My Favorite Supplies

I thought I would share with you some of my favorite supplies. Many of these are affiliate links, which means if you click the link and purchase the product, I'll get a few pennies on the dollar. That said, EVERYTHING here is something I use regularly and absolutly love so I 100% recommend them.

My Favorite Coloring Tools

I am an alcohol marker and color pencil girl. More often than not I will use these two medias together, but I also enjoy using them on their own from time-to-time. You can see how I use these tools on my YouTube page.

• Faber Castell Polychromos Color Pencils - I have the 36 set of these, but I definitely want to get the full collection. These are oil based colored pencils. Getting fine, thin lines with these are super easy which make them my favorite pencils for detail work. The only exception is that their white does not lay down as boldly as say the Prismacolor white. For those of us in the United States, they are one of the more expensive pencils, but definitely worth grabbing a smaller tin to try out and see if you like them.
• Prismacolor Color Pencils - These are my primary go-to color pencil. I have the largest collection of these, plus doubles of colors I use frequently. They are wax based pencils which makes it a little easier to get really rich, deep color blends. There are two drawbacks, however. For starters, pieces colored with wax based pencils sometimes suffer from what's called "wax bloom". A wax bloom happens because the wax binding rises to the surface of the image, creating a white sheen over the image. You can avoid this by using less pressure when blending, and applying a fixative after the piece is complete. The second issue with wax based pencils is a little trickier to avoid and that's breakage. You have to treat your wax based pencils with extra care. Dropping them will almost certainly result in breakage and breakage makes sharpening a complete nightmare. If you do discover breakage, The Frugal Crafter has some great advice for fixing your pencil right up!
• Derwent Coloursoft Pencils - I feel these are comparable to the Prismacolors, but there is a significantly smaller number of colors and I believe these are available at a lower price-point as well. So definitely worth trying out! They may even be an easier wax-based pencil to get your hands on if you're living in the UK or Europe since the company is UK based.
• Copic Alcohol Markers - These are professional alcohol markers. They are expensive, at first glance. BUT, unlike every other alcohol marker on the market, these are refillable and available to purchase in individual colors. So, although the start-up costs are high, in the long-run you will save money with these. Copic has a broad variety of colors (358 in total) and as someone with 200+ of those colors, I can tell you there are no doubles like you find in some of the 'budget' markers. My favorite type of Copic is the Sketch. It has a brush tip and a chisel tip and I find the brush tip irreplaceable for blending colors and techniques that require any kind of feathering/tapering. You can try a few colors from Amazon, but if you discover a passion for alcohol markers, I suggest trying an art supply store like Dick Blicks or Jerry's Artarama where you will find a larger selection and usually better prices. If you decide to go with a less expensive alcohol marker, I highly recommend at least getting the set of Sketch markers I've linked here as you really cannot beat Copics fleshtones.
• Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen or Uni-ball White Gel Pen - I am a Sakura girl, BUT I have used the Uni-ball and it is good too. I just feel the Sakura Gelly Rolls are a brighter white and easier to come across. A white gel pen is so handy for adding pop to your finished coloring. I use it for highlights in the eyes, and anywhere I want to add a little pop of bright.

My Favorite Papers

I like to play around with different papers but these are my go-tos.

• Curious Metallic Cryogen White 89lb - My absolute favorite paper for when I want to work with an alcohol marker foundation but a lot of color pencil over it. This paper is so beautiful. It has a shimmer over it that's just breathtaking. It is on the thinner side, so you will see any marker work you do on the backside. It also sucks up the ink super quick causing a bit of "spreading" but nothing super bad. I use it for when I want to do just a base layer of marker and everything else with color pencil. It's also beautiful for color pencil coloring but I would be careful if you get a little heavy handed or use a ton of layers.
• Hammermill Color Copy Digital Cover Cardstock - This is a fantastic, budget-friendly option for anything you are coloring with alcohol markers. It doesn't have much tooth, but enough to do a wee bit of detail work with your color pencils too. I would not suggest it for strictly color pencil coloring, but you can give it a try since it really is so affordable.
• Strathmoer Bristol Vellum or Strathmore Toned Papers (Tan or Grey are my favorites) - These are SOME of my favorite papers for working strictly with color pencil. The great thing about color pencil is that it takes to so many different mediums. I have a friend who does amazing color pencil work on a kraft-like paper. She's also a Polychromous fan and has created a few coloring tutorials =)

Did I mention I am primarily a digital artist?

For the sake of being thorough, I am also going to point you to the stuff I use to color digitally in case that's something you're interested in getting into.

For many, many years I used my home computer, a Wacom tablet, and a graphics program - primarily Paint Tool SAI. After my granddaughter was born I started babysitting a lot, so I needed something a little more mobile. After seeing all the amazing work being done with Procreate, I decided to splurge a little and picked up an Apple Ipad Air 4th gen and an Apple Pencil 1st generation.

These are the tools I use to create these coloring pages, or to digitize pencil sketches I want to turn into coloring pages