The Portable Sketch Kit

...in which you can follow along, and make your own!...

I've come into an interesting new phase in creating (the drivel I like to call) my art. Since Christmas, I've been using, almost exclusively, a mix of pencil, pen, and charcoal. It's a great way of working in black and white, and also a convenient way of creating a decent sketch in a short amount of time.

Here's my kit:

 Everything, besides the nicely sized 9" x 12" sketchbook, is contained within the tin in which my set of charcoal pencils came. It's everything I need (besides my laptop, but I'll get to that in a second) to create a work of (what I like to call) art.

Here is a detailed view of the kit's contents, in order of my use.

* Bic mechanical pencils, 0.7mm - used for lightly sketching the general idea or shape of the work.
* Polymer Eraser - save your pencils' erasers with one of these, good for erasing the sketch lines or mistakes (of which I make plenty)
* Ink Pens - In my kit I keep a fine tipped Le Pen (0.5mm) and a slightly fatter Sharpie Pen, both black. These are for penning the hard outlines of your sketch, or creating (what I call) hard blacks, those areas you want to be absolutely dark.
* Real Wood Charcoal - These are really soft and easy to smear, good for when you need large areas of diffuse shade.
* Charcoal Smudger - Save your fingers, spreads out areas of charcoal for even coverage.
* Charcoal Blocks and Pencils - Better for smaller, final details, separated into soft, medium, and hard grades.


Now, these are the tools I use, and a vague explanation of how I use them. Maybe next time I'll talk about how I upload and process my finished sketches. Until then, thanks for reading, I'll see you soon.