Assembling a first drawing kit without wasting money
A short list that covers almost everything, and the tempting extras that can wait.
What this covers
- Start with the smallest useful set
- Two erasers, not one
- Paper is not an afterthought
- Blending tools
- A sharpener that does not eat pencils
- When to add charcoal
- When to add colour
- The extras that genuinely help
- Buying a kit versus building one
Start with the smallest useful set
A graphite set spanning roughly 6B to 2H, a kneaded eraser, a plastic eraser, a blending stump and a sketchbook will let you make almost any drawing. That is a genuinely complete kit, and everything after it is refinement rather than capability.
Two erasers, not one
A kneaded eraser lifts graphite without abrading the paper and can be shaped to a point for highlights. A plastic or vinyl eraser removes cleanly and completely when you need a line gone. They do different jobs and both are cheap.
Paper is not an afterthought
A pad that buckles or pills undermines good pencils. Look for something around 150gsm and up for general drawing, with a light tooth. Cheap paper is a false economy in the same way as a blunt pencil: it limits the result no matter what else you do.
Blending tools
A paper stump or tortillon blends more controllably than a finger, which adds oil to the paper. Cheap and long-lasting; sand the tip clean when it loads up with graphite. A chamois or soft brush is useful for large soft areas.
A sharpener that does not eat pencils
Cheap sharpeners break soft cores and taper unevenly. A decent handheld sharpener or a craft knife plus a sandpaper block wastes far less material and gives you control over point shape. This becomes obvious the first time you sharpen a 6B.
When to add charcoal
Add charcoal when you want to work bigger and faster, or when your drawings are lacking genuine darks. It needs paper with tooth and a fixative, so it is a small system rather than a single purchase. Adding it too early tends to produce mess rather than progress.
When to add colour
Colour is a separate discipline with its own learning curve. Adding it before you are comfortable with value and proportion usually slows both down. When you do, a small set of good pencils beats a large set of poor ones, because layering does the work.
The extras that genuinely help
A light pad for transferring, a ruler with a metal edge, a board to work on, and a sheet to rest your hand on. None are exciting and all of them remove friction from the process, which is what actually keeps people drawing.
Buying a kit versus building one
Kits are efficient and guarantee the parts work together, which is why they suit a first purchase. Building your own makes sense once you know which grades you use, because you can buy those individually and skip the rest. Either way, the grade range is the specification to check.
How this applies when you are buying
Judge a kit by its grade range rather than its piece count. A tin of forty items that are all mid-grade pencils is less useful than a set of twelve spanning 6B to 2H with a kneaded eraser and a blending stump. Case, sketchbook and sharpener are worth having but are not what makes the set work.
Complete kits that pair pencils with the blenders, erasers and paper that make them work. The sensible first purchase if you are starting from nothing.
On the shelf at the moment
These come straight from the Little Shop of Crafts shelf as you read this, not from a list typed when the article was written, so the prices and the availability are current.
- Castle Art Supplies 40 PieceDrawing, Sketching and Charcoal Set for Artists – $39.99
- Faber-Castell Creative Studio Art On-The-Go Graphite Sketch Set – 15 Sketching Pencils and – $22.24
- Heshengping, Sketching and Drawing Pencils Set 26pcs, Art Supplies Drawing pencil Kit – $9.98
Where to go from here
All of the above is the reasoning we use behind the counter at Little Shop of Crafts when someone asks. If you are weighing up two options and the listing does not settle it, ask: +1 212-531-2723 during opening hours, or contact@ucraftcorner.shop, answered within one business day.
If you order from us
Standard shipping is a flat $6.95 anywhere in the United States, and it is free once the order passes $49. Weekday orders normally leave Little Shop of Crafts the next working day, with three to seven business days in transit after that. Unopened items can go back within 30 days of delivery. Shipping Policy · Refund and Returns
Related sections of the shop
- Graphite and Charcoal Pencils
- Light Pads and Studio Tools
- Pens and Fineliners
- Sketching and Drawing Sets
Related reading
- Pencil grades: what H and B actually tell you – The letters on a pencil are a scale, not a brand code. Reading it correctly changes what you buy.
- Charcoal or graphite: choosing for the drawing you want – They look similar in the box and behave completely differently on paper.
- Waterproof and archival ink: what the labels mean – One word on a pen decides whether your line survives a watercolour wash.
Who wrote this
Written by the team at Little Shop of Crafts, a drawing and sketching supplies shop at 711 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025. The guidance here is what we tell customers across the counter, and it is based on the products we actually stock and the questions we are actually asked. Where we are not certain of something, we say so rather than fill the gap. More about the shop · Contact us
