Attention parents: some quick links to sources for some sketching kit upgrades

Thanks to the teens and parents that came to the manga cartoon sketching class on Saturday at the Cary Arts Center.  I know we discussed and introduced quite a few sketching tools that are not so readily available locally, so for your convenience here are some links for the main ones that your kids may wish to add to their current sketching kits.

Japanese mechanical pencils for those that prefer not to have to sharpen regular wooden pencils:

1. Pentel Graph 1000 a personal favorite.
2. Uni Shift Pipe Lock Drafting Pencils feature a design that protects the drafting tip during transport.
3. Pilot S3 drafting pencils value priced plastic model with sleek look and good performance. I recall seeing it for the first time in photos in the How to Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style book 1 by Hikaru Hayashi.

2 mm Leadholders for a reliable drawing too with constant length and width with a comfortable grip:

1. Ohto Comfort Sharp Leadholders are a nice value priced introductory choice with built-in lead pointer in the push button.
2. Uni leadholders and leads are another personal favorite choice that have been a staple of my own sketching kit for years. You might want to pick up a leadpointer to round up your kit and sharpen your lead as needed.

Waterbrushes and Brush pens to expand the versatility of your sketching kit with the ability to apply watercolors with a minimal set up and draw with brush and ink anywhere:

1. Pentel Aquash waterbrush nice convenient tool for working with watercolor pans and water soluble pencils anywhere. Also available from Holbein, Sakura Koi, and Kuretake.
2. Brush pens wide selection of drawing pens for when you need some line width variation in your strokes. Some feature flexible nylon marker tips, and others are actually made of synthetic filaments and even sable hairs. Popular choices include: Zebra disposable brush pen, Pentel Pocket brush pen, Kuretake No. 13 Fountain brush pen, and Pilot Futayaku double-sided brush pens.

Erasers:

1. Uni Boxy Eraser Black another personal favorite since it does not show smudges given its dark base color.
2. Pilot Foam eraser love its performance with dark softer leads.
3. Iwako erasers for a bit of fun or inspiration, but probably won't be used much for actual erasing.