My Top 2 Drawing Resources and Essential Supplies

Beginner

If you’re a beginner, like I was pre-2019 Challenge, with little to no formal training, I’d recommend starting with this classic book by Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

I’d start with just this book and its accompanying workbook.

Once you read through the book and do the exercises, I would say you are ready to graduate to intermediate.

Intermediate

If I could do my 2019 Challenge over again, immediately after finishing with Betty Edward’s book and exercises, I would jump into this online tutorial by JD Hillberry that teaches Realistic Drawing with Light, Contrast, and Texture.

And then (if you are interested in drawing portraits), his Realistic Portrait Tutorial is fantastic.

Supplies

At this stage I would recommend upgrading supplies. Much of what I list here are in alignment with what JD recommends, but I tend to shop Amazon for the best deals:

• Pencils
  • Graphite
    • Staedtler premium quality drawing pencils, Mars Lumograph, set of 12
    • 9xxb – very important for dark values
  • Carbon
    • Wolff’s Carbon Pencil Set (optional – but good for texture variations)
  • Charcoal
    • I mainly use 1 charcoal pencil (my secret weapon for the darkest values 🙂
      • PRIMO Elite Grande – 5000
    • I do have and use other charcoal pencils – here’s the full set (optional)

• Paper
  • Sketch
    • Strathmore 400 Series
  • Official
    • Arches 140 lb Hot Press Watercolor Paper
      • For the drawings you want to stand the test of time, this is the kind of paper you want to use

• Measurements
  • Proportional divider
    • Accurasee Artist 10″ Proportional Divider
      • especially useful if doing realistic portraits

• Erasers
  • Kneaded
    • Prismacolor Kneaded Eraser (going to need a couple of these)
  • Pen Style Eraser
    • Tombow MONO (love these)
  • Block Eraser
    • Large Plastic Rubber Eraser
  • Powered (optional)
    • SumoGrip EE3000
      • although I don’t use this as often, when I need to do some serious erasing, it gets the job done

• Blenders
  • The Package
    • Stumps
    • Tortillions
    • Sandpaper Pad
  • Additional Blenders
    • Chamois
    • Paper Towels

• Sharpener
  • Anyone will do, but this one is awesome

• Drawing board
  • You need a hard, smooth service to tape your paper to while drawing.
  • You can use a thin piece of wood like Masonite or even a large wood cutting board.

• Artist Tape
  • Masking tape can leave a sticky residue, so I recommend using an Artist Tape (“Drafting Tape”) on the corners of the paper to hold the paper to the drawing board

Advanced

• I have gotten so much out of JD Hillberry’s tutorials that I purchased the rest of them and I’m making my way through them
• While I’m not sure what the next step in advancement is, when I do, I’ll let you know
• Supplies
  • I don’t know – not their yet 🙂

P.S.

I used several other resources in my 2019 Challenge, especially between the time of Betty Edward’s book and JD Hillberry’s tutorials. While I’m sure they weren’t a waste of time, if I could re-do the 2019 Challenge, I would have simply went from Betty to JD and I’m confident I would have progressed further in that time. So hopefully this list can put you on the fast track with what I’ve found to be the top 2 resources in getting started on my drawing journey.

P.P.S.

Although 2019 has come and gone, I’m planning on continuing to learn and progress, and i’ll post updates here on Instagram and here on the website.