Art Materials: Favourites of 2023

My 'most reached for' overview

In the spirit of ‘Reflection’, I wanted to stop and take a moment to look at which materials I used the most this year. Let’s dive straight in!

The favourites of 2023 are…(in no particular order)

1. Caran Dache Gouache Studio
   Great for:
   • Getting back to basics with colour mixing.
   • On-the-go palette for sketchbooking when travelling (bulky, but robust)
   • Gives great ‘back to school’ vibes

2. Japanese Gansai Spring Palette
   This was a birthday gift! I love it!
   Great for:
   • Taking away decision fatigue when you want to play with beautiful colours. A curated palette offers combinations that you may not think to create yourself. It is also a lovely way to try a new brand of paint.
   • The neon orange colour in the palette is DIVINE. If you buy only ONE colour, get this, it is called: 73 Rumi Opera
   • Create a series of illustrations using only this palette, and the images will sit together beautifully.

3. Caran D’ache Beya Rebai curated palettes: warm set

4. Caran D’ache Beya Rebai curated palettes: cool set
   Great for:
   • A curated limited set of colours, focussed on cool and warm is perfect for timed drawing sessions. I used these both extensively for life drawing - and they served me so well. If you already own a lot of Neocolour 2’s, you may already have the selected colours, so do check out the colour selection. However, I didn’t own many, so this was a GREAT gift, and the fact they come in small tins is even better. Perfect to take on the go.

5. Sketch inks
   Inks played a big role in my sketchbooks this year. I love being able to work fast and loose with bold colour, bold brush work, or with my bamboo dip pen, and inks are perfect for covering a lot of area fast. I’m always experimenting with brands, and I tried this range after a recommendation from Frances Ives, and I am hooked. If you buy one, buy the green which is called ‘Emma’. It is glorious. I’m still quite new to this range, but I will be buying more!

6. Rohrers Antiktusche in Blauviolett
   THIS is THE ONE. I’m onto my second bottle! I bought my first bottle back in 2020 - it contains very generous amount of ink. (100ml) The blue is just beautiful, so rich and deep but not so dark that it no longer reads as blue. I often get asked which ink I am using when I share my drawings in a live session, and it is usually this one!

7. Ajisai iroshizuku ink
   I bought this from Choosing Keeping on a recent trip to London. Honestly, I just wanted to buy something - and it was exciting to be in a store, with lots of brands that were new to me, or hard to find in Germany, and to be able to see actual swatches and talk to knowledgable sales assistants. The blue is lighter than my Blauviolett, and feels a bit extra ‘spesh’. Total treat, and there to feed my obsession with blue ink. (Also archival quality).

8. Parker Quink
   Great for:
   Being cheap as chips, has a gorgeous tonal shift and colour separation when it is diluted, or worked with diluted bleach on top. Fab for experimentation, and for when you don’t want to be precious. Warning: not at all lightfast in any way, so expect your drawing to disappear if exposed to light for too long. Fun for sketchbooks and for work that is going to be digitised. Shivam is a master of using this ink - check out his beautiful work.

9. Dodgy old cheap brush.
   I don’t even remember when and from where I bought this! It’s been knocking about forever, but seems to create the perfect magic line, and has been the one brush I have used for all my bold ink drawings.

10. Bamboo drawing stick
    Great for:
    A bold thick line as well as a beautiful delicate line - a bamboo dip pen has an amazing balance of unpredictability but also potential for great control. I’m SO precious about this particular pen! I have owned it for over 10 years, and it has my imprint on it, with layers and layers of ink seeped deep into it, creating the perfect nib. A bit like the perfect wok, or cast iron pan that has been passed down the generations, this bamboo pen is one of my little treasures.

11. Ink in brush pens
    Great for:
    Expressive loose marks and lines. Working fast and colour layering. Perfect for travel. I used these so much when we were on holiday in Italy this year. I can move around the page so quickly with these, I tend not to procrastinate and I always really enjoy the range of lines and textures they produce. These three are Boesner own brand, but Pentel, Sennelier and others do their own versions, which I am yet to try.

12. Water brush No explanation needed here! Just a good basic to have!

13. Uniball eye black pen
    THIS is my writing pen of choice. It glides over paper, and is pretty much the only pen I use to journal with. It is also beautiful to draw with. If I was forced to carry only ONE pen, this would be it. Shame it is not refillable.

14. Sailor Fude pen
    I love the variation of line this gives. I like using it for small sketches and drawings. If you tend to opt for small sketchbooks, this might be a nice pen to try.

15. Pentel Brush Pen
    This is an iconic brush pen and for good reason. The ink is a beautiful rich black, the mark making potential is varied and expressive, and when the ink starts to run out, the textures it creates are gorgeous! Best tip I got was from Marie-Noelle Wurm’s Skillshare class: Buy 2! Let one almost run out, so that you have a dry-ish brush, and then use the second as the ‘fresh’ one. Only when the fresh one runs dry, refill the previous one. That way you always have access to both textures! The pens are refillable with cartridges.

16. Palomino Blackwing
    I know I know, every Designer and Illustrator bangs on about these. And YES, they are worth the hype! Even ONE as a stocking filler would be fab.

17. Choosing Keeping Rainbow pencil
    THE BEST rainbow pencil I have tried. Smoother and creamier than a Koh-I-Noor, and a really nice spectrum of colour shift. Glides across the page! Loved it so much I bought 10 when I was last in London.

18. Derwent Lightfast Mars Black
    Thank you to Sarah Dyer for the recommendation, this pencil has changed my life.
    A beautiful, warm toned brownish dark, which also feels beautiful to draw with.

19. Holbein Luminous Red
    Again, a classic Sarah Dyer reco - this is now a much loved pencil in my kit. Used with a rainbow pencil and some muted tones, it is heavenly.

20. Caran D’ache Luminance: Paynes Grey
    For some reason, whenever I draw cats with this pencil, they just work out great. Meoow.

21. Caran D’ache Luminance: Dark Indigo
    Another great option for single colour drawings. Dark indigo is always a joy.
    In truth, colour pencils in general have featured heavily in my sketchbooks, so highlighting specific colours is a bit misleading. So much of the drawings which I have ‘squeezed in’ in my day or evening are thanks to colour pencils, and I really feel I have built a deeper connection with this material this year.

22. Stabilo Woody Ultramarine
    Bought it for my son. That’s what I tell people anyway. Just a perfect blue, in a perfect chunky smooth pencil.

23. Cretacolour Megacolour – Ultramarine
    Another great blue (see the pattern here?!) Also in a chunky pencil.

24. Cretacolour Megacolour – Permanent Red Light
    This orangey red just seems to work for everything!

25. Trodat date stamp
    I’ve enjoyed using this to stamp my sketchbook pages, especially when I was ‘journal sketching’. I do love a stamp to bring out the librarian vibes in me.

26. Brass pencil sharpener
    A perfect little tool. Works for every brand of pencil I own, is beautiful to hold and is weighty. I have bought many sharpeners, but this has never let me down.

27. Stabilo Woody sharpener
    Simply unavoidable purchase if you own any Woodys. Comes with the multipacks.

Over to you!

This list could potentially be interpreted as a ‘xmas wish list’, but I wanted to have an overview of loved items, rather than lusted after items. It is also a reminder for me to ‘shop my stash’ and avoid buying new materials till I have fully played with all my existing stuff. It really is much the same as organising a toddlers play area - remember to rotate! The toys in the back are always forgotten, so it is good to keep things fresh by reminding yourself of what you already have.

Overall, I feel really happy looking at these items. They are loved, often used, and have created some great memories for me. I have filled page after page and learned so much by exploring their unique qualities.

Art materials are for using, exploring and enjoying! Please don’t ‘save them’!
They want to come out and play!

What have been your faves of the year?

Let me know your top 3 in the comments!
If you’re new to making work for yourself, which 3 materials would you most like to try?

See you in the comments!