My Regular "Go-To" Art Supplies! (Updated for 2026)

A slightly updated blog post of my original post from 2013! Not much has changed! This is just for doing physical hand-drawn art. I may do one about the digital aspect of it another time.

I was drawing late one night and I happened to look over to my left at the table with my art supplies that sits next to my light table. My actual art supplies for the last 25+ years have mostly been the same. As all artists do, we pick out what we like and keep using it throughout our careers (as long as they keep making it) and I find myself sometimes apprehensive to trying something new. If something works for you, why change?

Over the years, I've distilled a lot of my working process down to make it simpler and between the work being more digital than physical nowadays I have found myself using a real short list of items to draw with. I've been asked before what I use to draw so for those interested, here's the list with pics. From the first pic on top you can see that my regular tools only take up about a third of the table top in total.

1) PAPER - Mostly I've been using copy paper sized at 8.5" x 11" or the 11" x 17" size for bigger sketches (like comic book pages). Even my final art for Scooby-Doo (for the comic books at least) have been draw on normal copy paper. It's cheap and works well. Probably not great for the archival or collector mentality but it's the raw material to get a project done. I buy one box with reams of paper in it at Staples once a year or so. For bigger paper, I buy a ream of it when I need it. I can burn through letterhead paper with roughs and thumbnails and if I screw up I grab another sheet real quick from underneath my light table and continue on.

For final art that I want to have a slick, professional look to it, and it may be a piece that I'll be selling later on, I use the Borden and Riley #234 Paris Bleedproof paper for pens. It comes it many sizes and prices can vary depending on where you buy it. I have to order it online as no local art stores exist or the ones that do don't carry it. Go figure. I like this particular kind of paper as it's light and thin, easy to work with on the light table, and also works extremely well with the pens that I ink with. I've rarely had any bad moments with the paper in terms of smudging and bleeding. Sometimes things happen but overall this paper works fantastic. It's been my "go-to" for many years. When I did comics I also would prefer to use this paper over the company's art board. The quality of paper is lacking of late there and I'd rather use my own. If I did a cover for DC Comics, I'd use their art board as the people who buy original art prefer it to be drawn on the "official" board. That is changing though. 

2) PENCILS - I can use anything really though I seem to gravitate to a 5H lead for breaking it down and keeping it clean and then a 2H or an HB to bring out the details. Depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll pull out a purple ColErase pencil or even a ball point pen and do the whole deal. At this creative point in drawing, it's about mood and getting it onto the page. You can tweak it later on with another piece of paper. If I do a convention or I'm on the road, I tend to use the 5H and HB. 

3) ERASERS - I have three. A kneaded eraser, which is one that I use most often. You can bend and shape it to get into tiny corners and every artists uses one. You can't be a true artist without one! Next is a Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser, which is great for really cleaning up with as it leaves very little residue or crumbs and does a better job of overall cleaning than the kneaded eraser. My third eraser is a yellow gum eraser, which I use the least and it does a good job at times but leaves a lot of crumbs in its wake. 

The Staedtler Mars eraser is also useful for other things as well, such as when you take the price sticker off an item you bought and there's some sticky residue left over. The gum eraser sometimes does the job, but a Staedtler Mars one works superb at taking off the residue without hurting a book cover or toy box. A Sandford 'Magic Rub' eraser is great too! 

4) MICRON PENS - My main stay for 24 years now. I came to using these mostly after I had to trash a TON of Scooby and other work back in 2001 or so. I used to work with Le Pen, which was a superb pen marker that worked supremely well on Garde Silk paper which was very smooth. The Le Pen would glide across the paper and leave such a clean line that it almost gave the look that you did it digitally. It was great for style guide work as well where you needed strong clean lines that held up even when it was enlarged. But then you had the downside... All the work would fade from black to brown to light brown to almost invisible. It was great in terms of producing high quality work but the worst in creating original artwork that you wanted to last. It would in some cases start fading in one year depending on where you stored the original art. Hence, I lost a LOT of original artwork that I had to trash as it was faded and would be hard to sell. Live and learn.

So I started using these Sakura Micron Pens in early 2002 or so and I've been using them ever since. The ink has never failed me nor faded over the years as they have archival ink in them. You can go through them though as keeping the points sharp can be a chore. I use the .005, .01. .02, .03. .05. and .08. I seem to use the .01 for fine work and the .08 for thicker lines most of the time. I use the others accordingly to what I'm doing. If I do a convention and I'm doing sketches there, I use these pens for doing a fast ink job over top of the pencil rough.

From my time at conventions, I found that a lot of artists use them! 

5) PITT BRUSH MARKER - My main inking tool for doing sketches, final art, and larger pieces for the last 22+ years. The ink is solid, archival, and the brush points while delicate leaves a nice strong line. It takes some skill and practice to use it right without destroying it. I usually use the frayed brushes (that are no longer useful for fine inking work) to fill in large solid black areas of a composition as well. 

Sakura, who makes the Micron Pens I talked about, also makes a brush pen called the Sakura Brush Pen! I used to use that brush mostly in the beginning. It has a finer point to it and takes a while longer to master. I'm not sure why I stopped using it and went with the PITT Brush Marker instead. It may have been because I like the shorter brush that the PITT had and it was easier to maneuver around. They are still superb brush markers, but I think my hand has grown too comfortable with the PITT. 

Also, the PITT has an upside that the Sakura Brush Pens don't have. Once they become a bit frayed (and you'll know it when it happens) and don't give you the ink line you want you can take some tweezers and pull out the brush point from the pen tip and flip it around! As you can see from my pics, you have a perfectly good NEW point now to use by simply flipping the brush and sticking it back in. The hard part is leaving the right amount of brush length exposed though. The further out it is, the more control it takes to use. The further you stick it in, the tighter your control will be. 

Another trick is that you can twist the end cap off of the pen (sometimes it's hard to do!) and then drop a few drops of ink in from an eyedropper if the PITT Brush is dying on you. Now the only problem with this is that the ink doesn't match. This can be an issue for some but if you are doing convention sketches or roughs with it, it won't matter. I've not used India Ink in so many years that I can't tell you if it's still any good or not. Most artists I know complain about it being watered down or not black enough. Quality control is lacking with India Ink so you might be able to find something you like. At any rate, this is a good little trick to getting the most from your PITT Brush Marker before you have to throw it out. 

BUY THE STUFF YOU LIKE IN QUANTITY - I only mention this as it's cheaper! If you buy them at three pens at a time, you are spending more money on them in the long run. I go to Dick Blick's Art Supplies on the Internet and buy them by the box. The pens I use come 12 to a box and you can store them away. As you can see from the pics above, I keep extras close at hand on the right side of my light table in the first drawer of my artist's shelf. I lay them out according to size so that I know what I'm reaching for even when I'm not looking. When you have gaps that show up from pens dying out you know which ones to replace and which ones you use the most. You keep a bunch of them in stock so that you can keep working straight through. If you're on a deadline, it takes time out of your day to drive to an art store that carries them and you wind of paying more in some cases. Microns are pricey these days too! Buy them in bulk or if they're on sale. I buy more of the .08 Micron Pens than I do the others as I tend to use them for quite a lot of things like signing books.

6) RULER - My little plastic ruler has been with me for 15 years at least! It was cheap and did the job. It was clear plastic as well so it makes working with easier. The downside is that it had no lip or inking edge to it so if you ran a brush or marker next to it chances are you'd create a smudge when you pulled the ruler away. This happened a lot, so I got the idea of raising it off the paper by taking a piece of thin cardboard and cutting it so that it fit underneath the ruler and left an inking edge on both sides. I added a little piece of tape to hold it into place on either end of the ruler and it was my "go-to" ruler for a decade. They are cheap and easy to replace. I do have two other bigger rulers that I use for doing longer lines naturally, but this little one gets me through all the details! 

7) FRENCH CURVES - Ah, the tool of the Jedi. If you are well trained in using a French curve they will serve you well, young padawan. I have many here of different shapes and sizes but I use basically three different ones. One of them (pictured above) has an inking edge built in. If you can buy them this way, make sure you do. It makes life easier! Otherwise... 

You have this kind of French curve where I had to do the same thing that I did to my ruler and tape some cardboard to the bottom of it to raise it up off the paper. I use the outer edges mostly for bigger, wider curves. It's my second "most used" French curve.

And the third is my little worn and faded French curve. It's been with me now for over 30 years or longer and we've been through many, many jobs over the years together. I got it back when I was in high school when I was taking mechanical drawing. It has never failed me! I've used it so much over the years that it's like a Swiss-pocket knife for me in terms of working. I use a side here and a curve there, and maybe a little piece here and there. Over time, you learn to wield it like a blade and you know how to use it with your pencils and pens. It's why it sits on my table where it does. I haven't bought another one since so I have no idea what these small ones cost nowadays.

This, of course, is all based on my years of doing art and what I feel most comfortable drawing with to get the best results. It's up to you to try and experiment with the many supplies out there to see what works for you! Buy the supplies that feel good in your hand and give you the best results... and then buy a lot of it in case they stop making it!

 

Strawberry Shortcake: Pencil to Final Inks!

Strawberry Shortcake character art I did during the 2009 New Look time period. From pencil art on cheap paper, sent in for approvals, then final inks done on good art paper (via my light table). Not digital, done all by hand at the time. I made small tweaks as I went to refine the line quality. Still have the original art. Enjoy!

 

Cleaning out some of my archives!

Selling remaining out of print copies of my Scooby Mystery Inc book and doing single character sketch requests on the inside. The hardest part? Gently sketching on the inside of the book without damaging the "Gem Mint 10" condition of the book itself! ZOINKS!

 

SCOOBY-DOO: When Simplicity Creates Focus!

Final cover art vs. final printed cover: simplicity creates focus!

When showing the whole Gang in the same shot, you lose a lot of precious real estate for other aspects. Add a monster to the layout and it gets really busy! 

Everything always goes back to Scooby & Shaggy in the end. This is why most of the Scooby covers I did for Capstone Publishing only had Scooby & Shaggy on them.

They had someone at Scholastic go into my layered file and take out Daphne, Velma and Fred. Then they enlarged and moved Shaggy & Scooby over. I wish they had asked me to fix this for them as Shaggy's sleeve is off! You can see the hard cut-off when he originally went off the side of the layout. They added his elbow too, but it looks okay. I never knew about the tweaks until I finally got my complimentary copies.

Overall, it looks better as a cover with just them, but I didn't know how big they were going to make the title or add the bottom flashlight icon. The bonus is that you can see more of my painted backgrounds (which took some time to match the show)! The glossy high-end paper they used darkened the final colors to give it the perfect creepy look!

Anyway, I thought I'd post the full original final art as it was. It still looks pretty cool! I added the Mystery Incorporated show logo to make it look like a poster.

SCOOBY Sketching

Sketching Scooby one evening under the warm soft white bulb above my drawing table creates an added layer of mood and atmosphere! 

Sketched on cheap paper with a black col-erase pencil. I like to add line weight to my sketches (if I have the time) as it makes them "pop" more off the page. Normally, I just draw it flat and do the embellishing when I ink, but when sketching for fun I like to spend more time on it. 

Anyone remember the TV show DINOSAURS?

Anyone remember the prime time TV Show Dinosaurs (1990-1994) from the Jim Henson Company?

This is a sketch of the Baby Dinosaur who basically would steal the show. "Not the Mama!" he would yell as he banged his father, Earl, over the head with a pot or pan or something. The show was a great satire for current events.

I found this black Conté Crayon sketch on newsprint paper I did back in '93 or so in my archive. I had the action figures for the show and I held the Baby Dinosaur figure in one hand as I drew it with the other. It was a fun warm-up sketch before I went to a an evening life drawing class back then.

I liked sketching with a Conté crayon more than working with normal charcoal sticks.

Conté crayon was drawing tool that was composed of compressed graphite (or charcoal) and mixed with a clay base which made it harder and more stable to hold without breaking. It came in long 2" thin rectangle sticks. It was no muss, no fuss in my mind and gave you a slick, smooth result.

To keep your fingers from getting any residue on them, you can wrap some masking tape around the stick where your fingers would hold it. As the stick wears down, you can unwrap some of the tape to expose more of the stick. See all the cool stuff you learn here?

 

Found an old color guide for an Ed, Edd, n Eddy cover!

Found an "old school" color guide from 2003 in my archives! 

I only drew this cover (Cartoon Cartoons #20) and didn't color it. Don't know who did the guide or made the notes on it. When DC Comics mailed me back my original cover art they threw this in the box with it. I kept it all this time though the original art was sold many years ago.

Ye olden times, indeed! Back when you mailed the physical final art to the publisher to scan! A year later, in 2004, you could just scan and upload the art to them directly via FTP. 

 

SEQUENTIAL ART: Ed, Edd, n Eddy in "Where Is My Ed?"

Here's another Ed, Edd, n Eddy comic story for you to read! 

One of my favorites that I drew and it's titled "Where is My Ed?" Never drew a giant clam before, but it was a lot of fun. The original script for the story was titled "Where's my Ed?" which I think works better, but one of those little editorial tweaks made at the end during final approvals before it was sent off to printer.

This story is also the last story I drew for the Eds as Cartoon Network Block Party was ending as a series. I liked the short story format for these characters as they're a quick in-and-out commitment for the artist and a nice change of pace from something else you were working on at the same time.

Towards the end of the CNBP series, one of my contributions to the Eds comics was creating a separate credits box which would be on the title page of each story. The upside down art of the Ed's poking their heads into the panel was modeled and based on the animated show's opening title sequence!

Eagle-eyed readers will also note that the "END" at the end of the story was the same "END" for most of my Cartoon Network comics I did. I added it to the art to show it was the actual end to the story. When you held the original artwork in your hands, it was purely visual with no word balloons and you could get the impression that there might be more to the story.

 

SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #44 Cover Art: From Concept to Final Art

Following my recent Looney Tunes post featuring the step-by-step creative process, I thought I'd post a Scooby one! 

Here's the final cover art I did for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #44. This first image is a scan of the actual printed cover that came out. Some highlights from the paper it was printed on were picked up by the scanner though. I hate that glossy paper. Anyway... 

Here's the original thumbnail that WB chose to go with as a design. I did four designs in all for this cover on 8.5" x 11" paper. Even at this small size this design works in its simplicity and balance. Again I used a 40% Warm Gray marker to make the thumbnail pop. I usually make notes on the sides so that whomever is looking at it will know what I have in mind.

This is a scan of the final art that was done on DC Comics art board. Because I used my light table and inked over top of my rough sketch, the final art is super clean, which makes scanning easy. I didn't show my rough art as it basically looks exactly the same! Again, my stuff is super tight so it does seem like I'm doing the work twice.

 

In the photo below, I'm using a brush with Pro White paint on it to touch up some lines on the art.

 

I inked it during the evening and the soft white bulb above my drawing table added a spooky ambience to the process! I recently had the same experience with a Phineas & Ferb cover that had a spooky feel to it. I used to do a lot of work in the evening as it was quiet and calm. 

  

Then Candace Rock, who was at Heroic Age at the time, did the coloring for it based on the script and any notes I had. Once final approval from DC Comics and WB came through again, it was off to the production department at DC Comics to finalize.

 

Finally, I included this cover version as well as this was the final cover for the digital release of the comic. The nice thing about a digital release is that you lose the UPC box in the corner. 

 

All in all, I like this cover a lot! A great shot of Scooby and the Gang with an air of mystery to it! 

 

SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED unused art!

Daphne from the Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated TV series. Did these early on to get a lock on the way the characters were drawn for the series at the time. I did single shots of all the Gang. All penciled rough on cheap paper. Then scanned, saved as an .eps file in Photoshop, then opened in Illustrator and inked with the pen tool using the scan as a guide (I normally turn the opacity down to 50% for my guides as I worked over stuff). When done and I'm happy with it, I saved the file as an .ai or .eps (I can't remember exactly) and opened back up in Photoshop and colored. Background plate is a full plate behind her. 

Multi-platformed art for all art I did for this series licensing. This was pre-Manga Studio at the time so Adobe was the only game in town.

Unused cover art for Scholastic book I did. I still like it though! It would have had issues working as a cover though in terms of logo placement. It's a pen and ink rough on cheap paper. If they wanted the final art for it I would have scanned and inked it in Adobe Illustrator at the time so that it matched the line art for the style guide. It would have then been opened in Photoshop and colored just like the one above. 

I still have this sketch and... yes, my stuff is super clean and tight. 

 

SEQUENTIAL ART: Courage, The Cowardly Dog in "Psyche Out"

This is my personal favorite Courage, The Cowardly Dog comic that I drew! I did quite a lot of Courage stuff and while all were different and fun, this one was my favorite. 

"Psyche Out" was from Cartoon Network Block Party #13 and the storytelling is really solid from panel to panel. Plus, I really like the little alien that interacts with Courage. The panel with them both running around each other in circles really works and is my favorite part of this story. 

One of the best things about drawing Courage was that anything could show up on the farm and you could come up with literally anything design wise as long as it matched the look of the show. As an artist, these comics were nice as they were a short, quick commitment and were usually always fun to work on. The short page count kept the stories tight and focused.

Here's the whole story for your reading enjoyment! 

LOONEY TUNES #219 Cover Art: From Concept to Final Art!

From the concepts to final art, I thought I'd post the full process of a Looney Tunes comic cover I did! Recently, I was going through my archives and saw I had pics of everything that would show the full process. I'm a process junkie myself and thought it might appeal to others out there.

Here are the original 4 concepts I came up with when I was asked to create a cover for the Looney Tunes comic series. This is an "icon" cover that features The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Above, is the scan I made of the original thumbnail sheet and this is what I sent to DC Comics who then sent it to WB Global Publishing for approval. There was no specific art direction so I had free reign to come up with fun scenarios. I did light, loose pencil sketches to plan things out and did a quick ink over my penciled lines. Once I erased my pencils underneath, I added some gray magic marker to show separation and add some depth. It's a simple trick to help sell your rough ideas as thumbnails are smaller, but it helps as it keeps the elements of the design from blending together and looking flat.

Not all my thumbnails are this tight. In fact, these are super, super tight! More often, my cover concepts are loose enough to play with or add to them. This was kind of locked down from the beginning.

Here's a photo of the thumbnail sheet itself which I created to make the process quicker. I made a little comic page grid (which is to scale) and printed them 4-up on cheap copy paper. I saved the file and can print them out when I need them. Great for doing comics and covers as they have all the specs on them that the full comic art boards have. I also have a digital version I created of the art boards as well for full digital art.

Once the concept was picked and approved, it was time to move to the full-size pencil art! 

I do my roughs on cheap 11x17 copy paper and label them at the top "ROUGH". The black border is to spec and was done with a black Sharpie marker. Then I enlarged my small thumbnail to full size and printed it out. I take the printout and place it under my clean bordered sheet of paper. I use my light table to work over my thumbnail as I pencil and refine the image at full size. Again, these thumbnails are really tight, so there wasn't much more I could add or change to it on the fly. Once I have it penciled, I take my Micron Pens and do a quick ink to the rough. When I do this I really refine and lock in the final image. It seems like an extra step that is not normally needed for comics, but with any licensed work I try to make my art clean and defined.  

Below are a scan of the final rough cover art and a photo of the actual sheet. The scanned art is what I send back to DC Comics who then sends to WB again for final approval. I'm showing the photo of the rough as you can see the pencil lines under my inked ones. The end benefit to doing all this is that I also have something else to sell at a convention or to a collector later on. 

The art is approved! No changes! Time to move to the next step and do the final inked art! Again, I use my light table and place the rough art underneath a clean sheet of DC Comics Cover Art Board. I tape my rough behind the art board to hold it in place and then ink the final art. This is why my final original inked art is so clean when you see them in person as you don't see any pencils underneath! One of the major benefits to working this way is that the digital clean up after scanning is practically zero. This is a huge time-saver!

Side Note: if you do ink directly over your pencils on an actual image, and  wait for the ink to dry, then you'll have to erase the pencil lines underneath. When you do, even softly with a kneaded eraser, you'll pick up some of your ink along with it causing some fading of the line in spots. You then have to go back over and re-ink the areas again to freshen them up. Been there, done it, don't like doing it. 

In a sense, I am retracing my art yet again, but now I'm adding the line depth to it. Every licensed property has its own look and you have to match the inking style to it. The Looney Tunes inks are the same as Scooby... in case you were wondering.

Below is the scan of the final inked art and the photo of the actual art itself. When I scan the final inks, I don't scan as an RGB because it would pick up any white paint corrections I might have to make and all the blue grid lines of the DC Art Board would be seen. I just want the black line art only. I always scan the art at 600dpi for my archives. There are times, not always, where I would scan an RGB version just for my personal records. There is something about seeing it "all there" as it were.

Once the art is all scanned in, I then do any final digital tweaks to the art I might see that got picked up in the scan. When I'm happy with it, I save the file and then have to format the art to DC specs. I take the art and resize it and then place it into the final art file that DC's Production Department provides to all artists. You resize the art to actual printed comic size and make sure it all lines up in the grid lines of the Photoshop file. 

You then save the art as a TIFF file and label it to their labeling specs. In this case, the file was labelled "LT Cv219.600_BW". 

LT stands for Looney Tunes, Cv219 means it's the cover for issue #219. The 600 means the file is 600dpi and BW means it's in Black and White. If it was a final colored file it would be "LT Cv219.600_COLOR". 

Here is the formatted file looked if you printed it out (without my blog info, naturally). 

Just for giggles, I took a low-res screengrab of the formatted art file in Photoshop so that you can see the blue grid lines. You can see the everything lines up in the live area, trim, and bleed lines. The top third line shows where the logo and other cover elements would go. There is a little mark on my little thumbnail grids as well, because you have to plan everything out in the beginning so there are no issues later on.

Originally, I planned to have have the Road Runner say "Beep Beep" but we really didn't need it. There is also plenty of room if DC wanted to add a blurb or burst of text somewhere if they wanted.

Once the file is formatted and saved, you then upload the file to DC Comics via their file server and you are done. Contact the editor and send them your invoice! If I'm not coloring the image, I will load another page (or contact the colorist) with any notes or color ideas or effects I was thinking of. 

To move comics along, we work in a pipeline assembly. I prefer to color my art if I can (if time allows as you get paid for it, naturally) but I'm not adverse to working with someone to keep things moving. I worked a lot with Candace Rock (formerly Candace Schinzler-Bell) who worked for Heroic Age Studios before she went solo. She worked for DC as a colorist on Scooby and Looney Tunes for a long time and would color most, if not all, of my DC covers starting around 2010. She did the final colors for this cover! 

After I loaded up the final art to DC, I would directly email her my thoughts and any notes on it. I would sometimes send her the art file as well to save her the time of downloading it from DC. The pipeline at DC would move slower at times and we'd get a jump on things by just working directly.

The benefit to working with someone you can trust and like is that you can keep moving on a project or go on to the next to keep a workflow going. Candy was a huge help to me on several projects over the years! Sadly, she (like many) have moved on in life and stopped doing comics as the comics industry was changing and the work just wasn't as plentiful as it once was.

Below is the final colored file she emailed me to see what I thought. I'd make a comment here and there but she never disappointed me and I was usually always fine with everything she did. She delivered the final colored art to DC's production where the cover elements were added by a designer. Then the editor and art director would look at it to make sure it was all good and then sent it to WB for a final, final approval. 

Remember, I said I made notes that I loaded up with the file to DC directly? That was so the designer on the back-end would know to add "OUCH!" to the Coyote's sign. Keep everyone in the pipeline when you can! It's important! 

Here's the final printed cover when it hit the comic stores! I'm quite happy with it still! I hated that version of the DC Comics logo though. Thankfully, they went back to the classic DC Comics "bullet" logo! 

Finally, for those that made it to the end, here is a pic of the package of original art I sold to a collector! This is the benefit of working on actual paper! It's one-of-a-kind art and it's original production art! You have something to sell and make money on the back-end of a low paying comic industry. I sold the thumbnails, final inks, and a signed printed comic to a collector (with a Certificate of Authenticity that they got it from me)! 

Sometimes I will sell the rough pencil art and final art separately. Most high-end collectors just want the final inked art (as it's what the general public sees) and a copy of the book. Some collectors like the rough art with all its flaws, paste-overs, and creative energy. I sold the rough art and a signed printed copy of the book (with a C.O.A.) to another fan.  

If you have to work digitally, it's fine and I have... but I usually always try to have something on paper if I can. My Strawberry Shortcake work was all digital, but most of the roughs and preliminary work were all done on paper! I may be "old school" but I still love physical art!