One of the questions I get most often is what supplies I use in my drawing videos. The good news? You really don’t need much to start doodling. A pen, some paper, and a regular pencil are enough. Here are the materials I actually reach for, what I recommend to beginners, and a few tricks I’ve learned along the way.
1. Pens: Start With a Few Different Sizes
I love Sakura Pigma Micron pens. In videos, I often use size 10 because the bold lines are easier to see on camera. For my own drawing, my essential sizes are 01, 05, and 08. The smaller tips work well for tiny details; larger tips create stronger, bolder lines.
If you’re buying just one pen, I’d start with Micron 05. It’s also my favorite size for the tracing exercises in our workbooks and free printable worksheets. If your budget allows, try a small set with different tip sizes. Draw the same pattern with each one and see which feels right to you.
I also love Winsor & Newton fineliners, another brand you’ll often spot in my videos. You don’t need both brands to begin. Choose a pen that feels comfortable and start practicing.
One fun experiment: with a Micron 10, try varying your touch and the angle of the pen to make a line feel more organic. Begin gently, and don’t force or bend the nib. These are firm fineliners, not flexible brush pens.
2. Paper: What I Recommend vs. What You See in My Videos
For everyday doodling, I recommend smooth hot-pressed watercolor paper. Its smoother surface is especially nice for clean fineliner lines and small details. But please don’t feel you need fancy paper to begin. A regular notebook or sketchbook is absolutely fine. There are lots of different hot-pressed watercolor papers available on Amazon, so you really don’t need to buy a specific brand. I usually recommend 300 GSM paper, and you can simply choose an option that fits your budget. The sheet size isn’t very important either, since you can cut larger sheets down to whatever size works best for your drawings.
If you prefer to keep everything together instead of working on loose sheets, you can also buy a small hot-pressed watercolor sketchbook or pad. For example, this one works well and keeps all your doodles in one place.
The beautiful paper with torn-looking edges in my videos is different. It’s LEATHER VILLAGE watercolor paper, 4 × 6 inches, 150 GSM, with deckled edges. I love its soft, handmade look. But it has a drawback: the surface is delicate and doesn’t tolerate much erasing. Keep your pencil guidelines extremely light if you use it.
You can find similar deckled-edge paper on Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress, although quality varies. Another option is to buy larger sheets of hot-pressed watercolor paper and use a deckle-edge tearing ruler to make your own irregular edges. Practice on a spare sheet first, particularly with heavier paper.
3. Pencils: My Unexpected Shading Trick
For light sketching, an ordinary HB pencil is enough. Keep your guidelines barely visible, especially if you’ll ink over them later.
Here’s my little trick: I like working with a very short pencil, about one-third the length of a regular one. I usually buy regular full-size HB pencils and shorten them at home into three small pencils. A short pencil sits comfortably in my palm and makes it much easier to shade with the side of the graphite.
For broad, soft shading, hold the pencil at a low angle, roughly 15–30 degrees to the paper. This lets more of the graphite touch the surface and creates a softer, more gradual shadow. Holding the pencil upright works better for small details, but won’t produce the same gentle shaded effect.
4. Eraser: Try a Kneaded Eraser
My recommendation is a kneaded eraser, the soft, stretchy, putty-like kind. You can shape it into a point for small areas or gently press and lift it to lighten graphite without lots of rubbing. It’s especially handy on delicate paper, though no eraser can completely undo a deeply pressed pencil line. Light sketches are your best friend.
5. The “White Pencil” Is Actually a Tortillion
That white pencil-shaped tool you see in my videos isn’t a pencil at all. It’s a tortillion, a tightly rolled paper blending tool that softens and spreads graphite.
Here’s what works best for me: for smooth, even shading, use a tortillon in small circular motions with light pressure, holding it at roughly a 30-degree angle.
One thing to keep in mind: once you’ve used a tortillon a few times, there will already be some graphite on it. This means you don’t always need to apply pencil to the paper first. For very soft, subtle shading, try using the tortillon directly on clean paper. The graphite left on the tip will transfer to the surface as you blend, so the tortillon essentially adds and blends the graphite at the same time. Start with very light pressure, since you may be surprised by how much graphite is already there.
6. A Few Optional Extras
For white highlights and certain shading effects, I sometimes use white charcoal pencils, including Brusarth. And for drawing on fabric, I’ve used the inexpensive Amazon Basics Vibrant Fabric Markers, 8-Pack. Neither is necessary for your first doodle.
7. The Best Way to Practice and Train Your Hand
If you want more structure in your practice, there are a few different ways to train your hand, depending on what you want to improve.
Start with tracing if you’re building hand control. Tracing repeated curves, lines, and shapes helps your hand become more comfortable with the movements you’ll use again and again in doodle art. Our Doodle Art Practice Workbook, Part 1 is designed for this kind of practice, followed by Part 2 when you’re ready for more variety.
Move to step-by-step drawing when you want to understand how patterns are built. Instead of simply copying a finished pattern, you learn the sequence behind it, practice it, and eventually try drawing it from memory. Our Step-by-Step Series combines guided lessons, warm-ups, tracing, and draw-from-memory exercises for exactly this purpose.
Use the Doodle Art Handbook when you want to understand the “why” behind the practice. It goes beyond individual exercises and covers materials, techniques, pattern construction, shading, and how to combine simple elements into finished designs.
You don’t need to work through all of these at once. Choose the type of practice that matches the skill you want to improve, and even 5–10 minutes of focused practice can be more useful than sitting down for a long drawing session once in a while.
My advice? If your hand needs practice, start with tracing. If you want to learn how to construct patterns, choose step-by-step lessons. If you want to understand the process more deeply, explore the Handbook.
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