Celyn Art

Blog Post 1 - My go to materials (Patreon)

Published:

2024-04-09 13:54:46

Edited:

2026-01-26 09:53:11

Imported:

2026-10

Content

Hi everyone! In this blog post, I will walk you through all the go-to materials I use when sketching.

Hi everyone! ☀️

On Instagram, I got so many questions about what materials I use. So when I built this Patreon, I knew I had to start with a blog post about all my favorite materials to get you started! 🤗

Over the years I collected a lot of different art supplies, some were great, and a lot of them I only used one time and then never looked at it again. In this blog post, I will walk you through all the go-to materials I use when sketching:

Essential basic materials

Sketchbooks

Brush pens

Pencils

Color palette

A Beginner friendly color palette overview

Because lots of people live in different countries, some brands won't be available for everyone. So I think it would be great to help each other find the right materials by commenting under this post which materials you use, where you live, and where you got them. I personally bought all my art supplies in an art supply shop in my city.

✨ Essential basic materials

To get started, there are some art supplies I would recommend for you to get. Some are from Faber-Castell. I know this brand can be quite expensive, so I want to say that other brands will work fine too. These are just the ones I have collected through the years and work great for me:

2 paper clamps (to hold your paper in place, essential when drawing outside)

Faber-Castell Kneadable art eraser (to lightly erase sketch strokes)

Faber-Castell Normal Eraser

Faber-Castell pencil sharpener (with waste box, great for using on location)

A piece of thick paper (to protect the other sketches pressing into each other when you want to draw on every page)

✨ Sketchbooks

My favorite sketchbooks at the moment are the Art Creation sketchbooks from Royal Talens. They are available in lots of different sizes (see the picture below). I've got them in 3 different sizes and with various colors of paper:

(Square) Sketchbook 12x12cm, 80 sheets, 140gr/m2, cream paper

(A6) Sketchbook 9x14cm, 80 sheets, 140gr/m2, white paper

(A5) Sketchbook 13x21cm, 80 sheets, 140gr/m2, white paper

The 140gr/m2 stands for the thickness of the paper. I discovered that these sketchbooks are great for brush pens, pencils, and watercolor (thin layers of paint).

I mostly use the A6 or square sized sketchbooks. I can bring them wherever I want because it's small. But it's big enough to draw everything I want to draw. Sometimes I make a big illustration on two sides. And sometimes I make 2 different illustrations. I use the A5 sketchbook more for practicing. I can easily draw different subjects on one page.

I rather draw in a smaller sketchbook because I am not patient enough to fill up a bigger sketchbook. So it's just your preference which sketchbook you'd like to use! 😊

✨Brush pens

You can see my go-to color palette and favorite brush pens below. I am currently combining the Tombow brush pens with the Ecoline brush pens. These are the colours I recommend you to buy first. If you have these colors, you are able to follow most of the tutorials!

Tombow 991 (Light Ocre)

Tombow 451 (Sky Blue)

Tombow 912 (Pale Cherry)

Tombow 772 (Dusty rose)

Tombow 126 (Light olive)

Tombow 133 (Chartreuse, Light green)

Tombow 603 (Periwinkle)

Tombow 553 (Mist purple)

Ecoline 374 (Pink Beige)

I definitely recommend getting the Ecoline pink beige brush pen. I use it in almost every sketch I make. It goes well with all colors! 😍

If you would like to expand your color palette, I recommend reading this blogpost:

Blog Post: Colour Palette Update

The Ecoline brush pens are a bit cheaper than the Tombow ones. If you prefer to get cheaper ones but still want the same color, I discovered some Ecoline brush pens that look almost like the color of the Tombow ones. I don't have all Ecoline or Tombow colors, so I think there will be more that look alike!

Tombow 451 --> Ecoline 580

Tombow 126 --> Ecoline 657

Tombow 133 --> Ecoline 665

✨ Pencils

I created a limited color palette with only a few colors that felt like going well with each other. They are all from the brand Faber-Castell. These are my favorite ones:

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 165 (Juniper Green)

Faber-Castell 167 (Permanent Green Olive)

Faber-Castell 168 (Earth Green Yellowish)

Faber-Castell 188 (Sanguine)

Faber-Castell 217 (Middle Cadmium Red)

Faber-Castell 226 (Alizarin Crimson)

Faber-Castell 278 (Chrome Oxide Green)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

Faber-Castell 108 (Dark Cadmium Yellow) NEW

Faber-Castell 133 (Magenta) NEW

✨ Beginner Friendly Color Palette

Here is an overview of the colors you might want to buy when you are new to drawing with brush pens & pencils. It's based on my own color palette and will be more than enough to start drawing and follow all the tutorials!

Brush pens: