My art essentials

I've realised that I have never shown you my art essentials. I don't have my favourite brands, but it somehow turns out that I mainly use products of two companies: KOH-I-NOOR and Faber-Castell. I usually buy sets so I have my essentials for a long time.

1. Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen Gift Box 48 - I usually use these pens to fill contours with flat colours. They're also helpful with drawing patterns and details I want to highlight. It's great that they have a flexible tip, but the colours don't mix smoothly and aren't as vibrant as I thought they would be.

2. KOH-I-NOOR Hardtmuth Mondeluz Aquarell Coloured Pencils 48 - this one has always been crucial in my work. I've been using it for a long time and I'm really impressed by its quality and flexibility. The best part is that you can turn your crayons into watercolours by using only a brush and water.

3. St. Petersburg White Nights Artists' Watercolour 24 - I usually use my watercolours to create backgrounds. As you can see from the packaging, I've been painting with them a lot. I think the set of 24 colours is enough to compose beautiful palettes of shades.

4. KOH-I-NOOR drawing inks - I don't use them that often, but they're very helpful in particular situations. They allow you to manage shades, from watercolour-mild effects to dark, saturated ones. I also use them when I want to play with contours.

 5. An eraser and a knetgummi art eraser - that's the obvious one. Everyone's must have.

6. Pencils - my favourite ones are these from KOH-I-NOO, I don't have any preferences when it comes to hardness (from HB to 8B).

7.  A sharpener - that might seem like an obvious one, but watch out! It's is an electrical one. I don't know why, but for a long time I was using a manual one. A bit of advice from me: Stop wasting your life and buy an electric sharpener! My is from Eagle, but I don't think that it makes a difference.

8.  Brushes - I can't advice you on that one, I don't have a favourite brand. I buy brushes which seems to have a good quality to me. Actually, I would love to hear you opinion about brushes.

9.  Daler Rowney Fine Grain Drawing Paper and Canson Student Paper Pad - I really like Canson paper, it's affordable and a good quality.

 10. Binder clips - much comfortable and quicker than using a tape.

 11. Adam Pałacki easel - it's a table and folding one (great for travelling). I much prefer the small ones, especially that I usually work on small format like A4 and A3.

 12. An art board - mine was cut by my father from a plain, wooden board. It's really light and not too big (a little over A3 format), so I don't have a problem when I want to draw on my lap.

 I have couple of more art supplies, but these ones are my favourite and most often used. What are your art essentials? I'd love to read about them! Or maybe you have been using products mentioned above and you have a different opinion. Please, let me know!

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,