Beverly johnson - Draw Great Characters and Creatures

I work with a mixture of digital and analog tools, as do most professionals. Nothing can compare to the tactility of notebooks and sharpened pencils for sketching and drawing. I tend to draw on paper and then scan the image into my computer to finesse the linework. Or, sometimes, I draw directly onto my tablet. Do remember though that a computer can only be as creative as the person using it.

Graphite pencils are available in different hardnesses, from 9H to H, F, HB, and B to 9B. In pencil-speak, H denotes hard, meaning the line will be very fine and light. B means soft, meaning the line will be darker and thicker. Softer, dark leads, such as B and 2B, are generally considered best for sketching. For finished figure work, use harder and lighter leads, such as 2H, H, and F, to avoid smearing and smudging the lead on the paper.

A mechanical pencil generally uses thicker leads and comes in a variety of widths: 0.7 mm (thick line), 0.5 mm (the most commonly used), 0.3 mm (fine line), and 0.2 mm (the finest lines).

Fine fiber-tip pens are particularly useful for rapid sketching. They are useful if you are sketching outdoors. They produce a slightly mechanical line, but this does not matter too much for sketching or for methods such as hatching and crosshatching.

This type of eraser is used to clean up large areas.

A kneaded eraser that you can shape is good for cleaning up pencil smudges and unwanted construction lines.

A metal sharpener is the easiest to control and does the best sharpening. If possible, find a sharpener for which you can buy spare blades.

A compass with a pencil attachment is a technical tool for drawing circles of all sizes.

A French curve is handy for drawing clean, curved lines.

Watercolor paint generally comes in tubes, pans, and half pans, and is available in two forms: student quality and professional-artist quality (the latter is more expensive, but the pigments are brighter and punchier). Pans and half pans are designed to fit into a paint box. You can buy paint boxes with around 12 colors orsometimesfewer, but you may prefer to choose your own colors, since this allows you to start with a small range and build up gradually.