Hello all, I must first thank God for helping me find this site. It is a great encouragement finding a place where other who want to draw can do so in a Godly way. I am curious as to what everyone uses for sketching. I bought a moleskine from border's ($10). It has nice paper, it is small and fits in my pocket, but it is small. At work when I am compiling a program or running a query, I tend to turn over a print out or a printed email and sketch on the back. The one think I do not like about that is that I tend to not bring the sketches home. So can not always refer back to them. My aunt gave me a huge roll of butcher paper. Now this is good because it is a large, but not very convenient to care around. Questions I run into are is it better to go cheap or is it better to go more expensive. As a newbie is it better to go large or small?Lord Bless ya
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I agree, when you are just starting out, get a spiral sketchbook, they are a good investment as there are two sides to every page and you have more than enough room, there are even some with pockets inside that allow you to store the little leafs of sketches that you do on the side as well. Mechanical is alright if you are going cartoony or something simple, but if you are going detailed as anatomy sketching or life drawing, ( at the moment, if you don't have the money to buy pro pencils) get from Wal-Mart or a local store who has them "Roseart #2" pencils, they are hardier and carry a good lead in them that allow for shading and light drawing as well and they come in large quantities so that it's cheaper in bulk they don't cost more than about 2-3 bucks for around 10 them and their lead doesn't break as often. Concerning erasers, there are several types, kneaded, sandy and plain white- first starting out, keep with the simple plain white one a kneeding eraser is good for getting into specific areas in a drawing that is why it's like putty in a way, you can shape the eraser to help get to one area without effecting another in the drawing, I use a Sandy Eraser a lot due to I tend to occassionally draw heavy and leave heavy marks after normal erasing, so then I use the sandy eraser and it pulls the rest of the lead mark from the page :D An eraser set is also found in Wal-Mart in the arts and crafts center or look at your local art store ( we don't have one here, just Wal-Mart, unless I travel and hour and a half away to a bigger city.) They come in three packs of a kneaded eraser, sandy and white and they are convenient enough to carry as they are the size of a palm or smaller. It really depends on what you want to do, actually, but mainly just try for the Roseart #2 pencils for other drawing, I still use them! Hope that is of some help, God Bless and keep practicing :D!
Hi Matthew. It's better to go cheap, I think. Cuz, you'll be spending way more money on art books and referance material. Not to mention, art supplies.
Study materials are more important then the quailty of paper WHEN your first starting out.
Larger or smaller? That would depend on what suits your busy lifestyle better. I tend to go large. Then my sketch books are easier to find. And I'm more likely to use them. I tend to use up alot of space on one page. Focusing on one thing and drawing it over and over again. Get a sketchbook instead of using scrap paper aroung the office. You'll fing it's easier to lug around and organize.
I guess it all depends on what you plan to do with the sketches. I've been cartooning for about 28 years, and I've carried everything from a cheap sketchbook to a memo pad. I've sketched on the back of a McDonald's receipt or any other piece of paper that was available at the moment of inspiration. (There was also a period of time back in the early to mid-80s that I drew on a lot of bar napkins, but thankfully that part of my life is long since over). However, if your intention is to go and sit somewhere and sketch, I recommend some sort of a sketchbook, preferably one with a spiral binding so you can turn the pages completely and lay it flat on a table, or in your lap, or wherever you happen to be sketching. If you use a book, you won't lose any of your sketches, and sometimes you might find leafing through your earlier sketches will help your creative juices flow when you're getting ready to sketch something new. I still have a few sketchbooks I filled up over 20 years ago. I'm glad I kept them.
As for size, I'm thinking mine were like 11x14 in size, but it's hard to recall. Think in terms of what will be most convenient to carry around with you. Do you use a briefcase or a napsack? What will fit?
As far as pencil, I always liked sketching with a Prismacolor, although a plain old #2 graphite would work as well. One of the things I liked about Prismacolors is that I would sketch out my drawing in one color, and then go back and tighten it up in another.
Anyway, hope this is helpful.
May God bless you in your endeavors to use His gift for his purposes.
Replies
Study materials are more important then the quailty of paper WHEN your first starting out.
Larger or smaller? That would depend on what suits your busy lifestyle better. I tend to go large. Then my sketch books are easier to find. And I'm more likely to use them. I tend to use up alot of space on one page. Focusing on one thing and drawing it over and over again. Get a sketchbook instead of using scrap paper aroung the office. You'll fing it's easier to lug around and organize.
Hope that helps.
As for size, I'm thinking mine were like 11x14 in size, but it's hard to recall. Think in terms of what will be most convenient to carry around with you. Do you use a briefcase or a napsack? What will fit?
As far as pencil, I always liked sketching with a Prismacolor, although a plain old #2 graphite would work as well. One of the things I liked about Prismacolors is that I would sketch out my drawing in one color, and then go back and tighten it up in another.
Anyway, hope this is helpful.
May God bless you in your endeavors to use His gift for his purposes.