I've been using Faber-Castel's woodless pencils for about a year and a half and they have been great. They come in packs of six from my local Hobby Lobby for $10 with 2 hard, 2 medium, and 2 soft. Also for those wondering about cheap paper. I picked up some packing paper from a U-Haul store. You can get a bunch of it for about $15. It is very smooth but a lot of it can be creased or humpy. But it is great for someone like me who is on a budget. It works better than the baking parchment paper that I used to use, ha.
Wow, I've never tried parchment paper, but the U Haul packing paper sounds interesting. Lumpy paper really does pose a challenge. The Pro Art paper is temporarily unavailable, so I am trying out a few alternate types. If I find one worth recommending I will update the description of this video.
What size is the packing paper? I do remember an artist I knew years ago who used packing paper he found on a job site which worked well, but he had to cut the paper down to a smaller size to fit on the 18x24 drawing board.
@@galereginald12 Depends on personal preference. I like the Maries because they are a proper charcoal pencil made with a thick core. Can get a decent taper and they just don't seem to break. Also they have that more traditional look. Very soft and velvety. definitely give them a try.
I've had a lot of luck with Conte 1710 B in the last year or so. I can usually sharpen them to a long point, but I have to make sure that I'm feeling zen before doing any sharpening. I've tried many others but keep coming back to Conte when drawing on smooth newsprint. For textured paper, I always use General's.
Oh my god I’m SO glad you brought up the conte 1710’s breaking from sharpening! The last batch I bought (5 of ‘em) were breaking one after the other and it bummed me out big time. For the past 2+ of more serious training they use to be my rock I could rely on. Now I just use already sharpened ones ive had for a long time that have lasted. I do have a pack of 2B 1710’s and they seem to be totally okay and also a white charcoal conte which is perfectly usable! Seriously dissapointing. No other pencils are like the conte. Aside from that I adore the Wolff’s carbon pencils. Having them be thinner is a bit more preferable for my hand cuz it feels more like a normal pencil. Anyway, great vid Brian! Your demos and fundamental teaching is some of the best and have helped me a ton :)
Yeah i've finally given up on conte and can no longer recommend them. Its really unfortunate because they were the best but decided to destroy their product with terrible manufacturing quality. I hope they fix whatever they changed a while back. For the last couple years i was just buying them and throwing away like half the box or more but after it was so wasteful i finally decided to stop. Its good to know i'm not the only one having this problem. Thanks for letting me know
Hi Brian, I bought some maries soft (the ones that you have and ones that are form the same company but woodless with the same charcoal "soft"). Do you think it's good to use just the soft or should I get the neutral?. I ask this because in my country, Mexico, it is very difficult to get pencils from other brands such as Conte or Wolffs Carbon.
With the Maries pencils it might be a good idea to use a combination of the Soft and Neutral charcoal pencils. The soft one is pretty soft and it can be difficult to get the lighter values with it. On the other hand, the Neutral pencil is a little too hard and its not possible to get the darker values with it. But if you combine the two and use the Soft pencil for the darker values and the Neutral pencil for the lighter values then I think the Maries pencils could work pretty well.
What is the appropriate grammage? I want to enroll in the foundation art school, but I live in Brazil and I'm having trouble finding similar materials.
Hi Antonio, I'm not familiar with the term grammage. Do you mean the paper weight or thickness? Ultimately I recommend using what is available and affordable in your area. Availability of art materials varies a lot depending on the location, but any smooth newsprint will work well for the type of charcoal drawing I teach.
@@foundationartschool That's exactly it: weight. So I can start with just a normal A4 sheet and then little by little I'll look for better materials? Or do you recommend starting only when you buy these materials? I found a paper from Bristol, but the weight is 270 g/m2, what you recommend in the video is 52 g/m2.
@@Antonio-nn2kq Getting started as soon as you can is what I would recommend as the main priority. If you could draw on the larger format newsprint, it would be better, but there is nothing wrong with starting on smaller paper. Something to watch out for is that A4 (printer paper) is very smooth, so charcoal will easily smear when applied to that surface. It would be better to draw with graphite pencils on that type of paper. Newsprint has a more textured surface that absorbs the charcoal and prevents the material from sliding around on the surface too much. I would recommend using Bristol later for more finished pieces rather than practice mainly because it is so expensive. It is also very smooth compared to newsprint so again the charcoal will easily smear. Bristol would be better paired with graphite pencils or ink.
I want to really emphasize, just drawing and practicing is the most important thing. You can get good at drawing even if you only ever used A4 paper and graphite pencils. Also, I would recommend getting 6B, 4B, 2B, & HB pencils to use with the A4 paper. Here are the pencils I like to use: tinyurl.com/36d5jeyy
That's insane, nobody should pay that much for a pencil. Once our new website is up and running my next project is going to be testing and identifying drawing supplies that will get the job done well and be more affordable and accessible. I don't know what's going on with the art supply industry but it seems to be very quickly going off the rails.
I'm not familiar with that specific brand, but generally speaking, copy paper is very smooth and won't be able hold much of the charcoal. Much of he charcoal would just sit on the surface and be easily smeared. Newsprint on the other hand is very 'toothy' paper. Meaning the fibers have more depth and texture to them and will actually be able to hold onto more of the charcoal. It may sound odd, but if you experiment with both papers I think you will see what I mean. You can certainly practice drawing on copy paper, but it would not be very compatible with charcoal. I also recommend drawing on a larger size paper for the type of drawing I teach. I hope that answers helps. Let me know if you have any further questions about this and I'd be happy to answer.
If you have to use copy paper then i would recommend using graphite. If you want to use charcoal but can't get smooth newsprint then i would recommend using more traditional charcoal supplies which includes a lot of different things such as compressed charcoal sticks, vine charcoal, blending stump, charcoal pencils, charcoal paper or high quality drawing paper, charcoal powder and more. You won't be able to get the same level of detail with that type of charcoal drawing but it can produce very nice drawings. Part of the reason the smooth newsprint and charcoal pencil combination is great for learning is because it allows the same level of detail as graphite but with the speed and efficiency of charcoal. It's possible to learn without it though. You just have to spend a lot more time carefully building up tone and edges with graphite to get the same effects.
@@foundationartschool I actually tried using the Marie's on the copy paper brand I use and it holds up suprisingly well. I cant really compare it to newsprint since I've never used it although the problem is that its a4 size
@@foundationartschool it would be cool if you made a video on how to use those charcoal tools. I wonder how it would be done the watts atelier/ foundation school way
BEST art supplies (in terms of performance and quality): Best Paper for drawing: Hahnemuhle Dessin 150gsm/Arches Watercolor Hot Pressed Best Mechanical pencil: Pentel Graphgear 500 (0.5mm) + Ain Stein leads Best Wooden Graphite pencils: Faber Castell (9000/Pitt matt/Aquarelle), Staedtler Mars L. Best Charcoal pencils: General's (Best white charcoal too!) Best Lead Holder for drawing: Faber Castell TK9400/TK4600 + TK9071 leads Best Lead holder for sketching: Koh-I-Noor 5340 Best Kneadable eraser: LYRA Best Erasers: Faber Castell Dust Free 187120/Tombow Mono Plastic/Tombow Dust Catch Best Fine detail eraser: Tombow mono Zero 2.3mm Best Colored pencils: Faber Castell Polychromos/Caran D'ash Luminance (Best White color pencil Derwent Drawing 720 white.) Best Sharpeners: KUM Masterpiece/KUM Automatic longpoint/M+R Round Brass Best Sketchbook for dry media: Canson 180 Artbook/Canson Universal/Hahnemuhle Bamboo or Hahnemuhle 120gr sketchbook. Best Paper for Polychromos: Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed Best Sanguine/Sepia pencils/leads: Koh-I-Noor Red chalk/Conte Sanguine Best Paperstump for blending: Conte a Paris (the older ones,they are still in stock here and there)
Had lots of trouble sharpening my Conte pencils and I thought it was me! Thanks for this information!!!!!
Wonderful information
I've been using Faber-Castel's woodless pencils for about a year and a half and they have been great. They come in packs of six from my local Hobby Lobby for $10 with 2 hard, 2 medium, and 2 soft.
Also for those wondering about cheap paper. I picked up some packing paper from a U-Haul store. You can get a bunch of it for about $15. It is very smooth but a lot of it can be creased or humpy. But it is great for someone like me who is on a budget. It works better than the baking parchment paper that I used to use, ha.
Wow, I've never tried parchment paper, but the U Haul packing paper sounds interesting. Lumpy paper really does pose a challenge. The Pro Art paper is temporarily unavailable, so I am trying out a few alternate types. If I find one worth recommending I will update the description of this video.
What size is the packing paper? I do remember an artist I knew years ago who used packing paper he found on a job site which worked well, but he had to cut the paper down to a smaller size to fit on the 18x24 drawing board.
I use the Maries charcoal pencils and I love them
Are they better than the Wolff's Carbon? I watched another video on them and I heard they are the best.
@@galereginald12 Depends on personal preference. I like the Maries because they are a proper charcoal pencil made with a thick core. Can get a decent taper and they just don't seem to break. Also they have that more traditional look. Very soft and velvety. definitely give them a try.
I've had a lot of luck with Conte 1710 B in the last year or so. I can usually sharpen them to a long point, but I have to make sure that I'm feeling zen before doing any sharpening. I've tried many others but keep coming back to Conte when drawing on smooth newsprint. For textured paper, I always use General's.
Buen material para emplear y practicar gracias
Oh my god I’m SO glad you brought up the conte 1710’s breaking from sharpening! The last batch I bought (5 of ‘em) were breaking one after the other and it bummed me out big time. For the past 2+ of more serious training they use to be my rock I could rely on. Now I just use already sharpened ones ive had for a long time that have lasted. I do have a pack of 2B 1710’s and they seem to be totally okay and also a white charcoal conte which is perfectly usable! Seriously dissapointing. No other pencils are like the conte. Aside from that I adore the Wolff’s carbon pencils. Having them be thinner is a bit more preferable for my hand cuz it feels more like a normal pencil. Anyway, great vid Brian! Your demos and fundamental teaching is some of the best and have helped me a ton :)
Yeah i've finally given up on conte and can no longer recommend them. Its really unfortunate because they were the best but decided to destroy their product with terrible manufacturing quality. I hope they fix whatever they changed a while back. For the last couple years i was just buying them and throwing away like half the box or more but after it was so wasteful i finally decided to stop. Its good to know i'm not the only one having this problem. Thanks for letting me know
Hi Brian, I bought some maries soft (the ones that you have and ones that are form the same company but woodless with the same charcoal "soft"). Do you think it's good to use just the soft or should I get the neutral?. I ask this because in my country, Mexico, it is very difficult to get pencils from other brands such as Conte or Wolffs Carbon.
With the Maries pencils it might be a good idea to use a combination of the Soft and Neutral charcoal pencils. The soft one is pretty soft and it can be difficult to get the lighter values with it. On the other hand, the Neutral pencil is a little too hard and its not possible to get the darker values with it. But if you combine the two and use the Soft pencil for the darker values and the Neutral pencil for the lighter values then I think the Maries pencils could work pretty well.
Are u going to make a video on how to sharpen and hold the pencil?
Hi William,
Yes! This is actually the video we will be producing today. It will be uploaded later on this evening. 😄
@@foundationartschool thanks I've never actually known how to sharpen a pencil
hi Brian, have you tried faber-castel's pencils?
I've tried the Faber-Castel Pitt Charcoal Hard pencil and it's pretty good. Which ones do you recommend?
@@foundationartschool I liked the medium and the hard, the soft is very smudgy
What is the appropriate grammage? I want to enroll in the foundation art school, but I live in Brazil and I'm having trouble finding similar materials.
Hi Antonio, I'm not familiar with the term grammage. Do you mean the paper weight or thickness? Ultimately I recommend using what is available and affordable in your area. Availability of art materials varies a lot depending on the location, but any smooth newsprint will work well for the type of charcoal drawing I teach.
@@foundationartschool That's exactly it: weight. So I can start with just a normal A4 sheet and then little by little I'll look for better materials? Or do you recommend starting only when you buy these materials? I found a paper from Bristol, but the weight is 270 g/m2, what you recommend in the video is 52 g/m2.
@@Antonio-nn2kq Getting started as soon as you can is what I would recommend as the main priority. If you could draw on the larger format newsprint, it would be better, but there is nothing wrong with starting on smaller paper.
Something to watch out for is that A4 (printer paper) is very smooth, so charcoal will easily smear when applied to that surface. It would be better to draw with graphite pencils on that type of paper.
Newsprint has a more textured surface that absorbs the charcoal and prevents the material from sliding around on the surface too much.
I would recommend using Bristol later for more finished pieces rather than practice mainly because it is so expensive. It is also very smooth compared to newsprint so again the charcoal will easily smear. Bristol would be better paired with graphite pencils or ink.
I want to really emphasize, just drawing and practicing is the most important thing. You can get good at drawing even if you only ever used A4 paper and graphite pencils.
Also, I would recommend getting 6B, 4B, 2B, & HB pencils to use with the A4 paper. Here are the pencils I like to use: tinyurl.com/36d5jeyy
@@foundationartschool Thank you very much for your helpfulness in explaining.
The Conte a Paris 1710 costs $16- per pencil in Australia, with very few shops, if any selling them.
That's insane, nobody should pay that much for a pencil. Once our new website is up and running my next project is going to be testing and identifying drawing supplies that will get the job done well and be more affordable and accessible. I don't know what's going on with the art supply industry but it seems to be very quickly going off the rails.
Do you think double a copy paper is a good alternative for newsprint ?
I'm not familiar with that specific brand, but generally speaking, copy paper is very smooth and won't be able hold much of the charcoal. Much of he charcoal would just sit on the surface and be easily smeared. Newsprint on the other hand is very 'toothy' paper. Meaning the fibers have more depth and texture to them and will actually be able to hold onto more of the charcoal. It may sound odd, but if you experiment with both papers I think you will see what I mean. You can certainly practice drawing on copy paper, but it would not be very compatible with charcoal. I also recommend drawing on a larger size paper for the type of drawing I teach. I hope that answers helps. Let me know if you have any further questions about this and I'd be happy to answer.
If you have to use copy paper then i would recommend using graphite. If you want to use charcoal but can't get smooth newsprint then i would recommend using more traditional charcoal supplies which includes a lot of different things such as compressed charcoal sticks, vine charcoal, blending stump, charcoal pencils, charcoal paper or high quality drawing paper, charcoal powder and more. You won't be able to get the same level of detail with that type of charcoal drawing but it can produce very nice drawings. Part of the reason the smooth newsprint and charcoal pencil combination is great for learning is because it allows the same level of detail as graphite but with the speed and efficiency of charcoal. It's possible to learn without it though. You just have to spend a lot more time carefully building up tone and edges with graphite to get the same effects.
@@foundationartschool I actually tried using the Marie's on the copy paper brand I use and it holds up suprisingly well. I cant really compare it to newsprint since I've never used it although the problem is that its a4 size
@@foundationartschool it would be cool if you made a video on how to use those charcoal tools. I wonder how it would be done the watts atelier/ foundation school way
@@somewiseguy6058 you can find copy paper also in A3 (double size of A4)
I thought it was just me. The Conte pencils always break. It is like they come in the package already damaged. The Wolff's carbon pencils never break.
BEST art supplies (in terms of performance and quality):
Best Paper for drawing: Hahnemuhle Dessin 150gsm/Arches Watercolor Hot Pressed
Best Mechanical pencil: Pentel Graphgear 500 (0.5mm) + Ain Stein leads
Best Wooden Graphite pencils: Faber Castell (9000/Pitt matt/Aquarelle), Staedtler Mars L.
Best Charcoal pencils: General's (Best white charcoal too!)
Best Lead Holder for drawing: Faber Castell TK9400/TK4600 + TK9071 leads
Best Lead holder for sketching: Koh-I-Noor 5340
Best Kneadable eraser: LYRA
Best Erasers: Faber Castell Dust Free 187120/Tombow Mono Plastic/Tombow Dust Catch
Best Fine detail eraser: Tombow mono Zero 2.3mm
Best Colored pencils: Faber Castell Polychromos/Caran D'ash Luminance (Best White color pencil Derwent Drawing 720 white.)
Best Sharpeners: KUM Masterpiece/KUM Automatic longpoint/M+R Round Brass
Best Sketchbook for dry media: Canson 180 Artbook/Canson Universal/Hahnemuhle Bamboo or Hahnemuhle 120gr sketchbook.
Best Paper for Polychromos: Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed
Best Sanguine/Sepia pencils/leads: Koh-I-Noor Red chalk/Conte Sanguine
Best Paperstump for blending: Conte a Paris (the older ones,they are still in stock here and there)