Artist Q&A: Favourite Sketching Pencil and Essential Art Supplies

Today I have a very art supply heavy Q&A to share with you, with questions from @kryssy.draws and @saschischa over on Instagram. Thank you for your questions, now let’s dive into my answers!

Q: What is your favourite sketching pencil?

This was originally a difficult question to ask myself, but then I noticed that the question is specifically about sketching. That helped to narrow it down. I love using a variety of mechanical and wooden pencils for different purposes. Choosing just one would have been a challenge!

For sketching specifically I have a small kit I always fall back on. This is a set of four mechanical pencils in the sizes 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 mm. All four use the same pencil body: the P200 range by Pentel. They are easily accessible and reasonably priced where I live, and are of good enough quality to hold up to daily use. I have tried a handful of different mechanical pencil bodies over the years, and the P200s are the most comfortable in my hands for long periods of sketching. When talking to other art friends it seems the shape, feel, and weight that feels most comfortable is quite unique to each person.

I also use the same brand of leads in all four pencils: the Ain Stein pencil leads by Pentel. I have only tried a small selection of pencil lead brands, but out of the ones I have tried these were my favourite to use. I like the range of softness/hardness I can achieve with just HB and 2B Ain Stein leads. I set up the pencils so that the 0.3 and 0.7 mm have 2B, and the 0.5 and 0.9 mm have HB. The tactile feel of sketching with them is also very satisfying to me. They have a balance of smoothness and feedback in the graphite that I personally enjoy. Once again they are easily accessible and reasonably priced where I live too. I can even bulk buy a box with 12 tubes of refills if I so desired. Those factors combined make them my current top choice, and they are the only pencil leads I use right now.

You asked for a favourite sketching pencil though, not four! So lets specify, shall we?

Truth be told, I go through phases of preferring to sketch with one of the four pencils over the others. Which one that is changes over time. However, I do have an all-rounder pencil that I reach for to cover almost any sketching occasion. It’s also the pencil I use to do the under-sketches of most of my illustrations and paintings. My all-rounder is the 0.5 mm pencil with HB lead. It has a good balance of thickness/thinness and hardness/softness to be useful in most applications. So if I had to choose only one in an extreme circumstance it would be the Pentel P205 mechanical pencil filled with 0.5 mm HB Ain Stein lead.

This question was submitted by @saschischa.

If I had to pick only one, my favourite pencil is the P205 0.5mm mechanical pencil with HB Ain Stein leads.

Q: What are your favourite art supplies?

Ouch, another difficult question! I have a full list of all the art supplies I use in my FAQ, but to narrow that down to my most essential favourites is going to be interesting. Let’s see… To make this a bit easier I’ll separate this into my essential sketching supplies, and then the illustrating supplies I can’t live without.

My favourite sketching supplies are sketchbooks, pencils, and ballpoint pens.

A few years ago sketchbooks terrified me and I sketched mainly on loose leaf paper and pads of paper. Now sketchbooks are an integral part of not just my creative practice but my everyday life. Speaking of which, my favourite “everyday” sketchbook is the Royal Talens Art Creation sketchbooks in the roughly A5 (13 by 21 cm) size. The cream paper doesn’t strain my eyes as much for long periods of sketching, and the paper suits the materials and techniques I like to use for sketches.

I gave my favourite sketching pencils in the response to the previous question (the four mechanical pencils). I also love wooden pencils such as the Mitsubishi 9850 HB and General’s Cedar Pointe No.2 (HB) pencils. The latter is my favourite pencil to use when I’m feeling stuck in a rut since it has such a different tactile feel. The graphite has more feedback than other pencils I use, and the body of the pencil is unlacquered so I can feel the roughness of the wood against my skin too. Tactile feel is a big part of what I love in art, and as such it plays a part in my art supply preferences.

My favourite non-erasable sketching tool is the ballpoint pen. Cheap, reliable, and readily available. They had a key role in my journey of sketchbooking again, and I developed a love and appreciation of them through that. I use BIC cristal and BIC 4in1 ballpoint pens. My favourite colours to sketch in are black, red, blue, and purple.

For illustrations and paintings I love watercolours, 100% cotton paper (cold and hot pressed), and ink pens. For watercolour paper I like Saunders Waterford, but also Arches and Fluid100. My favourite ink pens include micron fine-liners, Sakura Pigma FB brush pens, and Kuretake bimoji brush pens.

A few of my favourite watercolour pigments at the moment are Azo Green PY129, Indanthrone Blue PB60, and Perylene Violet PV29. Punchy and bright on its own, PY129 is a mixing must have for me now. I use it for mixing a variety of greens, skin tones, and earth tones. The deep muted blue of PB60 drew me in the moment I laid eyes on it in my early days of learning watercolours, and its been a constant companion ever since. It is my go-to warm blue when I don’t want granulation. PV29 is a recent favourite I have discovered during some of my self-studying this year. It’s a gorgeous deep muted violet, and I love it on its own or to mix a variety of earth tones.

This question was submitted by @kryssy.draws.

Two of my favourite everyday sketching supplies: a mechanical pencil (P200 series) and a Royal Talens Art Creation sketchbook.

Have any questions?

If you have any art related questions (learning art, supplies, the creative path, art process etc.) leave them in the comments below. I’ll collect them to answer in future blog posts, and may include them in future videos.

See you later and happy drawing!