DRAWING
CHARCOAL
Charcoal set (these are amazing charcoal sticks in the form of a pencil that are all lead but won’t dirty your hands and can be sharpened like a pencil).
General’s charcoal pencil set for fine drawing (set of 5).
Pencil lengthener.
White charcoal (set of 4) is used for highlights.
Vine charcoal is great for under-drawing for your oil paintings.
Red conte works well for a traditional sanguine (deep red color) technique.
INK & GOUACHE
Traditional Ink pen
Kuretake Bimoji Fude Pen - Medium, Brush
PAPER
Versatile paper for pastel, charcoal, ink, and gouche dessert brown pad 16.5 x 11.7 inches
Pastel paper assorted dark colors pad 11.7 x 16.5 inches
Strathmore 500 Series blue/gray or pottery green charcoal paper has a great ‘tooth’ and provides a nice mid-tone background.
Kraft paper pad (18X24 inches excellent for life drawing and pastel work)
Newsprint paper pad (18X24 inches for life-drawing and quick sketches).
Arches heavy weight watercolor paper for experimental work.
Fine BFK Rives smooth paper for find charcoal drawings.
Pastel Canson paper.
Glassine paper can be used as a sheet protector for pastel drawing.
Drawing protective sleeve.
Drawing board (23X26 inches).
Tape.
ERASERS & SHARPENER
A kneaded eraser is helpful for gently lifting your extra charcoal residue without erasing your drawing.
A pencil eraser is great for bringing out the highlights from the toned ground.
Blick electric sharpener works great. I also love an antique sharpener: Boston champion (you can find it on e-bay). It’s truly a life saver, creating a sharp long tip quickly & easily, without breaking your fine charcoal.
PASTELS
I recommend soft pastels: Rembrandt (set of 45, 90, or 150) or Sennelier (the more colors in your box the better your artwork). Pastels are a very flexible material and can range to look from a finished painting to a quick drawing sketch. This medium is great for portability and has no smell, toxicity, or drying time. It is best not to spray it with fixative because it will dull your colors. Instead frame it with the glass and put a mat or a spacer in between so that the glass doesn’t touch and disturb the surface of your work. Never frame pastel with plastic - it will lift your particles off the paper!
Bruynzeel DesignPastel pencils.
Prismacolor nupastel (set of 48 or 96).
It’s a good idea to use a spray fixative for pastels.
BOOKS
My favorite anatomy book is by Eliot Goldfinger.
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