This is what I love about pencil drawing and really allowing you (and me) to improve our skills. It's probably one of the cheapest investments in today's world.
Time is your greatest friend in this pursuit. As they say in the Crypto World you do gain "exponential growth" through time. Also every hour you spend drawing uses the power of "compounding" - cause it does compound. How? As you draw all of a sudden you get an "ahah moment". When this happens your skill explodes.
Believe me right now I need cheap too.
That being said I am about to present something that is the most expensive thing involed in $s.
Paper.
While you can use any kind of paper, and I mean I see people who are really working and improving their skills on some plain white bond paper and even lined notebook paper, and I applaud them, if you can I suggest investing in some good drawing paper.
As a disclaimer I do not have any affiliate links and I do not recommend any particular brand. What I show here is just the stuff I actually am using everyday.
So... use anything you want.
But... the reason I suggest investing $15 to $30 into a pad of good drawing paper, is because you don't need the frustration of putting holes in your paper while you are busily laying down graphite, blending, or doing some rendering. Imagine you have worked for several hours on your masterpiece and all of a sudden you rip your bond paper?
Learning the skills involved with drawing is frustrating enough, and good paper can support your efforts.
So the pad of drawing paper I show above is not the "particular one" I am recommending, it is just an example. Any art store will have various good drawing papers.
Go for it. It is the most expensive thing.
Okay, here I have shown you a "blending stump" on the left, and a "blending stick on the right".
Each of these come in little packages for about $2.50 or $3.00. You might find them a lot cheaper too. Honestly, with increased prices it could be a little more also, I haven't bought any new for a while.
What is the difference?
I like these best, but it is totally a personal preference. A blending stump is compressed and wrapped paper. I like it for soft blending. However, they get run down pretty quickly. I stick them in my sharpener and although it makes them a little ragged, it does help develop a point again.
These are not so wrapped looking and are actually compressed into a hard stick. This I do use for very small areas. They hold a point well, but seem a little less smooth to me.
As I said above they are cheap.
Okay, if there is a controversial subject in drawing - it is "erasing". There are purists (they teach you this in classical drawing classes) that believe it is wrong to use erasers.
On the other hand there are people teaching drawing that express this is nonsense. An eraser is a tool and it does have a myriad of uses.
I will express my very controversial opinion here... I erase!
Also, very cheap.
My all-time favorite eraser is a "kneaded" eraser. It is called that because it is kind of like dough. You can knead it.
Now if you look above at the pic with all the erasers - you can see how dirty my kneaded eraser is.
Then I stretch it.
Then I crunch it.
And I can use it again - and it is clean!
How cool is that?
Now how I use the kneaded eraser - cause it is soft, is just to dab it slightly where I want to lighten up an area that I have blended, or drag it softly across the page. It just sort of lifts graphite off the paper. You don't rub it like another eraser.
And do you know how much you have to pay for this "marvellous technology"? Probably about $2.50 at an art store - give or take.
Honestly, I put this in here cause most people will have these "rubber" pink erasers lying around. You can use this when you are drawing.
But... have you ever noticed that you end up with a smeary dirty mark on the page when you use these?
This is why people buy one of the really cheap "vinyl erasers" as below.
So pink rubber eraser - I wouldn't buy- so we can say they are free. If this is all you have go ahead and use. It still erases.
If you look back up at the original eraser pic - this is the rectangular white eraser (this one has a cool little plastic case - but doesn't have to) that you can easily find in most art stores.
When you use this on good drawing paper, you can erase very well (good for larger areas) and it doesn't leave such a streaky mess. It kind of absorbs the graphite.
You can see it is dirty as well.
If you rub it on clean paper it will clean it.
Price about .50 cents or $1.50 depending on currency and store.
This is another eraser that I adore. In the first eraser pic it is the one that looks like a pen or pencil.
Again, I don't even know what the brand is and it doesn't matter. This eraser is so great to get into small spaces particularly if you want to do a little harder pressure. It takes some finesse but you can use this quite well (again on good paper).
This is also the eraser that I love to use to "render".
The two images above show how I use the pencil-tip eraser to do "rendering". Rendering is what they call erasing to create a form or texture over top of graphite by "removing". Removing graphite creates highlights.
So - I show how I have used this once your paper has tons of graphite on it to create white hairs that are floaty on top of the already developed hair drawing and shading.
You can do rendering for lots of other applications too.
You can render to create a pattern on your fabric drawing, for instance and to texturize anything else.
This is an actual "thing" in drawing despite the controversy. Ha ha ha!
The price of this at your art store could vary - probably between $2 and $5. Oh and you can usually buy some refills too. Or your package may come with some refills.
The two pics above show an item that I do own. It is called a "maul bar".
The reason it is called that is so that it helps you not to maul your drawing. You know when the drawing is almost done and you have done so much hard work and now you are doing some detail and working away, and then realize that you have just smeared everything with your hand or arm.
Ahhhhhh!
So... you lay it across the paper and rest your wrist or elbow on the maul bar while you work some area of your drawing. It does help, but honestly I find most of the time I forget and don't use it. I end up with graphite all down my the side of my hand and again, if I use good paper the damage is very slight.
But for a few $ you can get one of these and it might be useful.
I hope this post has clarified what some of the things I use in my little step-by-step tutorials are, and how inexpensive drawing really is.
Don't forget the post about pencils is on my Blog too - I did a whole post about different pencils https://steemit.com/drawing/@granblock/promised-a-post-about-drawing-equipment-equipment-series-part-one-pencils
