link). It served now for several years through all seasons and has never let me down. In addition to that I have a patch or a cusion of horse hair felt with me. To sit warm is quite convenient in early spring or late autumn not to speak of winter.
You might find these felts in sports shop for hunting,fishing or even horse riding.

Over the years I have collected quite a number of bags in different sizes for different kind of sketching or drawing trips. I have a small,medium,big one and a backpack.

Backpacks I have a small backpack as the standard bag. A backpack is great especially on a longer hiking trip. The one I bought was fairly cheap and really nothing special. Over time some dirt,color, dust and other things will cover the surface and will be found inside too. Therefore I would not use a very valuable backpack for this purpose. It helps when the inside is covered with some foil so the baclpack can be washed inside every now and then.

Bags by Freitag Beside of the backpack I have a small collection of Freitag bags. These are recycled bags from lorry tarpolin. The bags are very robust and can be wiped wet.