This week’s “Art Only Spoken Here” question asks, “I would like to know if you have any other tips on how I can market my art on the internet?  I need to do it in very low budget way, but reach buyers beyond my local marketplace.”
Just about anyone and everyone can get a web page very inexpensively on the internet today and that is the good news.  Setting up your on-line gallery is one of the most important things you can do.  Either set up your own through some server or find an existing art gallery where they allow you to set up your own gallery within theirs and make sure they allow you to put up pictures, creates links and put in your web page site in the event you have one. I make sure they have and I make use of their Face Book, twitter and other links.  If you want stuff on the internet, make sure it is the stuff you want on the internet.

There are many of them out there and if you want to know more you can give me a call or stop by the studio to visit and talk about this.  Back in 1982 I had to hire someone for $12,000.00 to get me going and then pay $2500.00 a year to keep my site up.  Now I know how easy it is and the best deal I have found so far is a site called weblogger for only $189.00 per year and for the past 7 years it has allowed me to simply build and edit my site as often as I want adding pictures, links, whatever. It is idiot proof and to my way of thinking the best game in town!  However, there are some things that I do that I feel makes me stand out above the crowd and that is what each artist has to do.  So do some research and developments on how other artists are marketing themselves.
Whenever I finish a work of art I create an artist signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity, an artist bio and that is incased in a glassine folder along with my business card that has not only my picture on it, but my complete information on the front and complete driving directions to my studio on the back. This is now attached to the back of my work of art.  Also when I advertise my art work I make sure that I tell any potential buyer about the artwork, my inspiration for it, I mention it comes with an artist signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity and an artist bio. This creates the start of provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object including art.  If you research other selling artists work you will rarely see something like this mentioned and I feel it makes me stand out above the crowd.
Whenever I do a commission piece for anyone I take a photo of it and create at least 4 postcards of the painting with the backs of the cards blank except for the standard post card information and include them with the work when I mail it to the buyer along with a note of thanks for their business.  The note also states the post cards are included in the event they want to tell their friends and family about their latest acquisition.  On the front of the post card and under the picture I also put a small text box that states, “Another commission work of art created by award winning International artist, Arlene Wright-Correll and my phone number and email”.  Once those cards are mailed out I have created free advertisement for myself. You will be surprised how this will make your stand out above the crowd.
I like to make cards and post cards and I find that they are easy and inexpensive to do nowadays with home computers and printers.  I also like to do cartoons and sketches using the national holidays other than Christmas.  The front of the cards have my drawing or sketch, the insides are blank and the back of them have a textbox saying what I want to say such as the title, my name, email, telephone number, website, and anything I may want to say here.  They also include an envelope.  These can be used to send to my favorite customers, sold, or included as a gift when I ship something off to a buyer of an internet sale thus creating another free advertisement when used and I find that this makes me stand out above the crowd.
When you sell something on the internet, try giving free shipping or a free gift.  Further investigation of sellers marketing something similar to your artwork may not be doing that and you will stand out among them.  Just add the estimated price of shipping into your sale price.  Make sure you say free shipping within the USAsimply because shipping goes sky high outside the USA.  If you are offering free shipping put a time on it stating free shipping until whatever the end of the month is or during the month of ?????.  What could the free gift be?  Perhaps a dozen post cards, a half dozen note cards with envelopes or even something you may have received free yourself in a buy one get one free deal.  Make sure you put a note in your package saying the free gift is a thank you for being your customer.
Another tip is to put your art into as many on-line galleries as you can. Make sure they allow you to delete your offering the minute it sells either from your own gallery or another. Keep on top of this as they get upset if you cannot deliver when they sell one of your pieces of art.
The important thing to remember here is it takes time to get results especially in a recession economy like we are experiencing right now as art buying is not everyone’s priority.  It is also the time to forge ahead creatively while everyone else is cutting back. The 2nd important thing is patience.  It is a lot of extra work and you may not get results right away.  You also need to be habitual and to do whatever you chose to do to make yourself stand out above the crowd constantly.
May the Creative Force be With You….

Arlene Wright-Correll
If your birthday falls between August 1st, & August 31st stop in for a visit at Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center during our business hours and pick up your free birthday gift. There is nothing to buy and these birthday gifts will range from $10.00 to $150.00 so it might be your lucky day.  Questions?  Just email me at askarlene@scrtc.com

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This week’s question asks:  “What does licensing art mean and how can I do it?”
Answer: The word "license" means the "freedom to do something." So when you give a company a license to use your art, which means you are giving them the freedom or ability to use your art in a certain way, on a certain type of product, for a certain period of time, and with certain restrictions on usage and they pay you an whatever amount you both finally agree upon whether it might be a one time fee or a percentage of everything they sell.

It is important to know the difference between "copyrights" and "reproduction rights." While you own the copyright to your art for 75 or 90 years from the time you created it — whether or not you've registered that copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office — you also own the reproduction rights to your art. That means that no one can reproduce your art without your OK.  However, when you sign a license with a company, you're selling them the right to reproduce your art in a very narrow, specific way and for a very limited period of time, generally several years.
There are some trade secrets that are used by many professional artists and these may be helpful to you.  Though you may enjoy painting long and narrow or round works of art I suggest you paint on flat surfaces in the sizes of 18” x 24” or 9” x 12”.  Once you have a design accepted the company can crop it into circles or rectangles or whatever.  Why flat surfaces?  Most businesses who make their living selling art related products want to license two dimensional images.  This includes acrylics, gouache, watercolor and oils on paper, board or canvases.  Lately they are accepting digital art also.
Make sure the art you want to license includes a full background and that it is painted to the edges.  The company that buys your art will be able to crop out any background should they not want a colored background.
Though you may be an excellent sketch or pen and ink artist you will have to deal with color because buyers of licensed products want color, the more brilliant, richer and higher density the better.  If you are a landscape artist make sure your work has a good focal point that allows the viewer to go into it.
Don’t offer the company you are wooing a whole lot of different selections. Remember they are probably going to reproduce whatever they buy in a series or sets or even for calendars.  Take 4 of your best works and then do different sets of those four images remembering to think only in terms of 4 images that fit together and you will greatly improve your chance at getting these images licensed.  With this tip in mind do not think along the lines of “niche” marketing such as painting only your grandchildren or dogs or any other kind of a certain animal even if you are very good at it.  This limits you very much in the licensing market.  If you lucky enough to be are able to see what that business carries in their licensed line it will give you a very good idea of what they are accepting.  Even though I just gave some advice about the “niche” marketing you may have to stay generic as long as the dogs, children, landscapes and people seem to be any kind or anyone in any place.  In other words if you are an abstract artist there may be little space for your works in the licensing world.
Should you be lucky enough to secure a licensing agreement make sure someone smarter than you i.e. a licensing attorney reads it over for you prior to you getting excited enough to sign it.  Make sure there is a date where the licensing business has to start marketing your product, make sure there is an ending date, usually 2 or 3 years from commencement date and make sure there is an "indemnification clause" which says that the company will protect you from any lawsuits that might arise from any of their business activities which in any way relate to products carrying your art (so that you're protected if, say, a child swallows a product with your art on it and the parents sue).
Never allow them to gain the copyright for any of your pieces of art or gain full and complete reproduction rights to any of your art; or to gain the right to sublicense your art to other companies without your having to approve and sign each specific sublicensing agreement and never allow them to gain ownership of your original works of art as part of the licensing agreement. These are just a few of the many things you will have to make sure are covered.
May the Creative Force be with you!

Arlene Wright-Correll

This week we have more good questions and I thank you all for them. One great question asks, “How can I get more exposure for my art?”
I think we are all afraid to “toot our own horn” so I say to you never be afraid to show off your personality.  Many art buyers do not buy art just for the monetary value or just to decorate their walls to make their homes or offices look good.  They often buy art because they like to feel a connection to the artist or to the piece they are buying and they like to know what prompted you to paint it.

It really is easy to be true to who you are when you engage your audience in your life and build honest relationships. This is the kind of relationship that will increase sales and word-of-mouth publicity which is priceless advertising.  A long time ago I stop worrying about being the perfect artist or portraying a certain art image and started thinking in terms of “being the real me” and this is my advice to you.
One of the ways you can do this is to start by creating your own blog or joining other successful art blogs such as OvationTV and writing in your own voice as if you were talking to your best friend. Don’t try to imitate others.  Should that blog have a connection to Facebook, Twitter and/or some other type of exposure then really, really take advantage of it.  Make sure your title or heading contains key words that are search for on these links.
Create a video presentation of your work and feel free to throw in your own phrases no matter how quirky they may seem to you.  Include parts of your life.  If you are painting pictures of your pet then add something personal or funny to the description such as what that pet does to make you laugh. If your pet is going through a hard time then write about it in your picture description.  You will be surprised how many pet lovers will start to identify with your art.  If you are painting scenes from you favorite vacation places then tell little stories about the day you were there.  The same goes for your town.  Not only will you be telling stories about your town and the place you live, but you will be exposing your area and your art to prospective tourists and art buyers.
I remember I had a lovely little picture I painted of the last time we were at the great market place in Barcelona, Spain.  I loved that painting and really did not want to sell this little painting but I put a big price on it.  About 3 years later someone purchased it and reluctantly sold it telling her the story about the painting and the people who were in it.  She was delighted even more and that was a great lesson to me.  Since then many of my painting descriptions have stories in them.  I was sad to see the little painting go, but happy to have someone else enjoy it and once it was off the wall I immediately replaced it with a Giclee print of the same painting so I still have my memory, plus a sale, plus one more person in the world who knows about me.
Invite them to come and visit you at your studio. This is truly where you can interact with a potential buyer and you will usually wind up with a sale no matter how small.  Be prepared to take a check if necessary, even from an out of town buyer as long as you take the information needed from their driver’s license.
Once they are there invite them to share their email with you so you can make them aware of future sales, artworks and exhibitions.  Send them something at least once a month or each time you create something new and make sure you direct them to your buying hyperlink so they can buy or make an offer should they wish to do so.  Make the email personal.  If you have a large mailing list give it a name and put that name in the blind CC part of the email so you are not exposing everyone’s email to the world.  Make an email called undisclosed recipient  or favorite customer and put your own email address in that space so you can put undisclosed recipient or favorite customer in the to line.
May the creative force be with you.

Arlene Wright-Correll
P.S. If your birthday is between June 1st and June 3oth  stop into Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center at 100 Dave Wintsch Rd., Munfordville and pick up your free birthday gift during our business hours.

This week’s email question asks, “How can anyone call Graffiti art when it seem illegible and defaces property?”
I understand this may come from a concern about property defacement which I abhor also and one has to understand since the beginning of time human beings have been putting “art” or graffiti on just about any flat surface beginning with cave man drawings, Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient Greeceand Roman scrawls to what we see in our world today.

If you find your local stop sign sprayed with paint it is not art since it is usually simple vandalism and one needs to distinguish between vandalism, graffiti and “street art”.  Street art is a serious art form today and JohnFekner, an innovative artist who created hundreds of environmental and conceptual outdoor works consisting of stenciled words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted in New York, Sweden, Canada, Englandand Germanyin the 70s and 80s, defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti.”
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings.  Graffiti is usually done by “artists” who want to get their name up “there” and street art is usually done by artists for money and these artists will probably have agents or galleries that sell their famous street art reproductions for large sums of money.
Both types of art done on public buildings or spaces are usually against the law and are mostly done at night by artists who do not want to be identified except by those who have or are in the throes of creating their recognizable style such as the elusive British street artist Banksy or the film maker Thierry Guetta, who labels himself as “Mr. Brainwash” and whose actual artistic process is carried out by hired graphic designers to whom he describes his ideas and has marketed himself with his street art thus selling almost one million dollars of his works on the opening day of his private gallery sale.  Shepard Fairey is another recognizable street artist in the US since he is an illustrator whose works includes the Obama Hope posters and whose clients include Pepsi, Netscape and Hasbro, so you can see that there is a great deal of legitimacy to street art and street artists at times.  Both graffiti and street art are usually done as anti-establishment art statements.
Though most graffiti is usually hard to understand, street art is usually not and it is done by these artists who create stencils or paper reproductions and put them up around the world like wall paper where they last until the weather deteriates them. So one has to understand street art or the more specific post-graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art. Here is an example of mine titled, “James Bondage©” since I can not use the copyrighted art of others without their permission.

 If I put this on a poster and wheatpaste it on wall it may be called “street” art and if I paint it on your building or the side of a railroad car without your permission it will be called “graffiti”.
May the Creative Force be with you!  So the next time you are in our neck of the woods, stop in for a visit where “Art Only is Spoken Here©” and if you have any arts and crafts questions, just email me at askarlene@scrtc.com or call me at 270 524 9567.
  

This week’s “Art Only Spoken Here” question asks, “I am starting to get requests from locale charities, schools and organizations for donations of my art. How can do I deal with these requests?”

First off know that you do not need to feel obligated to donate art. You may want to donate a little cash and be able to take the tax write off. Also it is o.k. to say no. Creating original works of art takes more than just materials; it also takes time that you could be using to create new works to sell, or write new Blog posts, or create marketing strategies for your art business. Therefore you need to determine how many original works of art you’re willing to donate per year and simply stick to that number. However, donating your art gives you a lot of exposure especially if it will be to a place where there may be buyers for other works of your art.

If your art is starting to be or is well know especially locally, you may want to consider donating a gift certificate of a certain value that can be used to purchase your art. Let us say a piece of your art runs an average of $500.00, you might donate a $200.00 or $250.00 gift certificate that has an expiration date on it then the buyer (who might have bought the certificate for say $50.00) will come in and buy a work of art that costs $500.00. You now have some cash for your work and have not had to lower your price, the buyer has purchased a $500.00 for a much lower price, the organization has received some cash and everyone wins.

It is also important to know how many pieces you will donate a year. Donating is a great way to get extra exposure and if you are donating you want to donate some of your best pieces especially if they are going to be on display for awhile.

When you donate a piece make sure there is a write up about it so the organization can correctly say what you want them to say about you and your work and the price of your work. Also include a Certificate of Authenticity with your work, a small brochure, your business card with your business hours and telephone number so the buyer can get in touch with you in the future for further buys. Also include a mail back prepaid post card for the buyer to fill out that also includes not only the name, address, etc. but their email address so you can put them on your email list with their permission.

May the Creative Force be With You….

Arlene Wright-Correll

If your birthday falls between June 1st, & June 30th stop in for a visit at Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center during our business hours and pick up your free birthday gift. There is nothing to buy and these birthday gifts will range from $10.00 to $150.00 so it might be your lucky day. Questions? Just email me at askarlene@scrtc.com

There is more to pen & ink art than you think and it is one of the easiest methods of creating art.

Creating art with pen & ink is just one more inexpensive way of creating art! One needs very little supplies. Ink, pen and paper and you are in business.

There are many kinds of India ink available.

India ink is composed of water, carbon black particles for rich, dark color and latex or shellac for a binder. India ink comes in all different colors besides black. India inks are labeled permanent, waterproof or non-waterproof. However, even the waterproof ink can smudge. I find the best method for me when I do illustrations is to use the waterproof ink and then put my washes in. When I do a watercolor painting or illustration first I find that I can use the non-water proof ink to put my lines in once my painting is dry. Remember you can fast dry any watercolor or ink work with an old hair dryer.

Here is a work I recently created using just two colors of ink and one crow pen holder and speedball nib and I did it on Bristol Board.

There are many types of pens available.

I mostly work with the standard wooden pen holders that have the pen tips inserted into them. I have many tips, but use just a few are my favorites. I clean my pens by dipping them in water after use and drying them off. I first learned pen and ink artwork about 60 years ago with the following equipment. The standard Speedball Crow Quill Dip Pens and Nibs and I mostly work with them since I am the most comfortable with them. Plus they are very inexpensive.

There are technical pens one can use and they are easy to use such as this Sheaffer Calligraphy Mini Kit.

Think about Creating your workspace and you do need a workspace. You can use a simple lap desk or any flat surface. I prefer my desk which has a large piece of ply wood on it which is propped up in the back with a 2 inch piece of hard foam and it gives me just the angle I want to work with. However, I place my inks on a flat surface besides my slightly slanted workspace in order to avoid spills.

The paper is very inexpensive and I like working on Bristol Board. I particulary like the Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Board is an economical 2-ply bristol, available in two surfaces. Smooth is suited for pen or pencil. Vellum is ideal for a broad range of media, including crayon, charcoal and watercolor. It is Acid-free. Each tape-bound pad contains 20 sheets.

Canson Student Bristol Vellum Finish pads are acid-free, economical bristol-weight board with vellum finish suitable for pencil, pen, pastel, and charcoal and they are very inexpensive also so the whole thing is a matter of choice depending on what you intend to do.

Don’t be afraid to try this medium and I especially recommend the Claudia Nice books as she, in my personal opinion is one of the best people to learn from and her books are the most concise and simple to understand art books on the subject.

“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…

Peace, Light and Love

Arlene Wright-Correll
Claudia
Nice books

This week’s question asks:  “I like to create things, but I do not know whether it is really something one can call art and I would like to know exactly what art is?”
Answer: Marshal McLuhan once stated, “Art is anything you can get away with!”

I just returned from an art exhibition in which I had two works hung and the work created covered just about everything and anything that anyone could conceivably create besides paintings.
When one goes beyond one’s local little world and makes forays into the world of art one will be amazed at what is out there and though you may not like what you are seeing, if the artist calls it art and the gallery calls it art and the viewers view it as art then it is art.
Some of the things I have seen on and in exhibitions may not be what I call art simply because it may not be to my taste or to my liking, but the artist and the gallery are telling me it is with a straight face and many times grants have been provided to the artist with extrorinarily large amounts of public funds so the artist has to keep a straight face as the artist or gallery owner defines some sort of historical context or theoretical basis for the work the artist has created. Often it may seem crazy or silly or totally off the wall, but if and often when the premise of the story justifies the art then it becomes art.
I do not know what kind of art you produce whether it be painting, sewing buttons on scraps of cloth or welding bumpers together, but regardless of what you are creating you must first determine what artistic medium you want to produce your work in, what it is going to be about, put it in your gallery or studio and call it art, then lo and behold it will be art whether the viewer likes it or not.
Once you have created your work of art it becomes very important to tell everyone, whether you know them or not, just how great and historically significant each particular piece of art is and you need to inform all your friends of each new piece of work you create and I would include even people who are not your friends.   Next it is important to put your works in as many gallery shows and exhibitions you can.  Get your name on mailing lists for exhibitions.  Do arts and crafts shows.  Follow up on each piece by submitting it on the internet to as many influential blogs you can and if you can, then contact the press about your works with pre-written press releases.  Have a sign in your yard that says art studio or art gallery.  Have a website with your name on it that says artist.  Have business cards with your name and have them say artist or whatever you create.  An artist cannot be shy.  They have to talk about their work every chance they get.  Don’t worry about whether anyone likes it or not especially if you like creating it.  One of my mentors used to say, “If you walk like a duck, quack like a duck then everyone will think you are a duck.”  So I am telling you if you want to be an artist you must create your art, act like it is art, tell everyone it is art and you will be an artist and your work will be art!
Just remember it doesn’t have to be pretty pictures or paintings, it can truly be anything you want to create and you must also remember that practice, practice, practice is part of the art scene.  One gets better at whatever one is doing when one keeps at it.   You may not be a Rembrandt but your art is your emotional feelings put into action.  You may not be producing what everyone will be buying, but not all artists sell their products especially those who do not put a “spin” on it or who do not really market their works.  There really are no stereotypes in art even though there are pre-conceived notions of what artist stereotypes should be.  The second part of the art scene is promotion and we have been brought up not to be making noises about ourselves, but the squeaky wheel does get the grease so make as much noise as you can about your art because if you do not then probably no one else will.  Remember, “Art is anything you can get away with!”
May the Creative Force be with you!

Arlene Wright-Correll

Now that you have amassed your drawing tools you can decide whether or not you want to hold your pencil in the handwriting position or the under hand position which is simply clasping your pencil lightly with your fingertips holding the pencil under your hand.  This position is favored for drawing long flowing strokes.

From here on in we are going to refer to your pencil lead as graphite and there are several ways to create blends in your graphite drawings.  Avoid using your fingers to blend as it may release unwanted oils from your skin unto your drawing.  The best way is to use a brush and a tissue.
Erasers in your graphite drawings will be used for more than removing a line, especially when you use kneaded erasers. You can mold your kneaded erasers to lift up some of the graphite in your drawing, thus leaving subtle variations of light that can be defined as highlights.  You can take a piece of kneaded eraser and roll it or shape it and then press down and away and you will be able to create designs.  Using a stick erasers sharp edge you can create strokes or lines on your graphite drawing to allow the paper underneath the graphite to show through, thus creating more designs.
It is easy to practice this and it is easy to practice any kind of design or “scribble” with your different pencils.  Just try it and fill your paper up with designs and blended in spaces with either graphite shading or graphite dust that you have brushed in with your brushes or a tissue and then pull out forms with your erasers.
Find a location where you can practice your art.  It may be a secluded area away from your everyday schedule and family or it may be in your favorite chair.  Once there look around and choose a subject.  Can’t seem to focus?  Just look around and try drawing your own two feet. 
I can remember being in a real estate workshop where everyone sat at their table and leaned on one elbow holding their hand upright in any kind of position.  Focusing on that hand and picking up their pencil in their other hand within 20 minutes all 30 non-artist people had sketched their hand and all were pretty good.
Try this exercise.  Look at a chair, basket or table lamp for about 90 seconds and then look away and draw what you saw in 60 seconds without ever lifting your pencil from the paper.  This is called blind contour drawing and it is not about perfection.  Here is a chair I did once. I then add a fast watercolor wash and it sold immediately for $50.00!

 
Now look at that same table lamp and again start drawing the outline and edges of the lamp as you remember them.  This is called contour drawing.  We are concerned with the process here, not the results.
Now look at your drawing of the lamp and look at the lamp.  Add some more detail to your drawing of the lamp.  Again look at your drawing of the lamp and again look at the lamp.  Notice any more details plus any shadows on the table thrown there by the light.  Add these new details and shadows to your lamp.
Practice is the only thing that will make your better. Giving this a minimum of a ½ hour each day will give you great results and you will definitely see the improvement. 

Drawing is one of the easiest and simplest forms of art. Not only is it one of our earliest introduction to art as all we have to do is remember our childhoods with a simple piece of paper and a pencil, we need to remember it is also a way to discover our “inner artist” that is still sitting there waiting for us to resume our work.

I do not want to hear the old clich, “I cannot even draw a straight line” since anyone can not only draw a straight line they can also draw a curved one or a circular one.

Pencil drawing is one of the most basic forms of art. It is one of the least expensive and most affordable forms of art since one only needs a few tools to begin. All you need is a piece of paper, a pencil and an eraser.

Your imagination will be your guide. You are surrounded with subjects’ right in your own home. Have you ever really looked at a chair in your dining room or perhaps your feet while sitting back in your Lazy-boy reclining chair?

Let’s begin with the tools you need. Pencils are cheap even artist’s pencils and they contain graphite or lead centers and they are graded by softness and hardness. Pencils vary from brand to brand and most drawing projects or exercises call for “soft” or “hard” pencils so here is an easy way to determine what you want to look for.

4H to 6H are very hard pencils

3H & 4H are hard pencils

H and 2H are medium hard pencils

HB-F are medium pencils

B-2B are medium soft pencils

3B-4B are soft pencils

4B-6B are very soft pencils

You do not need to run out and buy every grade, but an excellent start would be with obtaining a 6B, 2B, B, 2H, 4H and 6H.

One you have your pencils you will need a sharpener. A simple hand held sharpener is good for wooden pencils and it is good for those who like to draw while traveling as they easily fit into your small drawing kit. I happen to have an electric sharpener in my studio and I like this as it give me a very sharp point quickly.

The next thing to add to your drawing kit is an eraser and you will find they come in 3 forms for pencil drawing. The first is a kneaded eraser which is very soft and can be molded into any shape. The next is a stick eraser which comes in pen-shaped holders and one can carve them with a razor or craft knife into a point. The last is a pillow eraser and this is made of a loosely woven cloth filled with loose erasing material that will allow you to clean up smudges and accidental marks on large areas.

Now that you have gotten this far you will need paper and though you can grab just about any kind of paper to draw, you will draw better if you buy a sketch pad consisting of medium weight (50-60 lb) paper. These are usually bound with either a spiral or tape and if you want a more finished drawing then buy a heavy weight pad which consists of 70-80 lb. paper.

You can buy paper made of cotton fiber called rag or paper made of wood pulp and you can even buy recycled paper. For the beginner you will find wood pulp paper to be the least expensive. Cotton fiber papers cost a little more, but are the most durable. Paper has a texture or a “tooth” which varies as follows:

Plate or hot-press paper is smooth and allows for smooth shading and softer blends.

Cold press or vellum paper is rough and allows for strokes with more texture.

Though one would not think of brushes as a drawing tool, I keep a few brushes in my sketching or drawing kit as they are very useful for creating smooth blends, gradations for applying graphite dust directly to the drawing surface. An inexpensive flat soft bristle paint brush works well for this method. Some times I have to take some small brushes with short bristles and trim them to the desired length with a small pair of scissors and these brushes then give me greater accuracy for working on my drawing.

These are all the basic materials you will need to start drawing. You may hear about a blow bulb and they do come in handy for blowing away any loose graphite dust or eraser bits. I do not have one as I simply blow them away with my breath. However, I do like and do use a can of spray fixative when I am done with my work as it keeps the final project from smudging. I do consider this a necessary item for anyone who wants to draw. Another good item is an emery board which is great for creating graphite powder or dust when you want to create rich, soft shading.

Now that you have your kit assembled you may want to have a kit container to put it all in. An old large purse may do well, a small inexpensive plastic container with a center handle will work, or even an old plastic tool box.

Now you need a workspace. You can use a simple lap desk, a drafting table would be good as it will tilt on a nice angle or you may even prefer an easel. I use an easel a lot for painting, but I cannot work well at an easel for drawing. I prefer my desk which has a large piece of ply wood on it which is propped up in the back with a 2 inch piece of hard foam and it gives me just the angle I want to work with.