Alright guys, so before we can do anything, you’ll need to get some tools. Like I said before, the minimum requirement here is paper and a pencil, with an eraser on it. A sketchbook is great but if you’re on a budget, get a giant stack of printer paper. It’s very cheap.
An option that you youngins might be drawn to is digital. If you want to do the whole thing digitally, I’m fine with that. Whether it’s Procreate on an iPad, or Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. If that’s what you want to do, go get your stuff and get it setup.
If you want to go deeper in tool exploration of traditional mediums, below is an extensive shopping list. All of these are optional. You can get whatever looks fun to you, or all of it if you’re feeling spicy! If you want the full lessons where I'll go into much more detail about these tools, get the premium Drawing Basics Course.
SHOPPING LIST
* If any of the items below are out of stock, do a Google search for other sellers.
* Some of the items below contain affiliate links
PENCILS
Staedtler Graphite Pencil Set
Woodless Graphite Set (link 2, link 3)
2mm Nicpro Metal Mechanical Pencil Set
2mm Staedtler Pencil Holders
2mm Staedtler Refills (2H, HB, 2B, 4B)
2mm Koh-I-Noor Refills (6B and 8B)
5.6mm Mechanical Clutch Holder
5.6mm Graphite Lead Refills
Pencil Extenders
Prismacolor Col-Erase Blue 12x Pencils
Prismacolor Col-Erase Red 12x Pencils
Staedtler Blue and Red Lead Refills
General Charcoal White Pencils
ERASERS
Kneaded Rubber Eraser
KOH-I-NOOR Small "Elephant" Eraser
Eraser Pencils
Derwent Electric Eraser
PAPER
Printer Paper
Strathmore Sketch Pad (89 gsm)
Strathmore Drawing Pad (130 gsm)
Strathmore Toned Sketchbook (118 gsm)
Robert Bateman Sketchbook (180 gsm)
Strathmore 300 Series Bristol (270 gsm)
Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media (570 gsm)
MARKERS
Olo Proko Marker Set
Copic Markers
SHARPENERS
Battery Powered Electric Sharpener
Blackwing Long Point Sharpener
Staedtler 2mm Lead Sharpener
Single Edge Razor Blades
Sandpaper on Paddle
Your assignment is to get your tools. Once you have your stuff, start doodling. Make random marks on the page. If that gets boring, find something nearby and draw that. Or doodle things from your imagination. Just start drawing. Obviously, you have very little information right now to make these drawings look good, but we’ll get there. Right now a big wall that we need to start climbing over is the awkward feeling of not having control of the pencil. The way to get over that is mileage. Draw a lot!
Use the tip to draw thin lines. Can you control how light and dark the line is? Does the pencil feel different when it's freshly sharpened vs after you’ve used it for a few minutes? Use the side to draw thick lines and shade large areas. Can you make a gradation from dark to light? Is the texture of the paper showing too much? Or do you kinda like that? Try your eraser. Shade an area and erase it. Make a darker area and try erasing that. What’s the limit of your eraser? Start to play and get a feel for your tools.
If you make anything you'd like to share with your classmates, post it below. Or if you have questions about your tools, ask the community here. There are too many of you for me to help individually, so please help each other when you can :)