Sketching Tools

Everyone has their favorite items for roughing out an idea or sketching on the go. I like to organize my tools into two sketching pouches. One is mostly for line and the other is for value. 

I used powdered graphite for value here. All images © Jen Betton 2015  

Contents of my "line" drawing pouch.

Erasers: I have 3 (you can never have too many!)

Kneaded eraser: I love how this eraser is gentle on paper and you can control how much or little of the pencil it picks up. 

Regular eraser-pen: easier for me to keep clean than a rectangular white eraser. 

Tombow Mono-Zero eraser pen: my new love! It can so perfectly pick out the tiniest white lines, or erase exactly the spot you wanted without disturbing other parts of the drawing. 

Pencil sharpener: At home I have a nice glass-inkwell style pencil sharpener, but on the go I love this tiny flip-top sharpener from Muji. 

6” Ruler: Can be handy for some quick perspective lines.

Pencils: 

Mechanical pencils: sooooo not supposed to use these, I know. But they’re handy for blocking in concepts or for when I want a crisp line. 

4 or 6B sketching pencil: for darker values or varied line weight. 

Colored pencil: Sometimes I like using a blue pencil for underdrawings, then I draw a cleaner version in regular graphite over the top. 

Contents of my "value" drawing pouch.

Woodless graphite pencils: in a variety of softnesses – I have a 9B for really rich darks.  

Powdered graphite: I LOVE this stuff for soft, atmospheric value. It is super-easy to lift lighter areas out of it. 

Cotton balls and q-tips: for applying the powdered graphite. 

Shammy cloth: works as a type of soft eraser

Water-Soluble Graphite: It’s a bit like working with black watercolor paint, but with a grainier texture and you can erase it a bit.

Paintbrush: for the water-soluble graphite. 

These were done with the water-soluble graphite, working from online reference.

And of course, my Handbook sketch pad. It has a nice tooth for value, and is thick enough for liquid media. 

Those are the tools I regularly use – what are yours? I glean new tools from friends all the time (Lisa Anchin showed me the pencil sharpener, and Brooke Boynton Hughes first introduced me to liquid graphite). 

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Jen Betton writes and illustrates for children. You can find her work at www.jenbetton.com@jenbetton on Twitterwww.facebook.com/jenbettonillustration on Facebook