As an artist, I'm always searching for the right tool. A lot of factors go into this, surprisingly~! For an example, the weight of the drawing object must feel nice in my hand. Palamino Blackwings rule, but with the eraser on the top, its too top heavy and awkward to draw with.
Here, I'll list my main tools of the trade! Maybe you'll find your favorite new tool in this list.
This page is under construction -- I'd like to fill it up with images and more information as I go! Thank you for your patience.
The smell of a freshly sharpened pencil is always so nice, yanno? While I do use a GraphicGear 500 (o.5mm) by Pentel most of the time, I love a good wooden pencil. For a classic pencil you can get at most stores, the Dixon Ticonderoga is a pretty good (and cheap!) tool to start off with. Make sure you go with the yellow body; its usually labeled as their "soft" while the black body is usually harder (they both are apparently HB~?). If you can avoid it, try not to use the pink eraser on the top, as these pink erasers usually chew up through the paper and if dirty can leave marks on your paper. This is a good pencil if you want to sketch ideas, but maybe not as a more serious piece.
As someone who grew up with just a Hobby Lobby in their area, the General pencil set may not be the gold standard, but a great set for students getting started on their value studies lessons. I love sketching in a 3B and even go as far as to sketch with a 6B. Usually these are just little doodles for me and the softness of these pencils is what I crave.
Speaking of soft pencils, I have to talk about Musgrave's Newspaper pencil. Like the name implies, made for writing on newspaper. But the pencil is a nice black shade; I'm guessing they don't have lead in them, but I could be wrong.
Bic Pens are some of -the best- ball point pens to sketch with. If you have a gentle touch, these pens will follow your lead (usually! They can still leak, so wipe them every so often.) Although I am pretty sure nothing's changed since the white barrel, if I can find old stock of the white barrel bics, I choose them over the modern, transparent ones. But! The Cristal line up (the barrel is clear) is still being produced. They have them in a variety of colors and you can buy them as the 4-color in a pen varities. Drawing in their pink and light blue makes for great under sketches.
Can I be honest? I love coloring with Crayola crayons. I know, they're a waxy mess! But you can do some magical things with them. (TO BE CONT.)
I'm always learning about new stuff and I want to give everthing a try! Actually, have you heard of silky crayons? I'm super curious about them! Plus they have cute bears on them.