Silverpoint

25 items · 10 genuine must-haves

The kit

Scored honestly from 1 to 10. Ten means the course does not work without it. Anything under five is a nice-to-have you can skip until you miss it. Nothing here needs to be expensive, and the brands are examples, not requirements.
Top pick: Graphite pencilsTop pick: Drawing padTop pick: Kneaded eraserTop pick: Craft knife and a sandpaper blockTop pick: A viewfinder (two L-shaped pieces of card)Top pick: A portfolio or box for every drawing

Pencils

Five grades and one black. That is the whole orchestra.

  • Graphite pencils: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B

    Top pick

    The working range for every lesson. 2H for layout and light contour, HB and 2B for most drawing, 4B and 6B for shadow and darks.

    Buy singles, not a 24-tin. Five grades cover 95% of what the masters used. Staedtler Mars Lumograph, Faber-Castell 9000 and Tombow Mono are all excellent and cheap.

    Known good: Staedtler Mars Lumograph · Faber-Castell 9000 · Tombow Mono 100

    Must-have
    10/10

  • 8B or a dedicated black pencil

    The darkest dark. Doorways, the underside of a moulding, the core of a shadow.

    Staedtler Lumograph Black 8B or Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matt 14B go darker than ordinary graphite and do not shine.

    Known good: Staedtler Lumograph Black 8B · Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matt 12B or 14B

    Must-have
    7/10

  • Woodless graphite stick (4B or 6B)

    Mass and tone with the side of the stick. The closest graphite gets to Corot's charcoal.

    Cretacolor Monolith or Koh-I-Noor Progresso. Peel the lacquer back and lay it on its side.

    Known good: Cretacolor Monolith 6B · Koh-I-Noor Progresso 4B

    Must-have
    7/10

  • Mechanical pencil, 0.5 mm, 2B leads

    Fine architectural line when you do not want to stop and sharpen.

    Nice to have. A long-pointed wooden 2H does the same job with more character.

    Must-have
    5/10

Paper

One good pad, one cheap ream, one toned pad later.

  • Drawing pad, 9 x 12 in, around 90 to 100 gsm, medium tooth

    Top pick

    Every daily drill and most lessons. Cheap enough to fill, good enough to keep.

    Strathmore 400 Series Drawing or Canson XL Drawing. Medium tooth holds graphite for layering without fighting fine line.

    Known good: Strathmore 400 Drawing · Canson XL Drawing · Fabriano Accademia

    Must-have
    10/10

  • A ream of plain copier paper

    Warm-ups, value scales, perspective construction, thumbnails. Zero preciousness.

    The fastest way to improve is to waste paper without guilt. This is the paper you waste.

    Must-have
    8/10

  • Toned tan or grey paper pad

    The David Roberts lessons: paper as halftone, white pencil for the lights.

    Strathmore Toned Tan or Toned Gray, 9 x 12. Pair with a white charcoal or white chalk pencil.

    Known good: Strathmore Toned Tan · Strathmore Toned Gray

    Must-have
    7/10

  • Smooth Bristol pad

    The etcher's-tone lessons, where you build value from crisp line layers.

    Optional. Medium-tooth drawing paper works; Bristol just keeps hatching crisper.

    Must-have
    4/10

Erasers

Erasers are drawing tools here, not correction tools.

  • Kneaded eraser

    Top pick

    Lifting lights out of tone, cleaning up, and (shaped to a point) drawing sky holes and highlights. Corot's bread, in modern form.

    Knead it warm before use. When it goes grey all through, replace it. They are a dollar.

    Must-have
    10/10

  • Pen-style precision eraser (2.3 mm)

    Pinpoint lights: a window catching sky, a highlight on a wet cobble, a sliver of light on a branch.

    Tombow Mono Zero is the standard. Round tip.

    Known good: Tombow Mono Zero 2.3 mm round

    Must-have
    8/10

  • White vinyl block eraser

    Removing construction lines cleanly before adding tone.

    Staedtler Mars Plastic or any white vinyl. Never the pink school eraser, which smears.

    Must-have
    6/10

Sharpening

The long point is the cheapest upgrade in drawing.

  • Craft knife and a sandpaper block

    Top pick

    The long point: 8 to 10 mm of exposed lead that gives line from the tip and tone from the side with one pencil.

    Any snap-off craft knife. The sandpaper block is a pad of fine sandpaper strips on a stick; two seconds re-points the lead.

    Must-have
    9/10

  • Ordinary handheld sharpener

    Backup. Fine for the 2H when you only need a short point.

    Must-have
    3/10

Tools

Board, viewfinder, tape. The rest is optional.

  • A viewfinder (two L-shaped pieces of card)

    Top pick

    Choosing the format and cropping the subject. The first composition tool, and it is free.

    Cut two L shapes from cereal-box card. Slide them to make any rectangle. Hold at arm's length.

    Must-have
    9/10

  • Drawing board (or a stiff clipboard) and two clips

    Tilts the paper toward you so you draw from the shoulder and see the page without foreshortening.

    A piece of hardboard or MDF slightly larger than the pad, propped on a book, is a drawing board.

    Must-have
    8/10

  • Masking or drafting tape

    Taping the sheet down and giving a clean border that makes the finished drawing look finished.

    Must-have
    6/10

  • Workable fixative

    Stops charcoal smudging between sessions and in storage. Optional for graphite.

    Krylon Workable Fixatif or any artists' workable spray. Use outdoors.

    Must-have
    6/10

  • A 12-inch ruler and a cheap compass

    Checking, never drawing. Verifying a vertical, striking an arch during geometry practice.

    In the lessons you draw every line freehand. The ruler is for checking afterward.

    Must-have
    6/10

  • Blending stumps and a tortillon

    Softening edges and smoothing a gradient at the very end, if at all.

    Corot stumped his charcoal. Beginners stump everything and lose the grain. Use sparingly.

    Must-have
    5/10

Charcoal (later)

Buy when you reach the Mass unit.

  • Willow (vine) charcoal, medium

    The Mass unit's late-Corot lessons. Broad tone on the side of the stick, lifts cleanly, forgiving.

    A box of a dozen sticks costs almost nothing. Do not buy until you reach the Mass unit.

    Must-have
    7/10

  • Charcoal pencil (General's 4B or 6B)

    Dark accents and the trunk-and-branch zig-zag inside a charcoal mass.

    Must-have
    6/10

  • Compressed charcoal

    The very darkest darks. Hard to control and nearly impossible to erase.

    Skip until you are comfortable with willow. Most beginners overuse it.

    Must-have
    3/10

Studio

Light, a reference stand, and a box for the evidence.

  • A portfolio or box for every drawing, dated

    Top pick

    Progress is invisible day to day and obvious month to month. You will need the evidence.

    Date every sheet in the corner before you start. Never throw a drawing away during the course.

    Must-have
    9/10

  • A daylight lamp (5000 to 5500 K)

    Even, consistent light on the page from the side opposite your drawing hand.

    A warm bulb hides your value errors; a daylight bulb shows them.

    Must-have
    8/10

  • A phone on a small tripod

    Holding the reference image at eye level beside the board, and photographing every finished drawing.

    Set the phone to greyscale (accessibility settings) when working from a colour photo. Instant value filter.

    Must-have
    7/10