Best Art Supplies for Illustrators (Well, this illustrator, at least): My Must-Have Drawing and Painting Tools

I'm a little bit obsessed with art supplies. This is an understatement. There is nothing like cracking the package on a brand new set of colored pencils or paints and admiring their unused uniformity and untapped creative potential. Over the years, I’ve tried many different brands and techniques to varying levels of satisfaction and I love learning about other artists' favorite tools.

BUT if I had to pare it down. If I was stranded on a deserted island and could only get 3 supplies airlifted in for the rest of my life, what would be my must-have art supplies? This is my can’t-live-without, tried-and-true, ride-or-die list — my favorite art supplies and absolute essentials; if art supplies were friends, very closest, mark-making besties. You get it.

• Blackwing pencils

• A Sakura electric eraser

• A Canson XL spiral-bound sketch pad (9” x 12”)

Mark making besties

Never mind the logic that if I was stranded on a desert island and getting art supplies airlifted in, couldn’t they just airlift me out instead? Or drop food, water, first aid, basic survival supplies? The answer is no. I’ll take these 3 art supplies, please.

I can get all my ideas across with these three things and I'll probably starve because I'll be drawing instead of foraging for food. The Blackwing pencils are buttery soft and make lovely light lines or rich darker marks. The Sakura eraser is battery-operated, small, and portable. It lets you cut into darker marks and sculpt out negative space with precision. And the 9" x 12" sketch pad is the right size, opens flat, has paper thick enough to handle erasing without buckling, and has just enough tooth to hold pencil without smudging. Canson is my favorite, but other brands work too, so long as it's 9" x 12" and spiral bound and sketch weight. I prefer the non-commitment of a thinner paper. It doesn't feel as precious.

Luckily, I’m not stranded on a desert island and have the luxury of expanding my creative tools a bit. So here’s a more comprehensive list of favorite drawing supplies and painting supplies that I use regularly:

My Favorite Art Supplies (Expanded List)

In addition to:

• Blackwing pencils

• Sakura cordless electric eraser

• Canson XL sketch pad

I also love:

• Legion Stonehenge drawing pad (white) - thicker, smooth paper for wet media like ink, gouache, and watercolor

• Black ink — I don’t have a favorite. I usually just steal whatever is lying around, but I’ve used Higgins, FW, Dr. Ph. Martin’s, Yasumoto Liquid Sumi

• Water brush pen — great paired with black ink, watercolors, or any of the Aquarelle products below.

• Staedtler Mars plastic eraser

• Holbein Artists’ Gouache — I started with the primary set of five colors; you can mix anything from it and add tubes as you go

• Winsor & Newton pan watercolors — I have a little half-pan travel set I love

• Caran d’Ache Aquarelle pencils — I’ve been using these since I was 10. I love them. They are soft with really lovey vivid colors and they turn to watercolor and blend really well if you add water to them.

• Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle pastels - I've also been using these since I was ten. In fact, I have the same, beat up tin and I just replace and add pastels as needed.

• Handmade stamps cut from rubber, sponge, or textured objects — I play around with different marks, scan them, and keep a digital file to layer into illustrations

• Black stamp pad - for stamps above. I color digitally so just black will do.

• Saral transfer paper - I like to adjust my sketched digitally, then print them out and transfer back to Stonehenge paper to work on final art

• Scans of my kids’ preschool paintings, which I also sometimes layer in digitally

• Liquid frisket - useful in blocking out areas when working with watercolor or ink