The 10 Things You Need to Start Drawing

Want to develop your drawing skills? I’ll help you with the 10 things you need to start drawing!
Most of us started drawing before writing. When we were young, a standard pencil, and notebook paper would be sufficient to begin. Tools, and supplies weren’t important. But as we start indulging in this hobby more dedicatedly, we begin to choose our materials more seriously.
The drawing supplies you need are surprisingly simple. One of the best things on drawing is that you don’t have to break the bank to procure them. You can start with the less expensive brands and focus on drawing first. It can be intimidating when you don’t know where to begin, while collecting the drawing supplies.
To help you out in this, scroll down for our recommendations.
The 10 things you need to start drawing are-

Aspiring artists should choose a pencil set that includes pencils from harder graphite (9H) to softer graphite (6B).
For Harder graphite(H), you need to put a lot of pressure to make light and thin marks. The H pencil keeps a sharp tip longer.
While Softer graphite(B) makes a darker mark without using much pressure. B pencil needs constant resharpening.

The pencil sets give the artist the ability to work with a lot of variety in their work.
But if you choose to start with just one pencil, 2B or an HB is my recommendation. They are at the middle of the scale so you can alter the pressure on your hand accordingly to make the required pencil marks.
Some people prefer an Automatic or Mechanical Pencil to Wooden Pencils. This depends on your personal choice.
To help you choose the best mechanical pencil, check out my blog-
There are other options like Charcoal or Carbon Pencils but it is better to start with Graphite especially for beginners.

Out of the 10 best things you need to start drawing, paper is the most essential.
For absolute beginners A4 Printer Paper is appropriate as you require a lot of practice and patience to get into drawing seriously.
When you progress to a higher level, textured paper or professional drawing pads will be suitable. Cotton Paper with a higher gsm is recommended. These papers bring out your shadows and colour values perfectly.

You need to buy two types of erasers to take your drawings to a higher level
Rubber Eraser – This is the conventional eraser, that you use all the time. Your standard eraser for erasing graphite. They are real easy to find and generally is white in colour.
Kneaded Eraser – This eraser lifts material from the surface, instead of removing it. You can pull and alter it into different forms to create the required marks. This eraser gets dirty over time, that you can clean by pulling and “kneading” it. They are mostly in grey colour.

The regular pencil sharpener that you used in school is good enough for beginners. However there are a variety of handheld sharpeners available with different blades and sharpening holes.
Electric sharpeners are not suitable for the art pencils as they break the lead easily.
Manual Sharpeners is a cheap and easy solution that can be replaced anytime. Metal sharpeners are better than plastic or wooden one, but that is a personal choice.

The Blending tools that you use other than your hands are the Stumps.
Blending stumps are made from tightly wound paper, formed into a stick and sanded at both ends to create points.
They help you to smudge and create smooth shadows in your work.
It adds texture to your graphite marks, making your art work look beautiful and professional.

An Ideal Sketch Book is light weight and portable.
It has a hard cover to provide a firm drawing surface.
One of the biggest benefit is that it lasts forever and you can always look back for improvement. Think of it as a practice book. You will feel a sense of accomplishment as your drawings improve. So, a sketch book is important in the 10 things you need to start drawing.

Working with tracing techniques is very helpful, to grab the outlines of the drawing. As a beginner, some of us require help to get the correct shape and gradually learn by practicing. Good drawings often motivate us to go a step further, eventually leading to free hand drawing.

Coloured Pencils powerful tools for creativity. Their pigments can be made of either wax or oil. The oil colour pencils move effortlessly across the page while the wax ones can be brittle and hard to blend.

For some of us , it is a little difficult to start with bigger drawings such as living spaces. Pick one object at a time and draw keeping your paper vertically. It is best to start with reference pictures or photographs as it is easier to draw a two dimensional(2D) image. You want to start with something simple and basic. Believe me, this tip really helps!
For more tips on drawing and to get started, check out our previous blog on tips for drawing

Drawing Board is one of the things you need to start drawing. Drawing requires boosting your imagination and creativity. So you really can’t get motivated enough sitting next to your writing table. You need to move around. In this case, a drawing board becomes a requisite for drawing. You require a drawing board which is larger than your paper or sketchbook.
Think about this: you want to draw a real picture of the Bird House in your garden. To get motivated and real, you need to go out in your garden, to closely observe a true picture. You can’t do this sitting next to your study table.
Some artists prefer a simple thin drawing board that’s easy to carry around. Others may want a thicker board, that can support clips at the top for holding a sheet of paper in place.
All these things are available in most of the Stationery Shops and online Stores.
Now let’s get started!
All the 10 things you need to start drawing, are enough for you to start drawing and keep drawing day after day. Practice is better than Perfection. Be consistent with your practice and that’s how you’ll see a lot of progress in the shortest duration of time.