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Drawing can be a very inexpensive hobby. You don’t need many beginner drawing supplies to be able to spend hours and hours learning to draw. If you’re interested in any sort of representational art, whether painting landscapes, still lifes, portraits or more, practicing your drawing skills is worth your time. The skills you learn with a pencil will translate to the paintbrush.
Let’s take a look at the supplies you’ll need as a beginner. Read on or watch me on my YouTube channel.
The minimum
Four inexpensive supplies will get you started on your drawing journey. You can get started for just a few dollars.
Drawing pencils – I suggest getting two different drawing pencils to begin, with two different darkness grades. I recommend an H or HB to give you a relatively light shade for the initial layers, then a 2B or 3B to draw in some darker shades and add depth to your drawing.
Staedler Mars Lumograph pencils are my favourite artist-grade pencils and are quite inexpensive. I used General Graphite when I was first learning to draw years ago and they were fine and slightly cheaper, but the Staedler Mars are still very inexpensive.
Paper – You can use printer paper but I prefer drawing in a sketchbook so I can see how far I’ve come. There are many inexpensive sketchbooks which work well, like the Strathmore sketchbook.
Eraser – pick up an inexpensive vinyl eraser. It’ll be gentle on paper yet erase most pencil marks.
Sharpener – this could be the same sort of little handheld pencil sharpener you used in school or you could use a utility knife to sharpen pencils.
A few extra beginner drawing supplies
Once you’ve built a drawing habit and are advancing in your skills, you might want to start picking up a few other items. They aren’t necessary, but some artists find them useful.
Blending tool – a blending stump or tortillon can help you with smooth shading and blending between different values.
Ruler – helpful for creating straight lines and checking proportions. Don’t let anyone tell you that real artists don’t use rulers, because we definitely do.
Drawing pens – you can use pens to add a permanent layer over your pencil drawings. It’s also excellent practice to draw just with pens because it forces you to be confident in your drawing skills since you can’t erase. Micron pens come in a variety of sizes that are popular with many artists.
Pencil case – once you start getting a few different supplies, you might want to keep them together in a case so you aren’t losing your supplies.
When you’re just starting your drawing hobby, these supplies will give you a solid foundation that lets you practice and experiment. Most importantly, make sure you’re regularly drawing so you grow as an artist.
Want to see inside my regular drawing kit to see what supplies I regularly use? Check out this blog post.
