PAPERS
Strathmore 300 Series Bristol, 2-ply vellum | 2.5 x 3.5 in | 12 x 9 in – the sketch card size is currently the only paper I use for my graphite ACEOs (sketch cards), but I plan to expand to Stonehenge papers as I have several interesting mini pads of paper samples I can’t wait to test! Haven’t tried the big size yet, don’t know if I’ll like the texture for big drawings. I mainly got it for colored pencil work.
Strathmore 400 Series Artagain (black), 160 gsm | 12 x 9 in – nice, evenly colored paper, pretty smooth, too smooth for some projects, and not heavy-weight enough unfortunately. No longer my top choice.
Strathmore 400 Series Bristol, 2-ply vellum | 12 x 9 in – paper I won’t buy again. Each of the vellums has a different texture, but this one is stronger, has a look I don’t like, and it shows through too much. I’ve done 3 drawings on this paper and I still don’t like it, but I must use up the whole pad eventually because it cost me an arm and a leg to get it at the time.
Strathmore 500 Series Bristol, 2-ply vellum | 11 x 14 in – just started testing this paper for graphite and so far so good. I really need it to be great for both graphite and colored pencil. The size is quite intimidating (I used to work up to A4), but I hope with this paper I’ll go bigger more often.
Canson 1557 fine grain, 180 gsm | A4 | A3 – the paper I have the most experience with, 10+ years of use, hundreds of drawings on A4 size and just one A3, the biggest size I’ve ever worked on. I stopped using it in recent years (still might do an occasional A5) because I’m testing various other papers, more heavy-weight, more expensive papers, searching for new favorites for each medium I use nowadays. Canson 1557 still remains a much loved paper. It was the only paper I used for so many years simply because I had very few choices of paper back when I was a beginner and wasn’t able to shop online, so I stuck with it.
Canson 1557 light grain, extra white, 180 gsm | A5 – ever so slightly different texture and brighter version of paper I’ve used for so long. I don’t draw big size fanart or celebrity portraits anymore (with exceptions), so this A5 will be used for occasional drawings of those subjects.
Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper (black, grey, tan), 160 gsm | A4 – good paper (I only tried black sheets), on the lighter side, but sturdy, however it has too strong texture to achieve the desired look for most of my projects so I no longer really use it.
Fabriano Black Black (black), 300 gsm | 24 x 32 cm – hopefully the black paper for me, my new top choice. Even coloring, nice, dark shade of black (darker than others I have), super heavy-weight and supposedly it has a tiny bit more texture, just what I need. I’ve only done one project on it and, unfortunately, it seems to be much more prone to smudge and eraser marks compared to other black papers I’ve tried despite all the precautions taken that worked for other papers once I figured out do’s and don’t’s. I need to be able to remove grids without a trace and erase whatever else from areas that are supposed to be a perfect black. I will keep testing and try to be even more careful so future projects don’t get ruined too, otherwise I’ll have to stop using it and I really don’t want to.
Fabriano Elle Erre (black), 220 gsm | A4 – used it for a while until I found better. Its coloring is too uneven, blotchy looking (some sheets are better than others). Also, it’s too smooth for most of my projects and layers of colored pencil lift off like crazy. That happens on Artagain too – it’s because the paper is very smooth, very dark and colored pencil as “dry” as Polychromos simply doesn’t stick well to it and can be easily removed or blended with paper stumps. Despite that I still mainly use Polychromos for monochrome black paper work because they work best for my techniques.
Arches Aquarelle, hot-pressed, 300 gsm | 12 x 9 in – haven’t tried it yet, really hope I like it for colored pencil and occasional graphite work.
Claire Fontaine Pastelmat pastel paper, 360 gsm | 18 x 24 cm | 24 x 30 cm – my only choice of paper for pastel art. I’ll try colored pencil on it too.
Lana Bristol Drawing Board, extra smooth, 250 gsm | A4 – used for rare drawings on disliked smooth surface, very hard to keep clean from grease stains that will ruin your work, so avoid touching your drawing area at all times, starting with removal from the pad.
R.K. Burt Glassine – sheets of translucent, smooth, acid-free paper, used to protect artwork from smudging and other damage while working on a piece and to ensure archival protection of artwork in storage/shipping.
PASTEL
KOOH-I-NOOR Gioconda soft pastel pencils – new set of 48 (make sure you’re looking at the most recent color chart because there have been changes in some colors’ numbers and lightfast ratings)
Stabilo Carbothello soft pastel pencils – individual colors, would buy a whole set if the lightfast ratings of so many colors weren’t so bad.
Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils – set of 24 + individual colors.
Conté pastel pencils – individual colors, won’t be getting more or these thick pastel pencils. They can be useful for covering larger areas faster if you don’t have soft pastel sticks or Panpastels.
Conté soft pastel sticks – assorted set of 10, sticks which I definitely wouldn’t describe as “soft” pastel. They’re pretty hard compared to many other soft pastels.
Panpastels – Wildlife Painting Kit with Jason Morgan – set of 10 colors (includes some Sofft Tools – sponges and palette knife and covers for applying/blending Panpastel, and palette tray for Panpastel storage).
SHARPENERS
KUM Automatic Long Point sharpener – 2 step sharpening, mainly just use it when I need to maintain that sharp tip on my white Luminance with minimum waste of pencil.
KUM Magnesium | M+R | Staedtler graphite sharpeners – all just a regular 2-hole metal sharpeners I got as a backup for when my current favorite crank handle sharpener fails me, or to be used when more convenient.
Faber-Castell Grip Trio sharpener – 3 hole sharpener, have several I used exclusively until couple of years ago, but don’t really use anymore.
Helix Desktop Sharpener – crank handle sharpener featuring 5 different length points you can sharpen to. There seem to be two slightly different looking models in different colors, don’t know if there’s any difference in quality. I have a dark blue one and love it so far for everything.
GEL/INK PENS & MARKERS
Lots of artists use gel pens on graphite, colored pencil etc. work. However, many say it’s not archival, can chip off, medium x doesn’t mix well with medium y etc., especially when bringing up products made specially for colored pencils, like Brush & Pencil. My main issue with using white ink was not potential archival issues, but how it looked over graphite.
Sakura Gelly-Roll white gel ink pen – more opaque than Uni-ball ones I used to use and doesn’t look as blue-ish over graphite, my current pen of choice if I really need to use it.
Tip: use a needle to carefully scrape off badly applied gel ink to remove or reshape your highlights.
Sakura Pigma Micron archival black ink pens (003, 005, 03, 05, 08) – pens I currently I use for my dotwork. The design of these hurts my fingers, so had to get spongy pen grips to use them for hours on end.
Uni-ball UNI pin archival black ink pens (0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2 mm, 0.3mm, 0.5mm and 0.8mm) – pens to be used for my dotwork. I bought a set, but I rarely use anything other than the smallest nib.
Gold markers/pens – for rare special touch on artworks, like golden frame on sketch cards:
KOOH-I-NOOR ergo metallic marker (gold, silver) – the gold one’s fine, but the silver one is pretty useless, barely silver looking, very transparent, don’t recommend.
Staedtler metallic pen (gold, blue, green) – the gold one’s OK, but blue and green are a terrible color, grey-ish looking.
edding 1200 metallic marker (gold) – nicest looking metallic gold color I have, or should I say “had” – it seems they (all metallic markers) dry out rather quickly, I barely had time to use it.
Sakura Pen-Touch metallic paint marker (gold) – 0.7 mm, extra fine point, wonderful, shiny gold color, hope it lasts longer than other markers. Follow the instructions on how to use it. Seems to be a bit tricky to use (ink not coming out, lack of precision, etc.). For smooth use, I believe this pen just requires a bit of practice and experience first, so don’t read this as a negative review.
SCRATCHBOARD
Various scalpels (craft knives) and spare blades – my only scratching tool for scratchboard.
Slice craft knife – a longer lasting ceramic blade knife which will hopefully become my scratch tool of choice after I get pointed tip blades (they come with rounded tip blade by default).
Ampersand Scratchbord panel | 5 x 7 in – the only size I currently work on. I’d like to try a bit bigger boards, but they’re quite pricey and hard to get.
Fiberglass brush – a tool that works great for scratchboard too, but haven’t been able to try yet. After I wasted money on a fake (it was completely useless), I got one that actually works, but it seems it doesn’t scratch as well as a certain brand I know works great, but can’t get my hands on it.
GRAPHITE
Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite pencils, set of 6 – currently only use graphite-carbon mix 7B and 8B pencil. Note that the new ML pencils no longer have carbon mixed in any of the pencil grades available – for darkest tones and mat look in your graphite work now you have to get ML black where all the pencil grades contain graphite-carbon mix.
Staedtler Mars Lumograph black, 8B – to be used when I want to avoid large shiny (e.g. black background), want something really dark or just mat looking etc. Note that mixing these pencils with regular graphite ones can be tricky and require some trial and error to minimize them looking like two different mediums. They are really dark, mat looking, and not as smooth on paper as regular pencils.
Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Mat graphite pencils | set of 6 – a better choice for those who want the mat look. They don’t eliminate the shine completely, but they significantly decrease it and mix with regular graphite pencils so much better. I haven’t tested them properly yet, on an actual drawing, but one negative I’ve noticed right away is how surprisingly light the softest grades are. My KiN 4B pencil for example looks slightly darker than 8B from this set!
Conté à Paris graphite pencils | H, thick 2H, 3B, 5B – bought individually back when they had a hexagonal shape, except 2H which I used to love for quicker shading of light backgrounds.
Faber-Castell 9000 graphite pencils | 4H, 6H – have too many other pencils to justify buying a set, so only got H pencils I didn’t know I needed all this time.
KOOH-I-NOOR 1500 graphite pencils | set of 12 – my first set of real artist drawing pencils, got them as a gift. Hard to believe, but due to a specific combo of circumstances, I’m still “stuck” with majority of this set.
KOOH-I-NOOR Progresso woodless graphite pencil | 8B – initially bought only to sharpen in between pastel pencils to extend my sharpener’s life, but it turned out to be very useful for quick touch-ups on some old drawings where I wanted to avoid additional hard-pressed pencil marks – this pencil is softer, doesn’t require as strong pressure to achieve the darkest tones.
KOOH-I-NOOR graphite powder – haven’t tried it yet, but looking forward to playing with it, practicing different effects and ways to blend it using various blending tools.
Pilot Super Grip 0.5 mm mechanical pencils – very affordable, much used mechanical pencils with a nice grip.
Staedtler Mars micro 0.3 mm mechanical pencils – a must have for my ACEO drawings for drawing all those tiny faces and detail. The grip is not that comfortable, so I might replace them eventually with some other brand that feels better in hand.
0.5 HB | 2B | 4B graphite leads – various brands, used a lot on every size of graphite artwork I do these days, especially on ACEOs where I usually don’t use regular pencils at all.
0.3 HB | 2B graphite leads – various brands, the 2B can sometimes show inconsistency in how dark it can go in a single lead, so one needs to replace it as it can lower the work quality (e.g. you can start pressing too hard and still not get as dark shade as you’re supposed to). Annoying.
Blending Stumps – since I no longer stick to no-blending-style of drawing (with certain exceptions) and I’m currently exploring and practicing new techniques and styles of drawing, I’ll be reaching for these more often and no longer avoid them even in cases where work could really use some blending.
Indenting tool (“self-made”) – emptied needle point pen – safe, thin and strong enough to press hard on paper. Used for impressing invisible lines into paper, so when you run the pencil over it, it leaves a clean white line (e.g. cat whiskers).
Pencil extenders – a must have, especially for using up as much of your expensive colored pencils as possible while holding them comfortably. I have couple of wooden ones I don’t like, but the cheap metal ones that come in beautiful colors are great, have several in use.
COLORED PENCIL
Prismacolor Premier colored pencils | 12 set | 48 set – got the sets many years ago when I had very little info about all things colored pencil and when I thought these were the right choice for me since I disliked the Polychromos I had. Oh how things have changed. I’ll use up the Prismacolors I have, but I don’t see myself buying more in the future. I already got rid of all poor lightfast ratings colors from my sets.
Prismacolor Colorless Blender pencils – haven’t really tried these yet, but I guess they’ll find their use eventually.
Caran d’Ache Luminance colored pencils | 40 set + individual colors – if I knew Cd’A would release 20 + 4 new colors soon, I would have saved for the 76 set instead. Oh well. They’re my “wax-based” colored pencils of choice now, but I still need to find out if I like working with both “wax-based” and “oil-based” colored pencils, or I have a strong preference for one kind only since my experience using actual color is still quite limited.
Caran d’Ache Luminance full blender – colorless blender sticks I got as a gift from Cd’A along with the missing color from my Luminance set (I got 2 same colors). Looking forward to trying them.
Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils | 2 x 12 set + individual colors – the past few years I’ve been slowly building towards the full set while only working monochrome on black paper. Once I have enough drawings in actual color to justify it, I’ll get that big box.
Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils | 12 set + individual colors – why I got these and won’t be buying more, _insert the description similar to one for Prismacolors_.
Brush and Pencil Coloured Pencil Touch-Up Texture – to be used when I really need to apply additional layers of colored pencil over some area and the paper just won’t take any more.
Zest-It Pencil Blend – works like OMS, solvent used for blending colored pencils etc.
ERASERS
Factis BM2 mechanical pencil eraser – hard, round tip, retractable eraser I’ve had forever and still don’t need a refill.
Tombow MONO Zero pen-style eraser (round tip 2.3 mm & square tip 2.5 mm x 5 mm) – softer than Factis BM2, retractable erasers. The round one’s many artists’ favorite, used for creating highlights, textures, or simply hard erasing. It’s a must have eraser for me these days, especially for my ACEO sized artwork.
Kneaded erasers – brand irrelevant as long as it’s good, hard enough, not too dry. I think I’ve mostly used Conté grey kneaded erasers. A must have for my graphite work, can’t do without them. I also use Faber-Castell colored kneaded erasers (yellow, blue, red) which are very soft, pretty much useless for my graphite art, but very useful for pastel art/clean up and lifting off layers of Polychromos from black paper for example.
KOOH-I-NOOR soft eraser pencil – haven’t had the chance to test it properly yet, but it seems to erase better than my other eraser pencil.
Faber-Castell PERFECTION 7057 double ended eraser pencil – don’t use the pink, while the white, abrasive (ink) end is good for removing colored pencil, but you must be careful and make sure your surface can handle it since it can damage the paper.
Staedtler & Faber-Castell (dust-free) black erasers – softer erasers for my black paper drawings to prevent eraser marks white erasers are more likely to make on such a dark surface.
Jakar mini electric eraser pen & refills – there may be better electric erasers out there, but it was important for me to have some eraser of this type for specific uses when no other kind of eraser can do the job.
FIXATIVES/VARNISH
Note that I only spray my artwork well once and I never really tested how smudge-proof they are, so I can’t properly review or recommend any fixatives.
Lukas fixative – the first fixative I ever got for graphite. It leaked out the can after a few years, don’t know what to make of that. As for the performance, it was fine, I guess.
Lefranc & Bourgeois pastel and charcoal fixative – UV resistant, mat fixative I currently use for my graphite drawings (the fixative is for pencil too). Don’t think I’ll ever risk spraying any of my actual pastel work with it, may just test it to see what happens.
Winsor & Newton Professional fixative- haven’t tried it yet, only got a small can to test if this might be my fixative of choice for graphite work in the future.
Winsor & Newton Professional satin varnish – had to get a varnish to protect my scratchboard art. So far only sprayed one scratchboard with and the result was incredible, unbelievable really. It literally saved my ruined scratchboard that had an unfixable, uneven, ugly background. I tried so many things…One spray of varnish and the background became perfectly even, solid black again!