Sunday Mailbag- Beginner Materials?

Q: I have been reading your book, “The Mad Art of Caricature” and find it very helpful and encouraging. I have two questions. When starting, what are the basic tools I should acquire? I know paper is often mentioned as being most important component, so do you have any recommendations in that regard? Was this covered in the book or did I miss something? (ok…guess technically that was 3 questions)

A: Thanks for the kind words about my book. It is coming up on the 10 year anniversary of its publication, and I am still amazed at the steady interest in it. I suspect I will need to order a 12th printing of it before the end of the year.

Here are your answers:

Q: When starting, what are the basic tools I should acquire?

A pencil. Paper.

That’s it. I’m not being a smartass here. That really is it.

I know people seem to think the materials one uses to create art are some kind of secret weapon and that using the same materials will, while maybe not instantly elevating what they do to an extremely high level, will nonetheless immediately increase the quality of what they are doing by several notches. Or increase the speed at which their work will progress.

It won’t. Especially if you are talking about a true beginner. The quality of the tools one uses only really starts to matter when one reaches a certain level of skill. That’s when using a really good brush as opposed to a cheap one matters. Even then it’s still all about what the artist does with that brush. Artists find materials they like and work with them enough that they incorporate the strengths and idiosyncrasies of those tools into their work, and it becomes their tool of choice. This is true of pen nibs, pencils, brushes, paper, etc. In the end, though, it’s 100% about what the artist does with those tools, not the tools themselves.

As a beginner, how much you draw and work on your art is FAR more important than what you are using to draw with. A simple pencil and a piece of paper is all you need to develop your drawing ability. The niceties of the different kinds of drawing materials are considerations for further down the road.

That said, you don’t want to draw with a pointy stick in the dirt. Get some usable beginner art supplies and experiment with them. I’d recommend you try out a few different brands of pencil when you are getting started. Nothing expensive, but try some No. 2s or some HB wood pencils, and maybe an inexpensive mechanical pencil. You will probably find a softness of lead you like better than others (HB, 2B, 4B, etc), and you can stick with that softness for a while. None of that is going to instantly make you a better artist, but it will encourage you to draw more if the tools you are using are ones you like to use.

Q: I know paper is often mentioned as being the most important component, so do you have any recommendations in that regard?

Same answer as above.

Again, while the quality of the paper you draw one won’t really have any impact on your development. drawing on napkins or tissue paper is not ideal. Do yourself a favor and get some inexpensive but decent drawing paper. Having paper that can handle some erasing without smearing pencil lead all over or tearing is better than drawing on laser printer paper or the backs of used envelopes. Student grade spiral bound sketchbooks are reasonably priced and will let you keep a sort of drawing “journal”, and the surface will hold up to erasing better than notebook paper… plu no annoying blue ruled lines. Do NOT buy really expensive paper for sketching. Just get something decent if unremarkable. Fill all the pages in that decent but inexpensive sketchbook with drawings. Repeat.

Q: Was this covered in the book or did I miss something?

No. I intentionally left out any recommendations on drawing tools from the book. Too many “how to draw…” books out there devote space, sometimes multiple pages, for pictures of pencils and information on what materials to use that doesn’t teach anyone anything about drawing. No one should need me to tell them what a pencil is.

Just get yourself a handful of inexpensive pencils and a cheap sketchbook, and get busy!

Thanks to J.D. for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!