Tools
The first thing I want to talk about are tools. Tools are, and can be, very important aspects to accomplish what you want to achieve when creating art. However, don’t rely on them solely. It is important to realize that painting, drawing, sculpting—whatever—is not done by the tools, but by the artist. Lots of beginners think (including myself when I first started out) that by having the best, most expensive, fancy tools available you’ll be able to create masterpieces. Now, having the right tools is important, but the vision should come from you. A true artist can create anything with any kind of tool—regardless of how primitive or cheap it may be.
Pencils
I’ll start with my preferred medium, pencil.
As a kid I drew a lot with the typical #2 pencil. Which, coincidentally, is known as an “HB” pencil in those sets you see at the craft store.
As you can see the scale ranges from 9H all the way to a 9B. Remember that ‘H’ is hard and ‘B’ is soft. The higher the number the harder/softer the lead is. Although I’ve never seen, or owned a pencil set that went all across the scale. The hardest one I have is 4H and the softest is 8B. Personally, I’ve never used either. I generally only use HB to 6B and even then I typically only use HB to 2B. My shortest pencils are usually HB from excessive use. So it’s really only about personal preference. Don’t want to buy a whole pencil set? Or does it seem overwhelming to you? Just get some school pencils and start there.
I’ll talk more about other tools in my next post. Be sure to leave a comment and thanks for reading!