There, I said it all in the title. You can go now.
For those who may require a bit more explanation, stick around. BTW, this post contains affiliate links. If you happen to purchase these items from Amazon, I’ll get a wee commission that will go toward maintaining this site.
If you haven’t seen it already on YouTube, there are a tonne of artists showcasing how fine art can be created with Crayola Crayons, Pentel Oil Pastels, and the myriad of cheapity cheap cheap colored pencils being sold on Amazon.
Their art looks great! Yes, one of the reasons is that they’re skilled in their medium but the other reason is that they’re making art with great surfaces. You can completely blow your wad on colored pencils, but if you’re using cheap, thin paper with minimal tooth – all the fancy pencils in the world won’t help that. YouTube also has a lot of videos of colored pencil artists struggling to make great art on so-so papers because their followers ask them to demo the surface.
If I had $50 to spend and no more, I’d get a pad of Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper or Strathmore Bristol Vellum, and either a package of Castle Arts Colored Pencils or Kalour Pencils. Hell, I might just go for nostalgia and get a box of Crayolas instead!
If I had closer to $100 to spend, I’d get a 36-piece Polychromos and both pads of paper. That makes me think of something else: if you do want to spend your money on a really nice set of professional pencils with a lightfastness guarantee, don’t go broke buying the biggest set. When I wanted to try Derwent Lightfast, I didn’t go broke buying the full set, which is currently $300 on Amazon – the price does fluctuate a lot, though. I got the 12-pencil set and used the absolute hell out of them and then asked Santa for a 36-pencil set. I used the 60-pencil set of Polychromos for seven years before investing in the 120-piece set. When I started using the Derwent Drawing Pencils, I used the 6-piece set and wore them down to stumps before getting the 24-piece set.
The point is, you don’t have to go broke getting started but if you’re going to get used to buying good quality art supplies, get used to buying good surfaces first. You can make great art on a great surface with cheap pencils but you can’t make great art on a crappy surface with expensive pencils. Over the last 20 years, with the popularity of YouTube and social media, buying art supplies and actually making art have become two separate niches. Many of us who were doing this before the internet was a thing did not have dragon-sized hoards of supplies. I am in the process of whittling down what I have as we speak, even though my collection is not nearly as grand as some of the folks I’ve seen online.
Don’t go broke making art!!!