DRAWING MATERIALS - BASICS

Sometimes, someone asks me what supplies should they get for an aspiring artist. Well, here goes!

Office Depot, Staples, Office Max have basic supplies. Michael's also has some. I'm sure up north Hobby Lobby will have. Art sites such as www.jerrysartarama.com and www.utrecht.com have better loose supplies (meaning you can buy as many of one type of pencil your heart desires, etc.) that the office supply stores may not have.

The list:

- #4B pencils run about $1 each (don't waste time w/kits full of different pencil types),

- pack of "smudgers" (they look like sharpened lollipop sticks for blending the pencil ($3/pack),

- a sketch pad that has a book binding not spiral (Borders, Barnes & Noble, look in discount sections, $10-20) about 8x11 size are nice b/c pages stay in,

- pencil sharpener (Dollar Tree!), get a few because somehow they always get lost & scattered,

- small pencil pouch to carry pencils, etc.,

- gray eraser that you have to pull & stretch (Michael's) & perhaps one pink eraser.

I think that's it. It'll run you about $30 for all - paper being most expensive @ ~$8/pad if you don't want the book bound type.

For lessons, I did a quick YouTube search:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=drawing+lessons&aq=2&oq=drawing

Although I didn't have a chance to watch any of the videos, seems like there are some high quality lessons!

Check your local library for art videos and/or lessons. Check www.wetcanvas.com for the BEST artist forum in the world (you will get lost).

Thanks to Daimisy for the idea of this blog topic!