5 Fabulous Drawing Tools: What’s Your Favorite?

Are you an artist looking to find the best drawing tools? Check out these five picks and figure out which one is your favorite!

Drawing takes many, many forms and uses just as many materials. All drawing media, from the humble pencil to specialized inks, have their benefits and their champions. We selected five drawings—previous winners and finalists in our Strokes of Genius drawing competition — to highlight a few favorites from the array of exciting drawing tools available to artists.

Drawing Tool #1. Graphite

It may seem the most basic of drawing instruments, but the humble pencil can create sophisticated, evocative works of art like Kylee Snow’s Passage (graphite on paper, 21 ½ x 30). “Graphite is perceived as being lighter than charcoal,” says Snow, “but it’s just about how you use it. At its darkest, it’s as dark as charcoal, but it shows you what’s reflecting off it.” Snow uses mostly 2B and 6B pencils. She begins a drawing by lightly mapping out the composition, blocks in the major values with a chamois, then a stump. She uses both additive and subtractive methods to bring out details. “I generally use Tombow pencils,” she says, “and I’m a big fan of mono zero erasers—they’re great for subtractive details.”

Drawing Tool #2. Charcoal

Joseph A. Miller used charcoal for his figural landscape, Flood (20 ½ x 20 ½). To begin the piece, he created an extemporaneous ‘Rorschach Test’ design—an approach he favors for much of his artwork. The artist’s abstract design, something like the famous ink-blot test, served as an inspirational springboard. It also comprised his drawing’s first stage. “Flood was born out of an abstract arrangement of marks, smudges and smears made with paintbrush and powdered charcoal on Arches hot-pressed watercolor paper. I apply the pigment with a soft rag or brush or both,” he says. “Then, I work from my own photo reference to bring the abstraction to a level of realism. I like the combination, and I think the expressive beginning stage imparts a vitality to the finished illusion.”

Drawing Tool #3. Colored Pencil

John Middick’s portrait, Danica Dreaming (12 x 12), was created with colored pencil on Pastelmat paper mounted on an Ampersand cradled board. “I use colored pencils for my work due to their ability to easily create details, but also for their lightfast and archival qualities,” the artist says. “I mix solvent with my colored pencil work in the initial layers so that I can move the medium around and build up thick luscious layers of pigment.” Middick chose a surface that would provide extra sturdy support. “On completion, I varnish and it’s ready to hang without a frame,” he says.

Drawing Tool #4. Pastel

For those who love drawing and painting, pastel—which artist Marla Baggetta chose for Morning Light (20×22)—offers the best of both worlds. “I focused on the quality and patterns of light, letting the color be expressive and inventive,” says Baggetta. “I toned Fabriano paper with fluid acrylic before starting my drawing. I used a variety of soft pastels including, Terry Ludwig, Unison, Blue Earth and Nupastels.”

Drawing Tool #5. Pen and ink

In her drawing Great Dane (pen and ink on paper, 8×10), Jenna Hestekin made the most of contrasting values to create the drama. “I love the drama of stark black and white in my drawings,” Hestekin says, “which allows the depth of values and fine details to represent the unique splendor of the animal. When I saw the magnificence of this stunning Great Dane, I knew I had to draw her. Her amazing harlequin markings were a sheer joy to draw in this medium.”  For her pen and ink drawings, the artist uses a method called stippling, building the drawing with a series of minuscule dots. “The pens I use are so fine that they are almost needle-sharp, and this allows for great detail and crisp imagery,” she says. “Stippling is a rhythm, a steady tap-tap-tap that has a calming effect on me as I work. The finishing touches of the drawing come with some line work to suggest the direction of fur and enhance the realism by means of additional texture.”

Do you work in a drawing medium? If so, be sure to check out the Strokes of Genius art competition, a celebration of the very best in drawing!