Where do I start? What am I going to need to get started? A lot of this really is down to personal choice and how much you actually want to spend. I absolutely stress that your basic needs do not need to be expensive. Therefore I am only writing this as a general guide to help you.

Where do I start? What am I going to need to get started? A lot of this really is down to personal choice and how much you actually want to spend. I absolutely stress that your basic needs do not need to be expensive. Therefore I am only writing this as a general guide to help you.

Usually it is fairly important where you choose to paint in the first place. It really helps if you place yourself somewhere where, in fact, the light is good. It helps if you have space around you too for your tools. Natural daylight is good, if not, you need fairly good lighting. Then you need something that can be used as a palette. Old china serves well.

Importantly enough, you need a fairly strong box or tin of some sort to hold your paints and for them to be easily accessible. Plus a ready assortment of colours, medium, your actual canvas and of course various brushes.

You can use a shelf, cupboard, desk or table to prop your canvas up on. Now to your actual drawing materials! Pencils, obviously these are pretty important for your creation. You can have a selection of pencils ranging from HB through to 6B.

I like to obtain pale grey and yet also dark black tones, so for this you need a soft pencil. A Venus 6B is ideal, so I tend to use this, but it needs sharpening a few times! From here you will also need to be able to sharpen your pencils. Men often use a razor blade or penknife. Personally I make sure that I have a strong sharpener.

As for choice of drawing pads it is much easier to buy one with a hard back. Sometimes things go wrong and you do not want to use a rubber. Just take a fresh sheet and begin anew.

Although I have to say I am quite happy with small pads which are easy to carry around with you. Ideal are the pads with ready perforated edges that you can easily tear out. The smoothness of the paper is also a bonus.

Pens themselves can be hard to work with as, for example, a biro pen would not get proper thin or thick lines or produce good variance of shading.

If you go to an art and craft shop or supplier they do stock various pens that you can use with ink or even a felt type nib. Failing this you could use an ordinary fountain pen that you are used to using.

Also to be considered if you are going to go out and about to sketch your painting; you certainly need to be comfortable and warm. So don your socks and comfortable footwear. Old clothes are good with plenty of pockets. In winter you might need a hip flask!

It is to be advisable too, to have your own portable seat or stool as usually you only have a fence, bank, or wall to sit on leaving you with a frozen derrire! So maybe take a visit to your local camping shop. To get the broad picture you can always make a cardboard frame to put over your painting to give you the overall effect you are obtaining.

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