I came here to recommend the Derwent battery-operated eraser, so I guess I'll just second you. :) It erases everything from gel pen to really dark pencils, which makes coloring a lot more relaxing, especially when I'm working with tiny lines.

Eraser in action

So for the past few days, I've been organizing my coloring space. I found a picture that I had really liked from when I first start coloring, but I didn't have any eraser at all of the time and actually coloring the paper Dahlia and dark purple from prismacolor instead of the Sand I meant to pick up. I I did some in Sand as well as Light Aqua b/c I honestly had no clue at all.

I completely forgot to take pictures of it all, but the first picture is from near the end of the first round or erasing, only seconds after I got all I can - these have had fixative sprayed on them since October.

So here are the pics after erasing, I left the forest person, but completely erased from the girl in scrolls - erased pics

Here's the new version.

Edit to add a few things

Derwent's blender and burnisher set works so well. I had gotten the prismacolor because that's what I was advised to get for my newbie starter kit. With the really creamy colors, it worked fine. Buy when I really needed it, like on scratchy colors, it seemed even more scratchy. Also, on grayscale pictures, it looks like uneven skin tone gray scratched on randomly. :/ These are very and have also blended gel pens and pastels. The burnisher is also very good at adding shine.

Not sure how long they'll be there, but they have little crates at Walmart from the back to school sale for $1. They're supposed to fit together like Legos, but there are quite a few that don't fit perfectly. Depending on how many your store has you might be able to find enough that fit perfectly, but someone got mine for me without knowing they fit together and I've just banded them together, so I can move them easily without worry. [pic] (https://imgur.com/gallery/dTLx9)

Also, if you do any loose leaf work, clear paper protectors are a must. I have. Here's a pic. As you can see, you have to remove it to take a picture, but it protects well, fits in a binder, and is only $0.88 for 20 sheets. again, got these from Walmart, and not sure how long I'll be there after back to school is over. However, I have a couple hundred printed out and a couple thousand on my Pinterest, so 6 or 7 packs seemed well worth it.

I also find a fan brush extremely useful - if you blow or use your hand you risk adding moisture and making it stick.

Also, if you use pastels, Yoplait has a new French flavor that has little pots perfect for mixing colors together. For blending pastels, I also like silicone blenders although I haven't tried them on pencil or anything else yet. I also like a beauty blender with a solvent if you know how the paper will react and have quite a few layers.

Also a flashlight is so useful - allows you to make sure you everything looks as good as you think it does.

Also, I would recommend having lots of extra cups for pencils or whatever you're working with. That way you can separate things for organizational purposes, ie clothes, hair, skin, plants, etc.

Here's a few pics my coloring corner, so you can see how I organized things. The middle pic has a close-up of the flashlight (they're super cheap, I have like 3 of them from Harbor Freight, and they have three different kinds of light).

You can also see my eraser, my fan brush, silicone blenders, my mini Derwent pencil sharpener on the right of the desk (got it yesterday so I can't speak to its quality). Also, beside the flashlight is the Yoplait container I mentioned earlier with a chopstick to grind the pastels. I got three more today, and I am usually a huge food snob, but I have to admit, it's delicious and has great containers.

You can also see that the second shelf has my replacement box (erasers, gel pens|, etc), a couple of bottles of workable fixative, a travel pencil case, and my case of pastels. I just moved them into this container because although I can't say no to $6 for 64 colors, Mungyo's was just not sufficient. I got it from Michaels or AC Moore a long time ago in the jewellery department. Here's a close-up

Oh and how could I forget - bookends. I just got 3 cheap ones a few days ago and, is so nice not to have to worry about the imminent slide whenever I take anything out. I use one for my combination shelf of coloring books and pencil cases.

Another I use for the big file box that holds my Ioose coloring pages. Not sure if many people have this but I have a good two hundred and don't want them to get bent/curved, which was starting to happen previously. Here is a pic of the kind of book and I use, and these are the files in the black box beside the crates. Here is an example of the files, which I do my best to keep organized so I can easily find the kind of picturet I'm in the mood for.

Whewww, this forever so hopefully it helps someone.

If you're looking at learning drawing, I recommend starting with learning perspective. Start with 1-point perspective and you can advance from there up to 3-point or whatever you think is necessary, but they are all basically the same.

This is a fundamental that you will use with almost all your drawing. There are numerous free tutorials online for you to learn from but it is pretty basic so once you understand the concepts the most important thing is practice.

Once you understand perspective you can draw things like buildings, building interiors, landscapes, cities, etc.

When you want to learn to draw people, one of the best things you can do is get books by masters. Andrew Loomis, Burne Hogarth (Dynamic Figure Drawing, Dynamic Anatomy), George Bridgman (complete guide to drawing from life), each of these guys have several books that are very popular and for good reason, I've listed a few but check out all their books if you get the chance. Use these books to understand proportion of the human body, and learn basic anatomy. Draw the pictures in the book as studies and this will help you understand.

Now for materials what I recommend is a sketch book with decent paper (I'll talk a little more about this in a second) like this one here.

Get a pencil set with different hardnesses like this one (hardness range from 8+h on the hard side to HB which is mid hardness to 9+B on the soft side. The softer the graphite, the darker of a mark it's going to leave. You can generally stick to HB and softer, especially for now. It's best to just use traditional pencils opposed to mechanical pencils unless you're just doing line work.

Get a soft kneaded eraser like this or any other one will work fine

Pencil sharpener any one will do.


Now when you've got your supplies and want to do shading, you want to start with your hard graphite (H) first. You want to work with the "tooth" of the paper, so you want to make sure not to apply too much pressure to the paper with the pencils and the eraser. Be gentle because if you press too hard or are too rough you will crush the tooth of the paper and your graphite will become shiny. If you crush the tooth it will also make erasing very difficult. When you want to make the shadows darker you then use the same pressure but with a softer pencil, working your way up the softness scale until you are happy with your value.

The other thing about paper tooth is that it will let you draw different textures. For example if you start with a hard graphite (H), the texture you draw will be very smooth, like a skin texture or other smooth surface like a window or a counter top. If you start with a very soft graphite (B), the texture you draw will be rough looking like the surface of a rock. I hope this makes sense.

There are lots of free tutorials online. For technique a good one I found that talks about a lot of the things I mentioned is the "5 pencil method" youtube channel. If you watch some of those videos you will understand much better. If you start with these materials and all the resources I've mentioned you will be busy for quite a while.

Try to practice every day even if it's only for 10 minutes. Setting aside the time and putting in the effort to practice is often more difficult and important for your progress than the practice itself.

This is the best advice I can give to you so I hope it helps.

I am so excited for the gifts I ordered for her! I can hardly wait for 2 week for them to arrive. I never felt this excited about gifting anything to anyone.These are not to win her love or receive gratitude, I just felt like if I were her I'd be happy to get this from someone. I wish I have known more about her til now so that I could get more things. Obviously she won't be very pleased that I spent money for her, but it's not about the money, it's about her happiness. I just hope likes these.

The first thing I got for her is a Beats X. She loves music and deserves something far better than the cheap skullcandy earphone she uses. I got the blue color as it's her second most favorite color after purple. I would've even bought the Bose I use but she tried it she felt the treble was too much for her. I digress but I felt so happy she wanted to try them on, I mean come on a girl interested in gadgets!

Next I got her a Sketch pencil set as she draws on paper too. I am very excited about this.

Then couple of days ago she asked for portrait tutorials and I thought I should give her a book. This seemed the perfect book to me, may be she knows a lot of it already but may be she can learn some new techniques and pro tips.

All these I got from amazon Canada, next I want to buy some things from here as well. I must get a sketchbook to go along with the pencils. Plus I will visit Miniso and grab random things that she might like and be useful to her.

Finally I have this idea to put sticky notes on each of the items writing a thing or two may be even pack them in gift wrap.

I am not sure if I should leave her a secret hand written letter among the presents.

Hello! If you like the feel of standard wood pencils, you can easily pick up a set that will give you a broad range in blackness, some charcoal and a kneaded eraser, a normal eraser, and a sharpener! This would be everything you need in terms of pencils/drawing equipment you need to get started.

As for paper, your preference may change over time. I know mine did. My current favorite paper to use right now is Bristol board/paper. It is very smooth and I find it quite forgiving as well. Bristol does not "absorb" the graphite/charcoal the way a more grainy or rough paper would. But if you love that texture and what it adds to the drawing, then go for it! Like I said, you may find you develop a taste for a certain type of paper later on.

I personally love mechanical pencils and graphite holders. I love the consistency in point size and they have a range of hardness and blackness just like standard pencils, however, it is not as wide a range. I just find the weight of the pencil paired with the consistency to be exactly what I need. However, they can be expensive and good ones are often sold individually, as is the graphite you want, so you'll end up with a set and many packages of graphite types and sizes. This can be a bit costly. Starting out, I would go with a standard pencil set, as it has everything you need!

One thing you'll need to know about pencils, that you may already know is that H stands for hardness and B stands for blackness (you'd think they'd use softness but whatever) HB is right in the middle, and then up the scale on either side means the graphite is hard or softer. The harder the graphite, the more pressure needed to make a line. This is great for drafting, as you will be making light lines (with light hand pressure) that will guide you and either be erased or worked over. The softer the graphite, the blacker the line you get with less pressure. These are great for adding darks, doing large areas of black, adding dark details, etc etc. One thing to remember about graphite is that it can be polished. If you are overworking an area, the area can become shiny and metallic. This can really take away from the drawing. If you need something to be really black, use a very soft graphite pencil. In the set that I linked you above, that would be the 8b pencil, or the charcoal would also work, though the tone of black may differ from the graphite black (in reference to the shade of black that is seen on the paper) if you use charcoal.

Charcoal is much softer than graphite and does not polish. I do not have a lot of experience with charcoal yet (I only know it's much messier), but would like to transition into it at some point (I like rich blacks, and hate the shine from graphite) but this might be something you want to dabble in early on so you can get a nice set of skills with multiple tools. =)

I hope this helps! Good luck and remember to share what you produce!

I'm no pro by any means but I have a lot of fun drawing after work and certainly I'd love my SO surprised me with something like:

• Faber Castell 9000!
  
• Lumograph 100!
  
• Prismacolor Premier Verithin!
  
• Polychromo!
  
• Bristol paper!
  
  Also you can always include some nice accesories like blending stumps, different types of erasers, a good cutter/blade or sharpener.
  
  Does she like books? Andrew Loomis' books are incredible! Drawing the Head and Hands!
  
  These are (for me) good options for a present. Depending on budget you could increse/decrease the count on the color set but 24/36 is a good starting point.
  
  I hope this helps.

I was just looking at amazon after I commented and the prices have changed a little since I purchased my sets. One set went up in price and one set went down.

I paid about $26 including shipping for a set of 60 pencils and a sharpener. It was the Scholar set. They are good quality and includes a nice variety of colors and shades. Right now that same set has gone up to $29.99 and the sharpener is still under $2 . I think the Scholar set was about $20 when I bought it.

I noticed there is a set of 48 Premiers for like $35 right now so you could always go that route. I had a set of premiers in HS and they are a better pencil than the Scholars, but I still think less money for more colors is worth it.

I paid about $18 including shipping for a set of 36 Verithin pencils which are great for fine details. They have a harder "lead" or whatever you want to call it. I know it's not actually lead so I hope you get what I mean. They are great for hard lines and accents. I wouldn't use these for shading or gradation. I love them. I use them for all kinds of different techniques that the softer pencils don't work as well for. Right now a set of 24 is like $12 before shipping so jump on it.

Edited to add links and change some stuff that I got wrong.

Edit to OP: Prismacolor is a great option for what you're looking to do because they work well on different types of surfaces. I'm assuming your comic collection has glossy pages, right? Regular, less expensive pencils won't work as well and you might not be able to fill in and shade everything without leaving lines and white space. I hope you show us some of the pages when you get started.

A good set of pens is really fun for creative types. Pentel SignPens (either these or these) are fantastic. Sakura and Stabilo make great ones as well. I like previously offered highlighter ideas and love my new see-through ones that I linked there. Also what about a set of sketch pencils?

What about some paracord and accessories for making guinea pig leashes? There are tons of sites that tell how to make them, she might be into it.

I also just recently got a little more into makeup and found an AMAZING set of cheap makeup brushes as a starter set - These and I'm actually getting them for my 18 yo niece for Christmas.

Best of luck!

I used Touchnew markers.
Numbers; 64,76,182,CG8,83,143,84,132,145,75, white deleter for the eyes, I overlapped # 76 on 182. # 64 is used to shade for the blue. # 145 is for the shade for the white on the dress. CG8 is for the dress and shoes. #84 is the ribbon. # 83 is for the shade for the dress. For the black I used whatever but make the lines thick haha rem is thick lulz. I used a color pencil for the blush. For the skin I used #132. TBH I would go fairer. Like #26 or #131. I used a micron pen for some of the black I have a black Copic marker so I used that to fill in some stuff I would not use the Copic cuz the brush is hard to control for me now. I would recommend drawing her before you even start to color her. Here is the sauce for the markers I used. And the rest of the art supplies I used. I would not suggest the paper I used.

168 Set Color TOUCHNEW Graphic Drawing Painting Alcohol Art Dual Tip Sketch Pen Twin Marker Design Coloring Highlighting Set with Carry Bag +A4 Drawing Book + Parblo Glove https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS46KVT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zW2DCbMSACQY0
And the deleter
Deleter Manga Ink - White 2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UF3IUE?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The Copic marker I mentioned:
Copic Marker Copic Sketch... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QWZUE2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The skin colors I used most of them I believe: come with the 168 set haven't checked
24 Colors Skin Tone Pens TOUCHNEW... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8LS519?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The pencils I used:
Zebra DelGuard 0.5mm Lead... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NN3Z4EI?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Prismacolor Col-Erase Erasable... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000093L6M?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The micron markers I mentioned:
3M Rugged Comfort Quick Latch... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0798HYDYL?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

And lastly for the color pencils:
Castle Art Supplies 72 Colored... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZNF7GS?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I used #34 of ^ the color pencils I used my finger to rub it in and make it look like a blush.

Paper I used:
Bellofy 100-Sheet Sketchpad... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FB6G81C?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Yeah sorry for the overkill response and wall of text. Have fun drawing her.

P.S please respond if you read it I would greatly appreciate it. Have a great day :3

What kind of pencils do you use? It may just be the picture, but it looks like your shading kind of blends into a medium gray in a lot of places, when high contrast (light grays and really dark blacks) might be more effective.

I would suggest buying a set of Prismacolor Turquoise pencils or similar ones that have "softer" shades like 9B, 8B or 7B. Then use those soft pencils to increase the darkness of places like the eyes and mouth here. If you haven't already, familiarize yourself with how to use hard and soft pencils. It might also help to take an eraser to some of the shading when you're done to make really bright highlights. This can really make shading easier and prettier, resulting in a drawing with higher contrast. :)

There's a lot of art pencil sets like this that you can find online or at art specialty stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby that are good for beginning. Don't worry about the big pencil sets that have every grade available--you really don't need all that right away, and probably wouldn't use most of them anyway.

For pencils, I'd start with just a 2H, an HB or F, a 2B, and maybe a 4B. This gets you a decent range of light to dark. You can add in a layout or black colored pencil for when you want to go really dark.

Find yourself a white eraser or a kneaded eraser, a good sketchbook with 60 or 70lb paper (or copy paper like a printer uses is a super cheap alternative). I'd personally recommend drawing without an eraser at the ready for a while in order to train yourself to learn from any mistakes and to be more economical and thoughtful with your lines among other things.

When you get more confident using those tools, you can add in other pencil grades, blending tools (like a tortillon, stump, or chamois), or even graduate to charcoals.

I hope that helps with getting you going! Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in what we think we need in order to draw that we forget that the most important thing is to grab whatever you have at the ready along with a piece of paper and start drawing.

(Side note: I'm not selling anything and am unaffiliated with the products linked to-- they're just examples.)

I appreciate your comment, truly. I can somewhat relate to you, as I was very much into art back in High School, but quickly gave up on it due to anxiety and low self-esteem. There was a good ten-year hiatus before I began to pick the pencil up again this earlier this year.

I suggest starting small. I challenged myself to draw all 151 of the first generation of Pokemon on post-it notes. You can see some of them in my submission history if you're curious. It sounds silly, but that's what I had available to me at work, and I could usually spit one out after working on them on breaks and lunches. I tried to do one a day. The more I worked on them, the more I began to get my confidence back. Once they were done, I had an immense sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

You don't have to do something that intense, but I found that setting smaller goals first, and seeing them through, was what helped, even if I wasn't pleased with some of the small things. It was only after these that I had the courage to try something bigger and more complex, like the helmets I've done.

Practically speaking, get yourself a few tools of the trade. I use a mix of .7 and .3 mechanical pencils, with HB graphite for the former and B lead for the latter. I also use eraser pencils to get fine erase lines for detail, and smudging sticks to blend.

Sorry. I know this was probably more word vomit than you may have expected or wanted. Your comment just struck a similar chord to my own experience. That said, just start small, and realize that all of the tiny mistakes you see in your work are mistakes that, for the most part, only you can see. Everyone else will just see a work of art, and enjoy it for what it is. Trust me. That was my largest hurdle. You can do it too.

Good luck. :)

Well, you're obviously talented, so fancy colored pencils would never be wasted on you! The Derwent Colorsoft series is nice, have you seen the Derwent Studio Metallic Pencils Set? They would be great for adding a metallic sheen to the eye shadows and lipsticks on your portraits.

Have you used Lyra pencils? I've been experimenting around with them, and I've been enjoying how blendable they are as they're formulated with oil instead of wax. There's also a good skin tones set, and the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor perform and blend beautifully. You're absolutely right, though - art supplies are so freaking expensive. I've never been able to get into painting simply because just getting started can be so spendy.

Yeah, I'm kind of sold on the Derwent Inktense. What do you think would be better? The blocks or the pencils? I think the pencils are more comfortable and easy to use, though the blocks seem nice too.

Edit: Sooo I found this tin box of 72 on sale in my country and it's like 65 Euro ($70). It's a really good deal right? I think I'm gonna buy these. http://www.amazon.com/Derwent-Inktense-Pencils-Metal-2301843/dp/B001XCWP34

Edit 2: Hmmm, so I read this review and I'm changing my mind a bit. http://hubpages.com/art/Watercolor-Pencils-Reviews#

I see that Faber Castell and Koh-I-Noor are something I'd probably like more. I won't be using the watercolour only with water and I want a nice pigment even when I use the dry pencil. I think I'll be getting a smaller box of Derwent Inktense stricly for waterbrushing and other types for both waterbrush and dry use.

For pencils, my favorite is probably my Mars Technico, combined with the tub sharpener. The leads come from 4h-4b, so its a decent range. At 2mm it seems large, but the tub sharpener will put a needle ass point on that badboy. The leads last a pretty long time too.

Other than that, any set of pencils with a range of hardness would be cool, personally i prefer Prismacolor and Staedtler Mars Lumiograph. The technico costed about 16-17$ with the pencil, 3 leads and the sharpener, which i got an office depot.

For pens, I LOVE the Copic Multiliner SP. Pretty spendy, but the ink is refillable and the nibs are replaceable. Doesn't smudge when dry, and I've water colored over it fine even. A more affordable option would be Prismacolor Premier Pens, after about 5 seconds it won't smudge.

I use/have used a pretty wide variety of tools for inking, because I put a lot of emphasis on my inking/line work in general. Recently I've opted to simply using a fine tip sharpie pen and a black sharpie marker. This is more economical and easy to find. A slightly more pricey but good alternative I've used is a prismacolor black brush pen. Makes things like line weight (variation in line thickness) a breeze. There's actually a nice 8 pack I found on Amazon that includes the brush pen (as well as other handy pens) that's only $11 plus tax. which you can find here

This is pretty good. In fact it better then i can do and i have some formal training.

2 quick tips

1. get yourself some good pencils I like these http://amzn.com/B0038D8JQ8
   
2. bigger is easier! get big paper (18x24 inches) and use as much of the page as you can. I found that this helped me focus on what the overall shape was and not each individual line
   
   Keep Practicing :)

Read reviews on Amazon or go to the kind of art store where you can test them. I think color payoff of good pencils is much better than crayola/Children’s pencils. It’s like lipstick really, you want the most pigment and the least wax/chalky clay. All my best color pencils are European. Derwent, Koh-I-noor, etc.better pencils can be blended on the paper. Also you don’t have to press hard with good pencils.

P.s. my favorite: Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Colored 24-Pencil Set, Assorted Colored Pencils (FA8758.24) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O7895I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_IzAJAb5X6V18R

• Riddle the First
  
  Wine -- flask for sneaking butterbeer into class so I can win the Defense Against the Dark Arts duels. >_>
  
  
• Riddle the Second
  
  A broom -- organizer so I can keep all my brooms tidily stored and make points with /u/dragonflyjen, the Flying Instructor. =D
  
  
• Riddle the Third
  
  A hat -- for the Tin Man, because I want him as my lab partner in Potions, to use his parts, err brain, for the exams, because /u/rarelyserious, the Potions Master values ingenuity like that. <_<
  
  
• Riddle the Fourth
  
  A book -- the start of one, anyway, being a children's book I have in mind, for the History of Magic project /u/Morthy will assign.
  
  
• Riddle the Fifth
  
  A trunk -- a teeny-tiny one that allows me to hide myself in music and charm the Magical Creatures in /u/Stefanienee's class.
  
  
• For Bonus Points
  
  A cape -- on a pint glass, because it can be used to insulate warm beverages for the night Astronomy classes taught by /u/tandem7!
  
  Mischief Managed! =D

nice colored pencils, or really nice drawing pencils. I'm sure she'd also like cool books on graphic design to read herself and then share with her students, like this or this. Lastly- I'm going to go against the grain and advise you to not get her 'teacher-y' things like mugs, as a teacher, I can assure you we get plenty of those.

So I have one of those erasers that's in pencil form, like, it looks like a pencil, but instead of "pencil lead" or whatever, it's an eraser. It gets into tiny spaces to erase small stuff.

Anyway, I've had luck toning down smears like this with these erasers. They have a light grit, so don't press too hard. It might help!

https://www.amazon.com/Faber-Castell-185698-Faber-Castel-Pencils/dp/B005M4LAUS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1539890603&sr=8-4&keywords=eraser+pencil

If she wants colored pencils to sketch and erase [colerase] (https://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-Col-Erase-Erasable-Colored-24-Count/dp/B000089DCH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485630853&sr=8-1&keywords=colerase+pencils) are great. I personally think [polychromos] (https://www.amazon.com/Faber-Castel-Piece-Polychromous-Colored-Pencil/dp/B0007OECK8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1485630586&sr=8-4&keywords=Polychromos) are the best colored pencils for coloring. For basic sketching graphite pencils I don't think there's a huge difference in brand but I'm sure other people will have a different opinion. I think it's more personal preference. :)

Thank u :3
I don’t erase the guide lines, this drawing was done without an eraser or ruler. I’m trying to play with pencils’ tonality. As an example first I draw the outline with a HB, if I do some mistakes I go over it with B or press harder on the HB.
When I’m doing a non technical drawing and I need an outline I do a basic pencil sketch and the trace it.
The red pencil idea is good if u plan to process ur work digitally.
Also u can use different types of erasers, there are some that look like a pencil ( https://www.amazon.com/Faber-Castell-185698-Faber-Castel-Pencils/dp/B005M4LAUS ) or are soft like dough ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/Soft-Rubber-Kneaded-Eraser-Wipe-Highlight-Art-Sketch-Painting-Correction-Tools/233278662189?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item36507de62d:g:nGEAAOSwglJdHNfj )so u can mold it as u wish to get more precision.
Overall, with time u won’t need an eraser.

I need art supplies. I start uni again very soon, and I'm doing an illustration degree. Art supplies are extortionate, and I just can't afford all that I need. I really, really need new pencils and coloured pencils. Pretty essential to have when doing art!

Thank you so much for the contest ♥

Thanks!

Color can be a pain, this is actually only my second drawing ever that I was satisfied with how the color came out.

I found that higher quality color pencils make a big difference, the key is finding pencils with a soft core so the color blends better. This is what I used for this drawing. Also an ink pen is good for going over the lines to make the colors more clear.

I don't know what is too expensive for you but the other day I saw the 72 set on amazon for $65 down from $84 which is quite a good deal. You could always try getting some open stock and build up your collection from there. And I do agree they are a bit pricey, but I think they are so worth it. The ink is much more vivid than regular watercolor in my opinion.
You could watch them on camel camel camel and see if the price drops again.

Castle Art Supplies 72 Coloured Pencil Set for Adult Colouring Books or Kids School Supplies - Premium Artist Soft Series Lead with Vibrant Colours https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZNF7GS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8d8TBbNTC48X2

These. They are pretty good considering their price. Although I haven't used them too much yet.

Yeah you did really great on those parts for sure!

I've found the Crayola ones aren't too bad for the price. I suggest getting a Derwent Blender and Burnisher set, it should work well with the crayolas. I mostly use Prismacolor but yeah they are way more expensive.

Not the same brand, but the set I own and enjoy. I like the included sepia pens https://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-Premier-Illustration-Markers-Assorted/dp/B00317ERM6

Something like this (link) is good. Steer clear of bags. This style (link) is borderline passable but I wouldn't put any loose pencils in the bag side. Just be careful not to drop or jostle them too much as it will most likely break the leads in the wood.

I use these ones I got from from Amazon I dont think they're the best on the market by any means, but they do the trick :)

this is what I came here to say lol This is a good set

There is this set of Prismacolors specifically for manga style drawing. It's also super cheap on Amazon right now.

Thanks so much! I use colored pencils and then smudge lightly with an eraser to get them to blend well. These are the ones I use:

Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Colored 24-Pencil Set, Assorted Colored Pencils (FA8758.24) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O7895I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4j2OzbV1179TF

This roll from [amazon] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000P6YNHK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). Works well for what i need it for, really only acting as storage at home. Cheap and easy.

Derwent Art Roll, have used it myself for 5+ years, no signs of fraying. Excellent!

Here it is!!

Derwent do a 12 pack of metallic pencils. I have this set myself, though I haven't used them much. They do seem to be more effective on dark backgrounds, though.

I was watching this funny fake Prismacolor color pencil review, and found out about these eraser pencils ($~9.00) that would really help with my art/shading.

someone shared a link to buy a proper one at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Derwent-Pencil-Extender-Pencils-2300124/dp/B002U0OX4C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457369428&sr=8-1&keywords=pencil+extender

• Practice.
  
• Did you get a blender pencil? I find it helps with making smoother transitions between different colors.
  
  EDIT: Derwent instruction video

I checked your profile/wishlist and the drawing set is a little different. The kit I have looks like this one

I will also throw in a sketch pad!

You mean like these?

nice. they sell on amazon with this set

Number two pencils you'd be right. But artists using rather high grade and expensive colored pencils will use a pencil extender to eek out all that lead. It does start to add up if you use them a lot.

It might not be a colored pencil. Might be an eraser pencil

https://www.amazon.com/Faber-Castell-185698-Faber-Castel-Pencils/dp/B005M4LAUS/ref=sr_1_4?

I'm actually really wild about this. Art is my thing and these call to me

I'm using this pencil set. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LPHIG20/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This drawing was made with an HB, 2B, and 4B pencils. I also used a rubber eraser, a kneaded eraser, and tortillon.

Sorry, I tried to link it, but it didn’t work. Let me try again: here!

I got a couple of 'pen' wraps ( these ). Being that they're pencil wraps, chunky pens are a little bit of a squeeze, but nothing too difficult. The only ones that really take an persuasion are the Jin Hao X450 and my Faber Castell Basic (never realised it was quite as thick as it is!). I keep them mostly double spaced in there as I don't want them to rub, but it's given me no issues as a cheap fix to the issue.