So you have the basic materials;
-A Graphite Pencil (HB, B, 2B, etc.)
-An eraser
-A sharpener, and
-Paper, or a sketchpad
I want to tell you about two additional drawing materials I can’t function without!
As art materials have evolved and expanded over the years, there is so much more available to artists now, than when I was younger.
I didn’t have the luxury of disposable paper palettes, metallic watercolors, water-based, oil paints, or felt-tipped pens that have a brush tip.
And so behold, the beloved & magical, Kneedable Putty Eraser by Faber Castel!
You purchase it in a small rectangular slice, wrapped in cellophane, but once unwrapped and squashed, it looks like a ball of blue prestik.
Ladies and gents, if you don’t own one, you need one.
Now don’t waste your time buying anything else but Faber Castel! I’ve tried them all, and none come even close. The Faber Castel, putty eraser has just the right amount of stickyness & soft kneedability. (not sure that is English)
This little, blue genie can be used not only to erase & burnish Graphite, but also, to lighten charcoal, pencil crayons, and soft pastels.
A fabulous medium for cleaning off wrist smudges or dirty marks on a finished sketch by simply rubbing it over the paper.
It can be rolled into a sausage, delightfully pulled, and stretched till it becomes the strangest texture and it can be shaped over the back of a pencil or a paintbrush to create any desired shape of eraser. How excited are you right now?!
If you attend my classes, you will rarely find a lesson go by without me plucking mine off the wall (that’s where it lives for easy access) and marching it to a student’s artwork.
Ps. Find a small tin or empty pill container with a lid to store it & keep it clean. This helps prevent it from picking up all the goodies in your pencil case.
The second in my ‘must-have’ list, is a coloured, Graphite clutch pencil.
I love the 0.7, Color ENO by Pilot. These clutch Pencils come in a range of Colours. (Red, Orange, Pink, Yellow, Green & Purple)
My favorite is of course the Blue- for no fancy, scientific reason other than being a delicious, light cerulean.
This little gem is the perfect pencil to construct your design before your final sketch. I use it to do my entire pre-instruction shapes, then I come back over the coloured lines with my Graphite to finalize the drawing.
Let’s say I’m doing an illustration of Harry the Hadeda. (a character I created for a children’s book)
Using the clutch, I can loosely create the composition of his body, and the head & get a feel of the proportions. Once I’m happy with how he looks, I can work over the coloured lines with traditional Graphite to finalize.
This means there is just one final detailed outline instead of multiple, confusing lines all in the same colour!
The colored Graphite can be erased.
(I know, how fabulous is that!)
But that’s not all, you can also purchase the leads separately in all the colours, and they are reasonably priced.
Two fantastic materials to add to your pencil case if you don’t have them already.