Supplies list

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PAPER

8.5″ x 11″ office paper for sketching, thumbnails, taking notes

14″ x 17″ pad of bristol board – regular (vellum) or plate (smooth) surface for final artwork. Try Strathmore or Canson brand.

Heavyweight tracing paper (also called vellum)

PENCILS

An assortment of graphite pencils — you’ll mainly want HB but a few softer (say 2B and 6B) and harder (4H or 6H) pencils will come in handy.

Castell 9000 Graphite Pencil- HB

A mechanical pencil in .5 mm or .7 mm size

Erasers: Kneaded and white plastic

INKING TOOLS

India ink: Koh-I-Noor Universal 3080-4, Windsor-Newton (Waterproof India ink), Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star (Hi-Carb), or other brand of waterproof India ink (if you get the Koh-I-Noor, you will need an ink jar with a tight seal as well). Higgins brand inks are pretty watery; use them for nib pens only.

Nib Pens: a few pen nibs and holders. Here are some starter sets:

Rexel Drawing Pens Set – set of eight Gillott nibs; available only at NY Central Art Supply
Speedball Pen Set “Sketching” (avoid the “Artists” and especially the “Cartooning” sets).
Deleter Trial Pen Set: assortment of Japanese nibs. Available in some comic book stores.

Brushes: Round watercolor, size 2-4, acrylic for starters, or up to Kolinsky sable. Raphael makes a lovely sable brush; it has an orange tip. If you shell out for sable, definitely get the brush basin (see below)