MATERIALS

These are my recommendations for value for money art supplies based on my personal experience.
Please don't feel you need to get this all at once. Just get started, use what you have, and build up your material supply over time.

Erasers

A kneadable eraser, a plastic eraser and a stick eraser. These are so useful in so many ways!

TomBow

AUS

Kneadable

AUS

Blending Stumps

Fantastic for blending graphite and even colour pencil. A tissue, cotton wool or a cotton bud will also do.

Staedtler

AUS

Derwent

AUS

Graphite Pencils

A good starting range would be 2H, HB, 2B. These can be added to later on.

Faber-Castell

AUS

Black Liners

A thin pen and a thicker pen would be a great place to start. A range can be built up later on.

Artline/Staedtler

AUS

Sakura

AUS

Colour Pencils

I really like the Faber-Castell Classic colour pencils which are designed for children. They have vibrant colours with a lovely waxy feel which helps to blend the colours. In this instance I would avoid buying cheap $2 colour pencils as they are generally poorly made with not much pigment or wax which means the vibrancy of colour will be lost and they will be very hard to blend nicely.

Faber-Castell

AUS

Watercolour Paints

Again, make sure you buy watercolour paints that have a good amount of pigment. The really cheap ones are very low quality with not much pigment. There's many different brands of water colour on the market that can be explored.

Koh-I-Noor

AUS

Sharpener

A good sharpener is a must! I often find a good quality metal sharpener, like the Steadler's or Faber-Castell's do just as well as a very expensive sharpener.

Staedtler

AUS

Paper

A journal with thicker pages is great if you choose to use watercolour. The thicker pages won't tear or bleed through. It's also a great place to store all those drawings.

As your children grow in confidence with their artwork, it might be a good idea to invest in good quality paper. Honestly, paper can really make a difference with your drawing. It's a very underestimated tool!

Of course, starting out with cartridge paper is perfectly fine and highly recommend for younger artists!

Watercolour Paper

AUS