My Essential Drawing Tools
“What pens do you use?”
Of all the questions, this one above is THE. SINGLE. MOST frequent question I get asked.
It’s time to give you some proper overview of the analogue tools that are lying on my table right now. So here goes my personal recommendation…
But before I dive into the specific brands and types of pencils, pens, and markers, I want to ask you this:
Will better tools make you a better artist?
If you ask me, they won’t.
However…
…new/different/better tools might help you discover or learn new techniques, get you excited about the process and eventually, because of the effort and time you put in, help you improve after all.
And that’s great!
The bigger point here is, in my humble opinion, that tools you use are secondary. They are nothing without you.
You may or may not agree with me on that and that’s absolutely fine. I just wanted to make my point about tools being overrated sometimes. Now that we have that off the table, let’s have a look (finally!) at what tools I use on a frequent basis.
Before digging into these awesome tools I use and recommend, an important disclosure: This article includes affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase through them, I get a little commission without any extra cost to you. This is a great way to support my blog which allows me to continue to bring valuable information to you.
To make it nicely organized for you, I divided my tools into several categories - pencils, pens, markers, and papers/sketchbooks.
PENCILS
I wasn’t really keen on using any specific pencils until recently when I got to try these Arteza Expert Pencils. There’s a set of 12 pencils in hardnesses ranging from 4H to 6B. They come pre-sharpened in a protective metal tin. On top of that, they are extra resistant to breaking thanks to high-density graphite cores.
PENS
With pens, specifically fineliners, I’ve experimented a lot because they are the main tool for my black&white sketches. These days I’m using one of these 3 types:
Staedtler Pigment Liners (set of 12, thicknesses ranging from 0.05 - 1.2 mm)
Uni Pin Fine Liners (set of 9, thicknesses ranging from 0.05 - 0.8 mm)
Arteza Fineliners (set of 12 in thicknes 0.4 mm)
COLOUR MARKERS
Colour markers are essential for both analyses, concept sketching, as well as presentation sketches and drawings. I very often use just one colour to add colour accent to the focal point of my sketch, but in interior or industrial design, the use of such colour markers is more intensive. There are many options to choose from, I can recommend these types based on the budget available - listed from more expensive to cheaper ones:
Copic Markers
Touch Markers
Arteza Markers
PAPERS/SKETCHBOOKS
Depending on the context, I’m choosing between separate sheets of paper/tracing paper and sketchbooks. At my home office, I usually use separate sheets and when traveling or on the go, I use my sketchbook.
Very often I use tracing paper for layering information on top of each other and iterating my ideas and designs. Again, I prefer separate sheets because they are easier to scan. All in all, here are all the options I use:
Sheets of normal white office paper 80g/sqm
this one’s great because of its thicker paper which withstand even colour markers without soaking through and because of its nice and handy format
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Hope you’ve found this overview useful! Let me know which sketching tools you like to use!
Take care and happy sketching,
David