My Favourite Materials

I wanted to give you a bit of insight to the tools and materials that I use in my creative practice. And perhaps that will spark a little bit of creativity in yourselves. Your materials don’t have to be expensive mine are certainly not, and you can still get some fantastic results. It’s all about the passion that you bring to the table and the determination you have to practice your craft. I honestly believe that anyone can pursue creativity, all it takes is learning and lots and lots of practice.

Lets start with the tools that I use the most in my practice, that for me is ink and pens. My drawing tool, I love the Micron Pigment pens, I love the size range they come in the finest being .003, for those extremely fine details. The sizes I use the most for my letters are 01 for the details and lines, 02 and 05 to fill in the larger areas. The sizes I use really depend on the subject and look I am trying to achieve. For example My Koala was drawn with only a size 003 because I wanted to achieve that fluffy fury fur of his coat. The fine pen gave me the ability to do that. I highly recommend these pens they last ages and have a really good flow to them.

One pen and ink tool that I am really enjoying using and incorporating into my practice, is my dip pen. I love the organic way of drawing with this pen, learning how to control the ink flow yourself with the pressure your apply to your pen. For this I use Winsor and Newton Black Indian Ink, its a rich black and also waterproof so you are able to use it with water based paints.

I have a range of brushes that I have collected and there are plenty more that are on my wish list. But again i primarily use the smaller size brushes, the largest brush that I use is a size 7 Roymac Sable hair brush. I like the sable brushes because they hold a really good amount of water, which is lovely to help control your application of paints. I have just started using the Princeton Neptune round brushes which are a synthetic brush. I have really enjoyed using these brushes, they are a really good affordable easy to use brush.

When it comes to paints, I have not had the privilege of testing them all out. I have pretty much stuck to Winsor Newton watercolour and gouache paints. They work really nicely for my practice, have really lovely pigment and colour to them. I use tubes and I have a half pan set which is great for traveling or painting out doors, sadly I don’t get the opportunity to do that very often. They are worth the investment and last for ages. 

I hope that this was helpful for you. Please let me know if you have any questions!