What I use

My Tools of the Trade... in details:

• drawing paper

  1. Oslo paper
  2. sketch pads - sizes: 9"x12" and 12"x18"

  • Best Buy - for the texture and thickness, plus they're cheaper
  • Yasaka
  • Canson - very good paper but the pages easily fall apart from the binding
  • Tricon drawing book - the only drawing book I got used to
  • others: cartolina, illustration boards, folders, etc.

  I rarely use bond paper anymore since it easily wrinkles when I erase too hard, but I still tend to doodle on them when there are prints on the other side (scrap papers) --- my old school hand-outs are proofs of that. XP
• pencils

1. ordinary pencil - the cheap kinds that break easily XD (they don't leave so much charcoal/lead on the paper since the lead is harder)
2. mechanical pencil 0.5, 0.7, 0.9, 1.0 mm || lead HB & B
3. polypencil - made of plastic/synthetic material, sharpens easily and never leaves dark lines when erased (useful for me since I have a heavy hand) and the lead doesn't break easily but these are very difficult to find!

• erasers - assorted sizes
• ruler & templates - different kinds
• sign pens and markers

1. ordinary sign pens - the cheap and disposable kind, these can be found anywhere, used these to fill up the negative area of the inked drawings.
2. Uni felt tip pens - water and fade proof (although they lighten if erased), sizes: 0.2. 0.3, 0.5, 0.8
3. Pilot G-Tec 0.4 - the ink doesn't stain with age unlike the ordinary sign pens do, good for detailed and fine lines.
4. permanent markers - (recommend Pilot brand because they don't stain) the ordinary ones are cheaper and disposable. Used for filling up bigger negative areas.
5. Correction fluid - most preferably, the brand Magic Touch.

• Miscellaneous

1. reference materials - searched, downloaded and printed materials for guides and such.
2. clipboard - quite useful when you prefer to draw somewhere other than on a table.
3. work space - a must requirement to minimize disturbance, interruptions with enough space and furniture to store materials and references.
4. Myself - the important necessity-- what you have in your brain is strictly your own.