Pencils

These are products I own and use.

• Kimberly Pencils 3H – 8B Kimberly pencils are commonly known as “student pencils,” but I have created some beautiful drawings with them. They are especially wonderful for creating rough textures (tree bark or coarse hair/fur.)
• Derwent Graphic Pencils 9H – 9B (A complete set) Wonderfully blend-able, creamy artist quality pencils made in England. They have an incredible range of gradients!
• Staedtler Mars Lumograph 9H – 9B ( A complete set of 20) These are wonderfully smooth, especially good for skin tones.
• Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Drawing Pencils 2B – 8B Carbon mix pencils.
• Staedtler Mars Technico Lead Holders and Leads ( 2H, HB, 2B, 4B) used for precise details.
• Faber Castell 9000 – Wonderful dark, smooth graphite. I highly recommend for portraits and wildlife!
• Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle – Water soluble graphite. When activated by water you can create washes and lines which do not shine.
• Kimberly 9 XX B – For the blackest values with no graphite shine. (My favorite!)
• Charcoal Pencils, General’s & Derwent – Soft, medium and hard. Charcoal can create a velvety, true black when needed.
• General’s Carbon Sketch – Wonderful dark, non-shiny pencil.
• Conté Sketching Pencils – Carbon 3B
• General’s Layout Pencil 555 – A really nice dark pencil!

Papers/Surfaces

These are products I own and use.

• Glassine This is what I use to place over my drawings to protect them while I draw, resting my hand on the glassine.
• Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hotpress Watercolor Blocks 140lb (300gsm)
• Legion Stonehenge Drawing Paper – 100% Cotton/Archival 90lb (250gsm)
• Canson Foundation Drawing Pads 70 lb (115 gsm)
• Strathmore 400 Drawing Pads This is an off-white drawing paper, 80 lb (130 gsm)
• Blick Studio Bristol Pads The tapebound pads contain 15 acid-free, 100 lb (270 gsm) sheets.
• Strathmore 400 Bristol Board Each pad contains 15 sheets of 2-ply
• Strathmore 400 Bristol Board. I prefer Bristol Vellum.
• Strathmore 500 Bristol Vellum Pads – 100% Cotton / Archival, Strathmore’s professional series.

Erasers

These are products I own and use.

• Kneadable Eraser – for lifting graphite off the paper gently.
• Tombow Erasers – Ultra-fine 2.3mm round and Mono Zero 2.5mm x 5mm rectangular. These are used for “negative drawing” and fine detailing.
• General’s Factis Magic Black Eraser – Specifically designed for erasing graphite and charcoal it is also recommended to use on colored surfaces such as Canson Mi-Teintes, Strathmore Artagain & Toned papers and Stonehenge toned papers.
• General’s Factis White Vinyl Eraser – A good all purpose, dust free eraser.
• Staedtler Mars Plastic Block Eraser – LOVE this one!
• Faber-Castell Perfection Eraser Pencil – Learned about this one from Lisa of Lachri Fine Art. I purchased the one with the brush end. It is AMAZING!
• Derwent Battery Eraser – Another excellent tool for negative drawing! Especially nice for white whiskers.
• Dry Cleaning Pad – Used for removing graphite and smudges from your paper. It works beautifully. 

Finding a good eraser can be key to getting your drawings the way you want them.  Play around with various erasers and get a feel for what you like.

Blending Tools

These are products I own and use.

• Cotton Balls and Cotton Swabs (Q-tips) – Also good for blending and inexpensive.
• Natural Chamois – Something new for blending I was given by a friend to try out.
• Paint Brushes – Various sizes allow me to blend graphite without damaging the “tooth” of the paper.
• Tortillons / Paper blending stumps – For blending.

Sharpeners

These are products I own and use.

• Helix A5 Sharpener – An incredible sharpener which allows you to sharpen your pencils according to 5 different settings. Setting #5 gives you an amazing long point!

• KUM Magnesium Wedge Sharpener – Specifically used for my Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils.

• KUM 2 stage Longpoint Sharpener (with lead pointers).

Other / Misc.

These are products I own and use.

• Gray Scale & Value Finder – Useful for finding the right values on both the reference photo and the drawing. Sometimes your eyes deceive you when it comes to grayscale values.
• Aluminum Pencil Extenders. Very handy when your pencils begin to get too short to hold.
• Royal Langnickel Soft Grip Stylus & Embossing Set – These are for using the indentation technique. I use them for white whiskers, hairs, feathers & other small details.
• Accurasee Proportional Divider – These are helpful for checking placement and sizes.

• An aluminum straight edge. I have two ( 18 inch and 24 inch ) which are used for measuring the drawing paper and creating a light grid.

• Drawing boards. I use the Richeson Drawing Clip Board and Blick Sketch Pad Boards. This allows me the freedom to sketch and draw any where.

• Blick White Artist Tape – PH Neutral tape to tape the paper down to the drawing boards. It helps to keep the edges clean and the papers flat.