It’s time to GET IN TOON! with Tip Tuesday.
Today’s tips are about supplies. Artists use a variety of supplies and I’ll be showing you photos of what I use.
This is my digital setup. I have an 27" iMac with my cintiq 27QHD with ergonomic stand. There is also my Canon scanner/printer. I don't use that as much as I used to these days. When drawing on the computer I primarily work in Adobe Photoshop.
Above is my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. This is my on the go digital studio. On the iPad I love to work in Clip Studio Paint but I also use Procreate and Comic Draw.
Moving on to my traditional setup you can see my drawing board. It's a tabletop drawing board so I can take it down to work on other types of art. The markets in the back are a combination of Copics and Touch markers. The art supplies next to my drawing board change depending what I'm doing.
This is my light box. I'm a very sketchy artist when I'm roughing out my work and my light box comes in handy when I'm doing my cleanup drawings.
Now what do I carry with me?
A clipboard and a pencil case.
This is my clipboard. It holds standard 8.5"x11" copy paper which is my preference to sketch on when I'm just playing with ideas.
My clipboard is a storage clipboard and here is what I keep inside.
Now on to my pencil case.
I love this pencil case. It was given to me as a gift and has been my go to case now for the last couple of years. Take a look inside. You can see how much it holds.
One side I use for just my inking pens and the other is mostly for my pencils but I do keep a few inking pens in there too.
Now on to the today's tip.
Don't worry about the supplies when you're starting out. Artists have spent year learning how to properly use these supplies. They experiment with paper, pens, inks, etc. but they all started with simple tools.
Start with copy paper. It's cheap. A regular number 2 pencil is an HB pencil. It's a middle of the road pencil and great for practicing simple shading. A pencil sharpener and eraser are needed too. I prefer a kneaded eraser as it doesn't leave crumbs and is fun to play with. When you're ready to start perspective, you will need a ruler. As for inking, I always say start cheap. Felt tip markers are the way to go. There is a very good chance felt tip markers will bleed on copy paper but with practice you can control that. Next up, the drawing surface. I love my clipboard as I can draw on my lap or I can put it on a table. When it's on a table I like to put something under it to raise the board a bit and create an angle like my drawing board. Also, don't worry if you don't have a light box. A window on a nice sunny day works just as good.
Those are my tips for today. Join me next Tuesday when I'll be back with another tip.
Until then, remember, there is always time to GET IN TOON!