Best Drawing Supplies for Beginners

The art shop can feel overwhelming when you start: aisles of pencils, dozens of erasers, paper in every weight. The good news is that a beginner needs very little, and buying the wrong things costs more than buying too few. A small, well-chosen kit teaches more than a giant boxed set.

This guide lists the essentials in the order they matter, explains what to look for in each and gives a summary table you can shop from. If you also want the reasoning behind each piece, the drawing for beginners where to start guide is the natural companion, and the best drawing pencils for beginners article goes deep on graphite.

The starter kit at a glance

Item	What it is for	What to look for
Graphite pencils	Sketching, shading, line work	A range from light to dark, such as 2H to 6B
Kneaded eraser	Lifting graphite and softening tone	Soft and pliable, easy to shape
Plastic or pencil eraser	Clean removal, small highlights	Precise, non-smearing
Sharpener	Keeping points clean and accurate	A quality sharpener that does not snap cores
Paper or sketchbook	Practice and finished work	Mid-weight, some tooth, cartridge or similar
Blending tools	Softening graphite	Paper stump or tortillon
Coloured pencil set	Adding colour	Small set of 12 to 24, a forgiving line
Drawing board	Steady, flat surface	Lightweight board plus clips
Ruler	Straight edges, measuring	A simple clear ruler

A hand-drawn swatch card on grey paper showing colour pairings: black with deep red, white with cream, red with bright orange, and bright lilac with yellow ochre. Drawing by Michael Brace.

Graphite pencils

Graphite pencils are graded by hardness. H pencils are hard and make pale, precise lines; B pencils are soft and make darker, smoother marks; HB sits in the middle. A beginner rarely needs the full range. A practical starting kit is:

• 2H for light construction lines
• HB for general sketching
• 2B for soft mid-tones
• 4B for deeper shading
• 6B for the darkest darks

Our pencil grade chart lets you compare grades, and graphite pencil grades explained covers what each letter and number means. Derwent Sketching pencils are a good example of an accessible graphite range for learning how grade changes tone, and our best graphite pencils for drawing compares options.

A small range of graphite grades, used with care, is enough for portraits, animals and textured studies.

Mechanical pencils have their place for fine detail, but wooden pencils give you a wider range of marks, particularly when you use the side of the point for shading.

Erasers

Erasers are not only for mistakes; they are also drawing tools.

• Kneaded eraser. Soft and mouldable, it lifts graphite without abrading the paper and can be pinched to a point for highlights. It is the beginner’s best friend.
• Plastic or vinyl eraser. Cleaner and firmer for erasing whole lines and shapes.
• Pencil-style erasers. Precise for small details and tight corners; Pasler eraser pencils are one example.
• Electric erasers. Useful for precision later, but not a first purchase.

For coloured pencil, correction is harder, so see best erasers for coloured pencils. For graphite, best erasers for graphite goes deeper.

Sharpener

A sharp pencil draws better, and a poor sharpener wastes pencils by snapping cores. Buy a decent one rather than the cheapest bin sharpener. A quality manual sharpener, such as the Derwent pencil sharpener, gives clean points and works with most wooden pencils. Long points are useful for shading; short, sturdy points suit bold lines. For more on sharpening coloured pencils, read best pencil sharpeners for coloured pencils.

Keep blades sharp and replace them when they begin to chew the wood.

Paper and sketchbooks

Paper affects every drawing, and thin, slick paper is one of the most common reasons beginners get discouraged. Weight refers to the thickness and sturdiness of the sheet: lighter papers around 120 to 180 gsm are flexible and good for sketching, while heavier ones handle more work.

For practice, a pad of mid-weight cartridge paper is a low-cost, sensible choice. Winsor & Newton cartridge paper is a familiar example that gives graphite enough tooth for rich shadows. Keep the best paper for drawings you want to finish. Our guides on best drawing paper for beginners and when to use cartridge paper help you choose, and paper weight in gsm explained clarifies the numbers.

Size

A4 is a comfortable working size for beginners because it is easy to carry and easy to finish. See our A4 paper size guide for dimensions, and use the paper size converter if you work between metric and US sizes.

Blending tools

Graphite can be smoothed with a paper stump or tortillon, a tightly rolled paper stick, or with a soft tissue or cloth. They are inexpensive and useful. Do not rely on blending to fix uneven shading; layer light strokes first. The how to blend graphite and how to shade with pencil guides cover technique.

A coloured pencil starter set

Add colour when you are ready, and buy small. A set of 12 to 24 good pencils is plenty, because you can mix new colours by layering. Derwent Chromaflow is vibrant, soft and easy to blend, which makes it a friendly first set; alternatives are compared in best coloured pencils for beginners. If you are unsure how many to buy, how many coloured pencils do you need explains the logic, and the which pencil set quiz recommends a set for your subject and budget.

Extras that help

• Drawing board and clips. A lightweight board keeps paper flat and lets you angle your work.
• Ruler. For measuring and straight edges.
• A scrap sheet to rest your hand on. It prevents smudging finished areas.
• Fixative or a sheet of tracing paper. Protects finished drawings; use fixative in a ventilated space and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
• A simple pencil case. Keeps points from breaking in your bag.

Budget tiers

You do not need to buy everything at once. Think in three tiers.

Tier	What it means	Typical approach
Low	Learning and testing whether you enjoy drawing	A small graphite set, kneaded eraser, basic sharpener, cartridge pad
Medium	Drawing regularly	Add a better sharpener, a graphite set with more grades, a small coloured pencil set, a drawing board
High	Serious, ongoing practice	Premium paper for finished work, artist-grade coloured pencils, specialist erasers and blending tools

Upgrade one item at a time. A better sharpener and paper often improve drawings more than a larger pencil set. Compare pencil quality in professional versus student coloured pencils when you are ready to spend more.

What to skip

• Enormous boxed sets. They are mostly duplicates and gimmicks.
• Very thin, glossy sketch paper. It buckles and resists layering.
• Children’s coloured pencils. They are often hard and pale, which frustrates beginners.
• Too many blending tools. One paper stump is enough.
• Fancy accessories. Wait until you know what you actually need.

A first-week plan

1. Swatch each graphite grade on a page, from 2H to 6B, and label them.
2. Draw a value ramp with three grades, from light to dark.
3. Draw a simple sphere with a light source, a core shadow and a cast shadow.
4. Try the same sphere in two or three coloured pencils.
5. Practise a small subject from a reference photo, using the grid drawing tool to check proportions.

For ideas that build the habit, see how to practise drawing daily.

The short version

A beginner’s kit is a handful of graphite grades, two erasers, a proper sharpener, decent cartridge paper, a paper stump, and one small coloured pencil set, with a board, ruler and scrap sheet as extras. Buy paper and a sharpener first, stay in the low tier until you are drawing regularly, and upgrade one item at a time.