Essential Sketching Supplies

These essential sketching supplies will help you transform whatever inspires you into a personal work of art whether you plan to sketch and paint in your home studio, during stolen moments at the office or prefer to create al fresco. Keep full-sized versions of these essential sketching supplies at home and tuck smaller-sized ones in your bag so you can sketch anywhere, anytime.

Sketchpads and Sketchbooks
Look for sketchpads and sketchbooks with paper weights designed for the media you work in. If you're looking for watercolor pads, for example, you'll want a minimum paper weight of 90lbs. Purchase a variety of sketchpads and sketchbooks that meet your needs, including travel-sized versions with hardbound covers that withstand your travels.

Be sure to touch the paper before you buy. Unless you're looking for specific textures, you'll want the paper to feel smooth, not toothy. Otherwise, your ink drawings may look as though you did them on paper towels. Most art supply stores have paper samples available for you to test in your preferred medium.

Keeping a travel-sized sketchbook with you is one of the best ways to nurture your creativity, capture ideas or sources of inspiration in the moment and eliminate reasons why you didn't sketch today. Look for paper weights that are suited to the media you most commonly work in and sketchbooks that have pockets to hold ephemera, magazine or newspaper clips or other found objects you might use in your art.

Consider tossing a glue stick in your bag if you often work in mixed media or use your sketchbook as more of an art or inspiration journal-you never know what you might find that may become part of the drawing you're working on.

Pens and Pencils
How you like to work will determine your arsenal of drawing and sketching implements. Whether you've got a drawer full of 100 identical micron .3mm pens or work with what moves you in the moment, try to keep a well-stocked supply of your favorites so you're not caught short.

Build your inventory based on medium (graphite, charcoal, india ink, watercolor brush pens, colored pencils, pastels, etc.) first, then determine how fine a point you want to put on it. Purchase your favorite implement in a variety of thicknesses and colors and other qualities you want or need (e.g., fade resistant, smudge resistant or archival quality). Always buy a few more of each item than you think need and keep them at home, at work and in the bag you carry regularly so you'll always have a spare.

Paints and Paint Boxes
If you don't paint already, but are thinking of giving it a try, you have some decisions to make, starting with what kind of paint you'd like to work with. Watercolors are the easiest purchase for beginners to make-they come in both travel- and full-sized paint boxes-but it takes time to get the results you want.

Acrylics are more forgiving when you're learning to paint, but come in tubes of individual color sold either separately or in starter kits. Oil paints require a higher level of care and maintenance, especially when it comes to brushes, that involves the use of mineral oils and paint thinners.

If you're not sure what you want to try, consider experimenting with beginner watercolor or acrylics kits or playing with watercolor crayons, pastels or watercolor pencils. These start kits tend to be reasonably priced, so you don't have to invest a significant amount of money to learn that you don't care for a particular medium. The same goes for your surface: start with pads and sketchbooks before you start buying canvases.

Essential Extras

Erasers. Whether you want to eradicate a drawing or try another means of smudging to the get the shadow effect you're looking for, there's an eraser that can do the job. Like almost all of your art supplies, the eraser you choose will largely be based on preference. Common eraser materials include plastic, gum and rubber. Purchase several or purchase one large eraser and cut into quarters so you can carry one with you and have extras at home.

Pencil sharpeners. Go for the traditional or, if you draw with anything but No. 2 pencils, try an emery board to keep your pencils sharp. They're easy to carry and inexpensive enough that if you lose it, you won't mind.

Supply box. How you store your supplies will depend on how much space you have at home-an entire room devoted to your studio or just a corner in the bedroom-and what you want to spend. Art supplies stores stock a variety of supply boxes in all shapes, colors and sizes. Don't spend a lot unless you want to. Visit your local hardware store instead for a toolbox that won't differ from what you see at the art supply stores hardly at all, except in price.