Thursday, September 22, 2016

Materials/Tools for Traditional & Digital Art




Materials/Tools for Traditional & Digital Art
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

This article is basically about my favourite tools i have used over the years & some i still use. From my experiences in life so far when i started out at the age of 4 as a traditional artist,then as an architectural illustrator & now 2D-3D generalist. If you are an architect,interior designer, graphic designer, computer scientist, art enthusiast or newbie to the world of art this blog post is for you. These materials and tools are listed below with pictures. I hope it proves useful in your artistic journey.

Traditional Materials/Tools

Rotring Mechanical/Clutch Pencils 0.5/2.0 HB thickness & a eraser stub of the same manufacturer
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

  This duo are favourite tools of mine for sketching & making quick doodles on paper. Saves time with no need for sharpeners only refills. An eraser comes in handy always so must be in your artistic arsenal.

Rotring Pen & Sakura Micron Pen
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos
 These pens usually in their set of varying pen nib diameters for different line lengths, thickness & overall appearance. Great tools for giving your depth & boldness in visible inks. Rotring is German brand widely used in the art,architectural & engineering fields. Sakura is a Japanese brand whose pens are excellent for comic illustration & line art available on amazon.

ClipBoard A4 Size
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos
Clipboards come in both A4 and A3 sizes. Handy, portable & a must have art material to keep up with your doodling ideas.

Coloured Pencils and Pastels
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

Coloured pencils and pastels are also great for learning colouring techniques and shading styles. Recommended brands are Staedler, Reeves and Derwent. To get the best of both worlds i recommend Pastel Pencils as well.

Nataraj Eraser, Nataraj Sharpener, Staedler Mars Lead Pointer and Rotring Tikky Eraser

Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos



French Curves
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

For curves and ellipses of any kind this plastic template does wonders for illustration and technical drawings. So please do get yourselves a set.

Rotring Furniture & Lettering Templates
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

Furniture templates are just what is needed for making perfect furniture outlines and sanitary accessories mostly used by architects, builders and civil engineers. Lettering templates are based on the Leroy lettering system for calligraphy and manual comic lettering quite tedious with pencils or pens (*sighs*architectural design studios days).

Rotring Compass Set
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

When you need to draw arcs and circles perfectly also with dividers all you need is a compass set. Great for artists, comic illustration & other creative uses.

Steel Rule & Rotring Scale Rule
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos
These rulers prove handy when scales and precise measurements are needed. A Steel Rule besides the primary function is amazing when working with a cutter on paper, cardboard & other flexible art materials. A Scale Rule is useful when necessary keep to a particular ratio range of measurement or varying proportions as indicated on it by the manufacturer i.e. Rotring in this case.


Digital Materials/Tools

Laptop, Mouse & Mouse Pad with Photoshop Opened
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos
When choosing a laptop for a digital artist stick to a reputable brand with good reviews online, the configuration speed & graphics display must be capable to handle the likes of Adobe Design Premium or Master Collection Suite and Autodesk SketchBook Pro with other applications of your choosing. This doesn't only apply to 2D graphics/illustration also to 3D graphics/modelling if you are thinking of a change in career or vice-versa*winks winks*

Wacom Intuos Touch Small
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos
Digital Art wouldn't be as cool as it is today without graphics tabs, digitizers and interactive tabs with real time interfaces for touchscreen. It gives an artist's portfolio the professional touch to be commercial in no time as long as you can get the hang of using the tab. It feels strange at first upon maiden use but with time you will be driving it like a Ferrari. Make sure you watch lots of professional video tutorials to get grounded quickly in its use,settings and with digital art/vector drawing applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and SketchBook Pro not name a few. I without a doubt recommend YouTube, PluralSight Tutors formerly Digital Tutors, Lynda, CubeBrush, iDrawGirls, CtrlPaint and Proko Tuts among many other sites. Popular brands include Wacom (highly recommended by me),Ugee, Huion, Yiynova and Genius.

HP 3-in-1 Printer/Scanner/Copier
Photo Credit: Dm3DRev Studeos

Great gadget to have in your home studio or small office mainly because of its 3-in-1 features such as being a printer, scanner and copier. You can start a drawing or illustration with pencils scan into your laptop then digitally ink over your sketch lines and colour up in your favourite tool. Another option is to draw using pencils and ink over the line art using micron or rotring pens. Thereafter scan the finish drawing into your PC,simply colour up and add final effects without tampering the line art done on paper. 

Comic Illustration from the likes of Marvel, DC, Vertigo, Dark Horse and IDW Comics balances both traditional and digital art. Over here in Lagos,Nigeria, West Africa, the rising comic firms such Comic Republic, Vortex Comics, Shadow Black Entertainment,Youneek Studios and Awonda Comics follow suite with amazing results online.

Notable Mentions

There are materials and tools i haven't used in a while or tried yet but plan to. These are:
*Water Colours
*Pastel Pencils
*Copic Markers
*Oil Paints
*Acrylic Paints
*Canvas Paper
*Traditional Brushes
*Graphite Pencils
*Card Boards
*Wacom Cintiq Hybrid
*Wacom Intuos Pro

Article Credits/References: Google, YouTube and CG Blogger’s Archives












3 comments:

  1. Please where can i buy some of these materials in Lagos Nigeria

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    1. Hey, thanks for stopping by. Good thing it happens to be Lagos you asked about. Most of these art materials are easily gotten in Yaba precisely Ojuelegba road. Shops such as CYC & AB Artworld amongst others. It's only the Sakura Micron pen you would have to order from Amazon.
      For gadgets; Computer village,Ikeja is the place to go. Hope this helps, cheers

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