Drawing Supplies
Some of the supplies I recommend for drawing are listed below. It is by no means an exhaustive list. There are a lot of cool art supplies out there, so experiment to find out what you like best. These tools will get you started.
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Charcoal
Stabilo Carbothello Charcoal Pencil - Neutral Black
There are lot of choices when it comes to drawing with charcoal. These Carbothello pencils allow for both expressiveness and precision. They can achieve very light marks as well as deep blacks, making it a versatile charcoal drawing tool. Go for the neutral black, as the lamp black has more of a bluish tint and doesn't get as dark.
Stabilo Carbothello Charcoal Pencil - Burnt Sienna
This reddish-brown is a good choice for being the shadow side in three-tone drawings. Accompanied by toned paper and a titanium white Carbothello, this burnt sienna color makes for an awesome threesome.
Stabilo Carbothello Charcoal Pencil - Titanium White
With the burnt sienna or the neutral black on some toned paper, the titanium white is a good choice for handling highlights. It gets very bright quickly.
Alphacolor Compressed Charcoal Sticks
Compressed charcoal sticks are great for expressive drawing since they can get a rich, deep black and their form factor prevents excessive noodling. Go for broad strokes here. These are also good for laying in the ground for a reversal drawing.
Though they don't get the rich blacks that compressed charcoal can, vine charcoal is another good choice for expressive, loose drawing. And if that drawing doesn't turn out the way you liked? Just run your hand over it and it's gone.
Paper
Any drawing pad will do, really, and Strathmore offers a variety of types and sizes. Students always complain about having to lug around an 18x24 drawing pad, but really, drawing as big as you can when you're first learning can help with developing a looser, more fluid drawing. Enjoy drawing big while you can - the future is drawing on computers and those bigger Wacom screens are really expensive.
Drawing on toned paper can train seeing shadow shapes and practicing edges. Choose a medium-tone paper, treat the toned paper as local value, use a darker pencil/pen as the shadow side, and a white pen/pencil as the highlights. With the right tonal pattern and good edges, you can achieve photo-realism with half the effort of a line drawing.
Strathmore 500 Bristol Board, 4-ply
For charcoal and other dry media, the vellum surface works best. Vellum, or cold-press, has more tooth than the hot-press/smooth/plate version. The "ply" refers to how many drawing sheets are glued together - 4-ply means that 4 sheets of drawing paper are glued together to make the board. The more plies a bristol board has, the thicker and sturdier it is. The Strathmore 4-ply is great for reversal drawings because they can take a beating and still keep intact. The drawing surface doesn't become stressed or torn with repeated erasing and charcoal application. Just don't get it wet.
Sketchbooks
Canson Sketchbook, Hardbound 8.5x11
Affordable, good quality sketchbook, white paper.
Moleskine sketchbooks are a bit pricier, but they come in a variety of types and sizes. There are blank and ruled papers, pocket-sizes to 8.5x11 notebooks. I like them because their softcovers allow them to be more easily stuffed into a pocket or rolled up into a bag.
Toned sketchbooks are great to practice tone drawings and having an excuse to break out that highlight medium, be it gouache, white pencils, white gelly rolls, or even just white-out.
Erasers
Malleable, versatile, and no eraser shavings. Kneaded erasers are useful for lightening pencil lines or fully erasing them. They can be molded into whatever shape you need. Also really good for reversal drawing and getting soft edges.
Your standard workhorse eraser. Good for reversal drawings when you need to remove more charcoal or a sharper edge.
A more affordable substitute for the way too expensive but awesome Tuff Stuff eraser. Tuff Stuff is great for precision erasing - when you need sharp, crisp highlights, delicate strands of hair, etc. Unlike the more common click erasers, these types of erasers are made of harder material and have smaller points, so they can remove charcoal/pencil thoroughly and achieve more precise "lines".
A good tool for precision erasing. Similar to the Tuff Stuff eraser, the Tombow is made of harder material and has a smaller tip so it is like an eraser pencil.