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Drawing Supplies
Express your creativity with drawing pencils & pens, watercolour pencils, coloured pencils & more with Spotlight’s extensive art materials online.
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Discover Your Inner Artist With Drawing & Sketching Supplies From Spotlight
Drawing is one of the most accessible and affordable art forms. All you need is your chosen drawing medium and some paper to let your creativity soar! Best of all, the materials are easily transportable - meaning you can take your supplies on the go and sketch away whenever inspiration strikes. Spotlight's extensive selection of drawing supplies includes charcoal, drawing pens and markers, coloured Derwent pencils, watercolour pencils, and pastels from well-known brands such as Derwent, Faber Castell, Copic and Crayola. Whether you're a seasoned artist or a beginner looking for a new creative hobby, our range caters to illustrators, graphic artists and students of all ages and skill levels.
What's The Best Drawing Pencil Or Pen For My Art Project?
With so many options available in Spotlight's range of drawing supplies, it may be hard to decide on the best medium for your sketches and illustrations. Here's a quick guide to the range of pencils and drawing pens and their suitability for different art styles:
| Charcoal | Sketching Pencils | Pastels | Watercolour Pencils | Coloured Pencils | Drawing Pens & Markers |
Features | Easy to blend, charcoal is texturally similar to chalk. You can create a range of tones from deep black to soft grey depending on the heaviness of your hand. | Sets of graphite sketching pencils include different weights ranging from hard to soft. They're great for both finished artwork or just sketching out ideas. | Soft pastels are chalk-like in texture, whereas oil pastels are sticky and yielding. Both are great for blending colours. | These pencils are made with water-soluble pigments. Applying water to your drawing creates blended tones with a watercolour paint effect. | Suited to all ages and skill levels, shading with coloured pencils allows you to add colours in layers or create a block colour effect. | Great for adding strong colours on the page with quick coverage. Discover a range of tips from fine point, chisel tip and brush to create a variety of effects. |
Use With | Heavyweight or textured paper (aka pastel paper). | Choose a slightly textured paper for ease of shading. | Pastel paper. Oil pastels can also be applied to canvas boards to create an oil painting effect. | Watercolour paper helps to create shading and prevent paper warping when water is applied. | Use with most paper types. More textured papers help create richer shading. | Most paper types. Smoother papers will help to create bold, block colours. |
Best Suited To | Black & white/greyscale drawings that are rich in tone with contrasting light & shade. | Colourful artworks with graduated/blended tones and a painterly effect. | Bold illustrations and graphic-style artworks. Also a favourite with kids due to their instant coverage and vibrant colour! | |||
Drawing Supplies FAQs
How to use watercolour pencils
To get the most out of your watercolour pencils, there are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind:
- Always use with watercolour paper for the best results
- Use a selection of different brushes to create different linework
- Create white space by leaving areas unshaded
- Work by creating the background first and apply finer detail at the end
- Allow your work to dry in between adding different layers so your paper doesn't become soggy
Find out more about this fabulous medium in our comprehensive article on how to use watercolour pencils!
How to blend coloured pencils
The most straightforward way to blend (i.e. combine tones) with coloured pencils is by overlaying lightly applied layers of your chosen colours. The best approach to working with coloured pencils is to avoid creating too heavy a layer of colour in the first instance. Work slowly, adding the colours with a light hand and gentle pressure. You can also use a blending stick to help soften the applied pencil and eliminate some of the pencil strokes.
Sketching pencils vs greylead pencils: what's the difference?
We're probably all familiar with the classic HB grey lead - so named for the historic use of lead in these pencils. These days, grey lead sketching pencils are made with graphite, and you can find them in a range of different weights to add depth and shading to your drawings. The "H" in "HB" stands for "Hard" and the "B" For "Black". As you move through the range of sketching pencils, you will find a number in front of either the H or the B.
A 2H pencil, for example, is harder than an HB pencil - and a 4H is harder again. Harder sketching pencils are less suited to blending (and therefore smudging) and are commonly used to create technical drawings. On the other side of the scale, you can find sketching pencils all the way up to a soft 8B. Using a range of sketching pencils allows artists to create tonally rich illustrations by taking advantage of the different grey tones and easy blendability of the B range of pencils.
Get Creative With Art & Craft Supplies at Spotlight
No matter your favourite medium, technique or skill level, at Spotlight you can find all the art supplies you need to truly unleash your imagination and let your creativity soar. We have art pads & visual diaries to accompany your drawing materials, as well as paint & painting supplies, canvases & boards, modelling materials and so much more! You can shop online for all your art needs and enjoy the convenience of home delivery, or pay a visit to your nearest Spotlight store where our team can help you with all of your art purchases. If you're after more inspiration, there are also our Create blogs which include informative pieces such as how to master drawing with markers and your guide to soft pastels.
