What Supplies Are Needed?

     Colored pencil art has been growing in popularity recently. The reasons for this are many. It is relatively inexpensive to get started, its way less messy than conventional painting methods, its more forgiving than ink. and the reasons go on. For me personaly, I went with this medium because it was less intimidating than other art forms. That was a  big thing for me. I  am easily intimidated by art because I have always considered myself untalented and unimaginative. Luckily, I had a grandmother who was talented. unafraid, and encouraged me to try. I gave up as a kid, but the seed was planted and a few years ago I decided to just do it. So if you just want to do it too, where do you begin?    

The “equipment” needed for colored pencil art can vary wildly in price range. I want to stress, from the beginning, that you can get started in this medium without spending a fortune. The supplies I mention are by no means all that is available, but it will be some of the more popular, readily available (at least in the U.S.) supplies. Some of this may seem very obvious or basic, but I want to address this subject from the perspective of someone totally unfamiliar with the medium.

     The absolute, bare minimum required to get started is the following: regular pencil, colored pencils, paper, pencil sharpener, and eraser. When you first start out, I encourage you to get decent supplies but you don’t have to break the bank. The reason I say this is that I don’t want you to get frustrated with your results when its the fault of the supplies and not your ability. When you first start out, you won’t know if your supplies are just not capable of doing what you need them to do or if your technique is faulty. I also don’t think you need to break the bank on something that you may not like. For this post, I’m going to just breifly mention each of these supplies.

     First of all we need regular pencils. Regardless of where we get our inspiration, our image needs to get down onto the paper. This will be your cheapest supply.  Your basic choices are whether you want the standard wooden pencil or a mechanical pencil . I have no preferance whatsoever. These things are cheap, cheap, cheap. I mean we’re talking Dollar Store cheap. I tend to like mechanical pencils because they don’t need to be sharpened. Call me lazy.

     That brings us to the next cheapest of the supplies which are erasers and pencil sharpeners. It took me awhile to settle on a pencil sharpener I like. You have a choice of manual sharpeners or electric sharpeners. The purists will tell you to never use an electric sharpener on colored pencils. but I don’t agree. You just have to be careful. The cores of colored pencils are soft, so the vibration from the electric sharpener can cause the core to fracture and break, but the biggest issue I see is that people don’t use the electric sharpeners correctly.  If the pencil is not inserted straight in, which happens when the opening is not adjusted to fit the pencil, it will cause it to break. There’s more I could say about electric sharpeners, but they probably cost more than you want to pay when you first start. Manual sharpeners are much more affordable. Of course, you have choices here as well. There are the standard small, plastic or metal insert and twist sharpeners or the hand-crank, schoolroom type sharpeners. Again, the purists will tell you not to use the crank type for the same reason as the electric one. I say, the purists just like to suffer for their craft. I personally use all three types of sharpeners. I love, love, love my electric sharpener! Its made for professionals and it is a workhorse. It sounds like a jet taking off everytime I use it, but its awesome. It does, however, have a very deep throat, so when my pencils get too short, I then move to the crank style sharpener. Now I could write an entire post on what to look for when purchasing these things but I won’t. I also use a simple twist style sharpener. Colored pencils need to be sharpened often, but I have found that I don’t always need to really sharpen the pencil as much as just re-point them. That’s when I use the twist style sharpener. I also use a piece of sandpaper (or nail file) for this purpose.     
     Erasers are the next supply you need. Most colored pencil artists and how-to books will recommend the kneadable erasers and the white plastic erasers . I tend to stay away from the gum erasers and any erasers that are colored as the color can transfer to the paper. The kneadabe erasers are used differently. They are use to lift pigment from the paper by pressing and lifting rather than scrubbing. The white plastic erasers will erase graphite pencil almost entirely and will produce very little residue. They are my go-to erasers. The kneadable erasers haven’t proven their use to me and the white erasers can get colored pencil pigment off just as well in my experience.

The next post will look at colored pencils and paper. These are the two essential pieces of equipment for this medium, and, as you will see, paper may not be needed. Thanks and, please, any comments will be appreciated.