Best drawing charcoals according to redditors

International shipping rates is why.

I mean, I was in New Zealand a few months ago, and I saw General's Pencils sets in a major bookstore chain there. Take one item which is listed at 13.99 NZD, or about 9 bucks USD. The same item in the US is under 5.00 on Amazon, and not much more in a retail location. So I certainly wasn't going to buy any of those there...but, European art supplies were much cheaper there than what I was used to paying in the US. I splurged on Staedtler pencils and French gouache while I was there, lol.

I have used Japanese forwarding services, they do the job well. But...using Tenso's calculator for shipping+handling on the item (finding out the exact weight per box), and the listed price on Amazon JP....technically the Amazon US seller is cheaper (about 8 bucks and free shipping, vs 10-11 depending on exchange fluctuations. Some banks in the US charge foreign transaction fees, too.). Markups at JetPens aren't too much worse (1.05/pencil, so 12.60 for 12 of them). Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore may sell these, and I remember a slightly similar pencil (9800) being about 1.00 a pencil.

Honestly, starting out you really don't need a lot in the way of supplies! All you really need is a box of #2 pencils and a big ream of cheap copy paper. You don't need to spend a lot on a sketchbook, because (if you're doing it right) you're going to be doing just tons of drawings, and most of them won't be worth hanging onto.

A good beginner book with a lot of clearly laid out lessons will help as well. Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner is a good one. A lot of people like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain; I don't care for it but many folks swear by it, and it's one that's almost certainly going to be in your local library if you want to check it out before you buy. Keys to Drawing is a classic. You don't need all of them; just pick out one you like and work your way through it.

After you've been doing the pencil and copy paper thing for awhile, if you decide you want to work bigger, you can spend just a bit more and get some charcoal pencils - a set like this that also includes a small kneaded eraser and other tools - will only set you back about $10-$12. For the same amount you can get a pad of newsprint to go with it.

That whole setup - paper, pencils, a book, charcoal set, and newsprint pad - would fall well within your budget and keep you busy drawing for months. And there's tons of good, free drawing tutorials online, too, if you blow through the book.

My husband and I thought it'd be a great idea to have several beers on a Tuesday night. As a result of this, my workday so far has been anti-productive. I've sucked all the productivity out of the room.

Yesterday, I learned Powdered Graphite and Powdered Charcoal are a thing what you can use for drawings and I realized that I've been filling in backgrounds the hard way my whole life. Missing this type of obvious stuff is the huge downside of being a mostly self-taught artist :(

I can't wait to get these in my hot little hands. I've got big plans to create huge messes with these.

exactly it's white charcoal pencil

I try to use it sparingly

Well, heres some tools I like to use and/or think might be a good choice for someone:

For sketching and whatnot this
pencil set is good.

Also Erasers and Blenders are useful

Charcoal pencils are cool too, but maybe not the best starting point. heres a link anyway

Oh, and drawing paper

I realize all this is getting expensive so maybe its best to get her this drawing set. The quality isn't as high in these complete sets, but it does gives her a wide variety of tools to experiment with. (including coloring pencils) The paper sucks in this set, so I would still probably get that separately.

The same folks also make a beginners set of acrylic here. Which seems pretty cool. Again though, it would probably be a good idea to get more paper. I've used this acrylic paper and it seems to be pretty good.


Also, If you want, it might be better to go for watercolor over acrylic.
If so, here is some decent stuff:

Paint or Cheaper Paint

Brushes

Paper

Well, that's all that springs to mind. Let me know if you have any questions that I might be able to answer.

You're a painter! Do you have a dA page or blog? I paint as well, but mostly on masonite.

Mine's a sketch book but I'm going to the art supply store tomorrow and probably buying one there. I also have a set of tinted charcoal and some eraser pencils marked as high priorioty. I do lots of portraits.

Get willow charcoal! There is this cool technique I learned in college. Use willow charcoal to lay down a base on your page. Color the whole damn thing. Then you can make your lines with willow charcoal. Because willow charcoal doesn't stick to the page very well, you can literally brush it off with your finger if you don't like this line or that line. Then, use a normal charcoal stick to go over the lines you want to keep. It makes it so easy.



I have this type of willow charcoal



I've had this set for years. It's solid.

Ohohoh, Get these tinted charcoal pencils! Derwent are my absolute favourite brand of drawing supplies and I think they're wonderful quality and just... perfect.

I have a few of the charcoal pencils and they're beautiful to work with. It's not the best picture, but this is something I drew with them. The colour is a lot more subtle, but I loved having charcoals other than black to work with. And it's nice when you don't want everything as bright as you get with pastels.

They also last a long time and a lot less messy then conventional charcoals! This made me happy as it left my fingers clean for blending. It's so much nicer then accidently smudging when you have your hands covered in black or whatever and it gets where you don't want it!

And finally, you don't like getting things for you, but this is something you can use to make other people happy. Make your Grandpa a thank you card using them (once you use some adhesive spray/hairspray), make birthday, easter and christmas cards for your girls. If they're anything like me, they'll hold on to them and treasure them. I have all the cards my mum had made me in a box under my bed.

I think you should get yourself these so that you can take some time for yourself and do some drawing. You can take a break from being a wonderful parent and do something fun and creative just for you! I hope you have a wonderful birthday! :)

This is my recommendation. Get that in addition to this. It's clear that you are an artist. You can use that to relax when you're stressed and even share and teach it with your children. Show them how to use their imaginations to create amazing things.

This is the one I mean. I tried their pencils too but they weren't anything special.

I'm kinda a charcoal junkie.
I've tried Generals, Creatacolor, Prisma, Nitram, Primo, and Conte. I keep searching for something dark like compressed but erasable and blendable like vine. No luck yet. I'm seriously considering learning to make my own to see if I can find that balance.