Featured Drawing & Illustration Products
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Purchase Guide: Drawing & Illustration
What are drawing and illustration?
Drawing, often referred to as illustration, is a form of visual expression and is one of the major forms within the visual arts. Drawing shares some of the materials, techniques, and qualities of painting, but there are important differences. Most notably, painting typically focuses on the application of pigments to a prepared surface using a brush or other supplies, while drawing involves the marking of lines on paper. Drawing can often be an exploratory experience, heavily influenced by observation and composition. Drawing and illustration are commonly included in the process of painting—Often, painting is used as a means to finish a piece of art once the drawing has been completed.
Probably the most common tools used for drawing and illustration are pencils, pens, and brushes. It's possible, though, to use all sorts of materials to draw, each with its own unique artistic qualities. At MisterArt.com, you can find everyday discounts on all manner of drawing and illustration supplies. This guide is designed to help guide you through the labyrinth of pens, pencils, markers, and inks on our site and help you make a better-informed decision on which materials will bring the best out of your artwork!
This buyer's guide covers the advantages and techniques associated with the following:
- chalk
- crayons
- charcoal
- drawing and lettering aids
- inks
- markers
- pastels
- pencils
- pens
- storage
- lettering and calligraphy
Chalk
Chalk has a long tradition of use in drawing and illustration. An economical way of working, chalk is especially ideal for sketching and creating marbleized effects on paper. Traditional chalk art utilizes neutral and earth tones to create pieces similar to monochromatic paintings. By using chalk's unique blending ability, however, black, white, and sepia tones can be mixed together on paper to create a color effect that is particularly useful in portrait drawing.
Chalk is very effective for portrait drawing, especially when both black and white chalk is used. The dramatic contrast between the black and white chalk can really make facial features pop from the paper, particularly where strong lighting creates deep shadows and bright glares on the face.
Color chalk shares the special blending and marbleizing abilities as traditional chalk and is ideal for large, bold drawings with great immediacy, such as posters, murals, stage props, and large sketches. You can find discounted prices on chalk every day at MisterArt.com.
Crayons
Crayons can be sticks of wax, charcoal, chalk, or other soft materials that are a popular drawing and illustration medium for all ages. They are particularly prized for their bright, vibrant, lightfast colors and easy coverage. Crayons are easy to work with, clean, economical, blunt, non-toxic, and colorful, making them ideal for usage by small children. However, there are many different kinds of quality crayons discounted at MisterArt.com that are more than suitable for fine art, as well.
Water soluble crayons are versatile in that they can be used to achieve watercolor effects and washes as well as to draw on wet surfaces and paper.
Graphite crayons are perfect for sketching.
A crayon made of oiled chalk is known as an oil pastel. A crayon made of pigment with a dry binder is simply a pastel. Pastels are great for achieving painting effects; discounts on both can be found at MisterArt.com.
Charcoal
Charcoal is one of the oldest known drawing and illustration materials. Charcoal is produced by firing willow, vine, and other twigs at very high temperatures in an air-tight container. This process carbonizes the wood but leaves the stick intact, making for an excellent drawing tool. Early documents on art suggest that charcoal was once primarily used to draw initial images for panel paintings and frescoes. Since the classical periods, charcoal has more than evolved into an expressive medium in its own right.
Charcoal is a quick and responsive illustration medium, allowing for bold and direct drawing. By nature, it encourages a broad, simple approach. Charcoal is renowned for its bold lines but can also be used quite delicately; it's a responsive medium that reflects very well an artist's forcefulness, care, or timidity of usage. Smooth tones can be achieved when charcoal lines or rubbings are softened by smudging or with an eraser.
Though classic charcoal is famously black, modern production methods have also produced white charcoal and many shades of gray, allowing for bright highlights and realistic shading in charcoal art. You can find discounts on each of these shades at MisterArt.com.
Drawing and Lettering Aids
While many kinds of drawing or illustration are typically done freehand, such as portraiture or still life, other types require special tools in order to ensure a degree of precision in the artwork. Art forms such as drafting and signage are enhanced by perfectly straight lines and geometric angles and curves that are virtually impossible to achieve without careful measurement. MisterArt.com offers everyday discounts on drawing and lettering aids with many different uses:
Curves allow you to trace out rounded lines and custom slopes without the hassle of using a compass. Many curves are adjustable, making it easier to integrate curvature of any size and shape into your work.
Protractors and compasses help in drawing technically precise angles and circles.
Scales and rulers ensure that your work is in perfect proportion and aid in the enlargement or reduction of drawings and illustrations. Rulers are also useful for their straight edges, which can be traced to make perfect lines.
Stencils can be traced and combined in scenes and patterns to quickly create complex (and fun) art, even if your talent for drawing isn't too impressive.
Triangles are essential tools for a great deal of architecture, graphics, and engineering drawing and illustration, ensuring perfect vertical lines and angles when used with a t-square.
T-squares are useful guides for drawing perfect horizontal lines and guiding triangles, especially on a drafting table.
Lettering guides are stencil-like templates that make tracing out certain fonts quick and easy for artists of any skill level.
Ink
Ink is a liquid containing pigments or dyes used for marking a surface to create a line or text. Ink is most commonly used for drawing and illustration with a pen or brush. Although erasers exist for ink, text and drawings in ink are usually not modified in the way that illustration made with pencils or charcoal might be. Ink art is a permanent reflection of the artist's technique and approach, be it tentative, swift, or forceful. Ink is especially useful for calligraphy, both Western and Asian styles, but there are nearly as many types of ink available as there are types of art. You can find them all at MisterArt.com!
Calligraphy inks are designed specifically for use in creating artistic characters and text. Most of these inks are best used with various pens, but some work well with brushes, also.
Drawing inks are, naturally, intended to be used for drawing, either in traditional black or other, more vibrant colors.
India inks are commonly used to ink over pencil drawings in comics and cartoons. Notably, they aren't suitable for use in fountain pens—they'll just clog them.
Sumi inks are used for writing characters with a special brush, particularly in calligraphy, a style called sumi-e in Japan.
Technical ink is typically used in the technical pens utilized by draftsmen and engineers, but some are also useful with other tools like airbrushes and plotting points.
MisterArt.com also features discounts on ink accessories, including pallets, nibs, and atomizers.
Markers
Markers are pens that contain their own ink source and have a tip made from porous materials such as felt. Markers are very versatile drawing and illustration tools and have been customized to suit a wide variety of artistic uses—they are used both for drawing lines as well as for coloring. Markers with fine points are sometimes also referred to as felt-tipped pens.
Some markers carry inks that are intended to be permanent and opaque. These markers are ideal for coloring, crafting, and other art techniques that require bold lines and color:
- Craft markers
- Fabric markers
- Glass markers
- Paint pens and opaque markers
- Permanent markers
- Professional art markers
Other markers carry inks which have varying degrees of washability and translucence. These markers are particularly good for drawing and illustration by children and on dry-erase boards and overhead projectors:
Pastels
Pastels are a drawing and illustration medium in the form of sticks of pure powdered pigment combined with an inert binder. Though the exact composition varies between different types of pastels and manufacturers, gum arabic, gum tragacanth, and methyl cellulose have been common binders used.
MisterArt.com supplies pastels in differing degrees of hardness; softer pastels are wrapped in paper to keep them from crumbling.
Soft pastels are the most popular type of pastels. Soft pastels have a higher ratio of pigment to binder, resulting in brighter colors. Drawings and illustrations made with soft pastels are easily smudged and blended, but require the use of a fixative to make them permanent. Soft pastels also produce a lot of dust.
Oil pastels have a rich, buttery consistency and don't require a fixative. However, they aren't as easily blended as soft pastels. Their malleability fluctuates with the temperature, and if they get too warm they can turn into putty in your hands. Though similarly vibrant, oil pastels don't go through any of the changes during drying that oil paints suffer from.
Pastel pencils are wooden pencils with pastel leads. These are especially good for adding fine details to your pastel drawings and illustrations. Because they're encased in wood, these pastels aren't as messy to use as other kinds.
Because pastels are so popular, there are many books written on pastel techniques and artwork. You can find everyday discounts on pastel books and media at MisterArt.com!
Pencils
Pencils are drawing and illustration instruments composed of a thin stick of graphite, pigment, or charcoal sheathed in wood, paper, or plastic. Pencil drawings are permanent, but work done in pencil can be adjusted in ways that others can't. Artists have tremendous control over pencil lines because they can be drawn, erased, and reworked. Depending on its construction and usage by the artists, a pencil can create soft, delicate lines or deep, bold impressions. Pencil is a very adaptable medium for artists.
MisterArt.com carries many different kinds of discounted pencils:
Colored pencils contain bright pigments rather than the familiar blackish-gray lead of typical pencils. Because they can easily be sharpened, colored pencils are especially good for fine detail work, but various techniques can yield great coloring, too.
Drawing and sketching pencils come in varying hardness and contain leads of either graphite or charcoal. These pencils are great for drawing black lines and creating frameworks which can be erased as portions of your artwork are completed.
Kid's pencils are sturdy enough to be used and abused by youngsters without crumbling. Pencils are often the primary writing tools for students, so a good set of art pencils will be instantly familiar to a budding artist.
Mechanical pencils utilize an internal mechanism to push lead through a hole at its tip. Their erasers are also often removable so that the artist can insert new lead. Mechanical pencils are popular for their longevity and the fact that they never need sharpening. Many fine and heavy gauge leads are available for mechanical pencils, making them quite precise.
To keep them in ideal working order, pencils need accessories such as erasers and sharpeners. You can find them at MisterArt.com!
Pens
Pens are drawing and illustration instruments that apply ink to paper. Originally, pens were reeds and quills dipped in ink, but modern pens typically contain their own internal ink cartridges. Pens come in a wide variety of colors and serve various artistic functions. Although some pens and ink are erasable, most work done in pen is permanent. Like pencils, pens can create lines and drawings that are soft and subtle or bold and impressive, but work in pen cannot be smudged or blended.
Pens are usually classified by the type of tip they have. MisterArt.com has everyday discounts on pens with many different kinds of tip:
Other pens are classified by the specific uses for which they were designed:
Sometimes after heavy use or use with certain kinds of thicker ink, pens become clogged. It's a problem easily solved by pen cleaners.
Storage
Because there are so many great mediums to choose from, many of the best artists find their studio space cramped by their dozens of different pens, pencils, brushes, and markers! Because some art supplies, such as pastels, are quite fragile, it's important to keep your drawing and illustration materials organized and out of harm's way. Luckily, MisterArt.com offers everyday discounts on shelves, racks, boxes, and bags that make the storage of your drawing and illustration tools easy and attractive!
Lettering and Calligraphy
Lettering and calligraphy deal with the practice of creating artistic text and writing. Calligraphy and lettering can range from functional, hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to pieces in which the artistic expression of the handwritten characters may supersede their legibility. Calligraphy has also influenced ink and wash painting, which is created using similar tools and techniques.
Because lettering and calligraphy are specialized art forms, MisterArt.com has discounts on several different pens that are used in its practice:
Dip pens usually consist of a metal nib with capillary channels (similar to those found in fountain pens) mounted on a handle. Much as their name implies, dip pens are refilled by dipping them into an ink reservoir.
Felt pens utilize felt tips and cartridge pens have disposable, replaceable internal ink supplies.
Sets and kits are available from MisterArt.com that contain all the supplies needed for lettering and calligraphy. These sets are perfect for beginners to experiment with!
Calligraphy inks are designed specifically for use in creating artistic characters and text. Most of these inks are best used with various pens, but some work well with brushes, also.
Drawing inks are, naturally, intended to be used for drawing, either in traditional black or other, more vibrant colors.
India inks are commonly used to ink over pencil drawings in comics and cartoons. Notably, they aren't suitable for use in fountain pens—they'll just clog them.
Sumi inks are used for writing characters with a special brush, particularly in calligraphy, a style called sumi-e in Japan.
Technical ink is typically used in the technical pens utilized by draftsmen and engineers, but some are also useful with other tools like airbrushes and plotting points.
