Drawing Tools and Drawing Software
Which Drawing Software and Drawing Tablet do you use?
These are two questions that we’ve been asked a lot, so – here’s our look at the essential drawing tools that we use for our cartoons both on paper and on the computer. You’ll find everything here that you need to get started as well as recommendations on which tool, software or hardware you should be looking at.
Wherever possible we’ve tried to list the exact tool that we use along with a link to where you can find it online, and we’ve also tried to go and find the cheap or free version of these items as well to help you save some money. So – watch the video below that goes through these tools, and then you can read the additional information below with all the links and recommendations.
Traditional Drawing Tools
Recommendations: I personally really like the Mars Lumograph Staedtler pencils and pens, however they are fairly pricey, and as a cheaper (and cleaner – no need to sharpen) I also use Bic Mechanical Pencils.
While you can get a pack of professional art pencils with different types of lead in them, I’ve personally not used these types of pencils much since leaving art school because for cartoons and for work I haven’t had that much need for them. If however, you also enjoy life drawing, or just want to experiment, then I would suggest that even though it will cost you a little bit more you get a small case of these pencils like shown below that contains various different leads in the pencils.
Sketchbooks
Recommendations: Either book will do well for you to keep your sketches safe, and both have good paper, so it’s just a personal preference really. If you are into designer gear then you may want to spring for the more expensive Moleskine book.
Drawing Tablets (Draw on the Computer)
Recommendations: If you want to draw on the computer, Wacom is the brand that is that all the pros use, and if you are just getting into digital art and don’t have a tablet yet, I would recommend the Wacom Bamboo.
If you are looking for something more professional then you can go for either the Wacom Intuos 4 or a Tablet PC. The Wacom Intuos is like a larger Bamboo starter tablet with more pressure sensitivity which means that it’s going to be a bit more responsive.
Tim and I both own and use the HP TM2 Tablet PC. In fact, most of the art and lessons on this site were put together with this computer. If you are in the market to get a laptop, and you also want a tablet, then I highly recommend this one to you. It’s nice and compact, and lets you draw right on the screen.
If money is no object then you can go with the Wacom Cintiq. I looked at these extensively, and decided to go with the TM2 instead of the Cintiq for a few reasons: It’s portable, so I can draw outside in the park if I like, it’s cheaper, and it’s a fully functioning laptop. The one thing that I will say about the Cintiq however, is that it is a very beautiful and dedicated tablet. It’s the best in the world at what it does – let people make great art!
Free Drawing Software
Recommendations: The packages that I recommend here are:
Art Rage – The most recent version of this software is not free, but if you click this link you can find version 2 totally for free. Art Rage is very similar to Autodesk Sketchbook (Sketchbook is the software that most of the lessons and drawings on this site were created with).
Paint.net – This is a popular and free alternative to Photoshop.
Gimp – Another popular and free Photoshop alternative.
InkScape – This is a vector drawing program and you could consider it an alternative to Flash and Illustrator for creating graphics work like clip art and page layouts. One note however, is that if you want to make animation for the web, InkScape doesn’t have the functionality for that task – it’s just a drawing program.
Professional Drawing Software
Recommendations: If you’re just getting started and just want to draw you can’t beat Autodesk Sketchbook. It’s relatively inexpensive and gives a great result that you can use for drawing, coloring and sketching.
Photoshop is what I would recommend next for more heavyweight drawing work and photo retouching. It’s the industry standard for digital work, and if you want to work professionally, you will most likely need to know this software.
Painter 11 is a Photshop ‘alternative‘ that you can consider, the advantage of this software besides the lower price is that the tools and brushes in the software will behave more like you would expect them to in the real world. It’s hard to explain this in type, but basically if you use chalk in Painter it will look and feel like you are drawing with chalk.
If you want to make animation and cartoons for the web then Flash is the program that will give you what you are looking for.
Note: There are academic versions of all of these software packages, so if you are a student, a teacher or work somewhere that you can get an educational discount – look into those versions to save about 50% of the full priced commercial version. Educational versions are available from Amazon.com as well
Ok – that’s it for our gear guide! Let us know below if you have any cool tools that you use yourself that you think other people should know about.
Christopher 
This is a great presentation. Thanks for sharing.
Happy Holidays
Pamela Fields
Thank you Pamela.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a terrific New Year!
Happy Ho-Ho!
-tim
Tim
happy holidays x mas newyear 2011.
harry
Hy, Guys!
Thank you for this video!
All the best for you and your familys!
Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!
Plamen Petrov
Merry Christmas to you too, Plamen. Thank you for the comment on the video, it is greatly appreciated. That Mitch is a talented guy
Have a very Merry Christmas!
-tim
Tim
Mitch, Tim and Pencilking members.
May you all have a wonderfull Christmas holiday!!!!
Valerie
Thank you Valerie! I wish you a very Merry Christmas as well. I am sure Mitch does as well but he is in transit from LA to Winnipeg
Tim
Thank you Valerie! We wish you a very Merry Christmas as well and we are really looking forward to bringing you some great stuff in 2011!
Have a great holiday and I hope you really enjoy your time off.
-tim
Tim
I found a moment to thank you all for the wonderful guidens. All the lessons have been great help to me.
Mitch, Tim i wish you a blessing Christmas and a wonderful 2011.
IDO STEEN
We wish you a very Merry Christmas as well! Thank you so much for the feedback and we are certainly pleased our lessons have been helpful. We are really looking forward to stepping it up in 2011 and bringing you some awesome videos that I am sure will be a huge hit.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Tim
Hi Mitch, Thank you for this video, very helpful. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Sarah
Its nice to learn from you all. Am enjoying your wisdom. especially that am a new student of art at degree level for the first time in zambia to have this course after 46 years. Keep the fire burning God bless the artist.
davis
davis
Good stuff. very Informative. Like the free software.
David Bruffett Sr.
yer this is a beautiful presentation but for me i use charcoal paint ,staedtler and a little of brush paint,happy new year to your crew.
Dennis Okwama
This is a very cool video. I already use most of those supplies already. I’m glad I got your opinion on the Waccom Bamboo Tablet. I’m deciding whether or not I should purchase one of them.
Kevin
Fantastic presentation! Thanks so much for putting this together!! It’s been a great help to me.
Sally
Oops, I actually suggested doing something like this without even realizing you guys already did! I am quite surprised to see the use of a tablet PC over an actual PC tablet. I had the Wacom Intuos tablet but ended up returning it. I’m not a good artist and I found it extremely difficult to draw while looking at another screen. It may have come in time but I’d have rather returned it than risk keeping something I may never use. Use of a tablet PC seems like it would solve the problem, since I can’t justify the high cost of the Cintiq for my skill level, but I can justify spending a bit more on something more useful.
I am, however, disappointed in the first section – the pencils and erasers section. This is specifically what I was looking for and didn’t find it too helpful. Like, for example, in some of these videos I see light sketches easily erased without removing or smudging the more finalized (darker) lines. It looks like a special eraser? And also I have seen people use light blue pencils for their initial sketches and then draw over it with a standard dark gray pencil. But I can’t find any such things that aren’t just pencil crayons (which are not easily erased from my experience…).
Victoria
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for your comments. Firstly about the tablet PC – you may want to hold out on this one for just a little bit longer as I have an even better recommendation for you: the EEE Slate, which is a fully capable windows 7 tablet and will cost around $1000, and comes with a keyboard and stand.
In the videos everyone so far is using just standard erasers. The top two choices are the ones outlined in the video – the standard white rubber eraser and the kneabable gum eraser (the grey one that can be formed into other shapes).
The key to erasing some parts more easily is to vary the pressure that you are using with your pencil. Light strokes will be erased very easily, and harder strokes will be tougher to erase.
As for the blue pencil – here is one from Staedtler that you can use and insert drawing leads into: http://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Lead-Holder/dp/B0006HXM8O/ref=pd_sbs_op_2. I personally don’t use blue leads, but there are some advantages to using it. The blue will not show up as much if you want to photocopy your work. This also applies to if you are scanning your work into a computer and have both blue and black ink outlines on your page (like for drawing comics) – you will be able to easily pick out and manipulate that blue color to either knock it out completely, or adjust it however you would like. The last benefit of the blue pencil is that it’s a bit easier to cover the blue when you get to inking your drawings, than if you would use a pencil.
I hope this helps you out! – Mitch
Mitch
This is an awesome video full of info I needed. Thank you!!!
JosieMar
For sketching (finished looking work isn’t in my realm yet), I use MyPaint. It has a lot of nice brushes and purposefully keeps the interface and functionality to a minimum so you can concentrate on getting the image on canvas.
Alec Fredericks
When discussing hardware, the video should be clearly dated. The HP computer mention has been superseded twice since the video was made
michael
In contrast the information about the pencils and pens and, surprisingly, about the software, is still current. However, there are quite a few other software programs.
Raster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vector_graphics_editors
Vector: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_raster_graphics_editors#List
Also one can get a whole collection of commercial 2D and 3D programs, although usually not the latest version) for a very cheap price ($59) at http://www.coolcreativebundle.com/
michael
Just wanted to say that you can get a free version of Sketchbook Pro (Sketchbook Express) that is great too! My husband has pro which I’m sure has many more features but I downloaded Express (from the Apple App store) and I think it’s great!
Jen