Tools & Materials

These are all the tools and materials I use with my graphite portraits.

All tools and materials should be cruelty free and vegan!

Pencils

For all my portraits I use mechanical pencils, I very rarely use regular graphite pencils. The reason is that I find mechanical pencils better for drawing details and I don't have to sharpen them. If I do use regular graphite pencils I use these 3 pencils Faber-castell 9000 - 2B, 4B, 8B (9, 10, 11). Link to buy

1. Regular 0,3 mechanical pencil - I use this one very often. 0,3 mech. pencils are very fragile and the lead snaps very fast if you put pressure on it, but I still love it as I can draw very fine details with it.

2. Regular 0,7 mechanical pencil - I don't use this one much.

3. 4. 5. 8. Regular 0.5 mechanical pencil - I have many of these pencils as each of them is a bit different so I use different ones in different situations.

- I couldn't find anywhere to buy these pencils anymore as they are very ordinary (8. was given to my by my dad and is an old mechanical pencil).

6. Faber-castell Grip Matic mechanical pencil - I use this one very often. Link to buy

7. Faber-castell Tk-fine 9715 0,5 mechanical pencil. Link to buy

Other Tools

1. 2. Blending stump and Tortillion - I don't use them often, but I do sometimes especially more so the 2# for very small places to blend. Link to buy

3. Koh-I-Noor eraser pencil - I use this one very often. It's great for doing highlights (especially the fur). Link to buy

4. Sakura Gelly Roll white pen - This one is great for doing highlights in the eyes and nose. It's very visible. Link to buy

5. 6. Makeup eyeshadow brushes - I use these brushes all the time. They are the best for blending. Link to buy

7. Brush - I use a brush to get rid of eraser dust. Pretty much any kind is useful. Link to buy

8. Mechanical pencil lead refills 0,7 2B. Link to buy

9. Mechanical pencil lead refills 0,3 HB. Link to buy

10. Mechanicl pencil lead refills 0,5 2B. I only use 2B refills for all of my 0,5 mechanical pencils. Link to buy

11. Faber-castell sharpener. Like I mentioned earlier I don't use regular pencils often anymore so I only use this sharpner if I need it. Link to buy

12. Mechanical pencil lead refills 0,5 4B. I always have the of my 0,5 mech. pencils with each of these leads. They are both a bit different with their strengh so I use both in different situations. They are both very dark so I don't need to use regular graphite pencils in order to get very dark lines. Link to buy 12. Link to buy 13.

Papers

I've been using Canson Bristol for years. It's a white, smooth paper. Great for graphite drawings. I only like very smooth papers so this one is a good one. Link to buy

In the past I used many different papers but for me I found out that Bristol papers are the best for graphite portraits. Strathmore's Bristol papers are great as well (if not better).

I buy A4, A3. I also do A5 portraits so I always cut the A4 paper in half.