5 Artist Studio Must Haves
When it comes to the right studio space for any artist, some of us can be limited or find it hard to know what we need before we can sit down and draw. I have taken around 3 years to learn and build up the must have items I use every day for my commission work. In this blog I have laid out the 5 Artist Studio Must Haves I cannot live without including scanners and drawing board. There is a direct amazon link for a UK or US customer for each item I talk about. I hope this is useful to you. Let me know in the comments below.
Wooden Artist Drawers
I search a while for these pencil drawers, and they were so hard to find. Then I finally found them on the Jackson’s Art supply website. I love this website by the way! They are the perfect size for pencils and stackable, so as your collections of pencils grow you can buy more draws to fit them all. These draws fit my 76 Caran D’Ache Luminance pencils box, 2x 24 set of Derwent Drawing Pencils and my set of 120 Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils. So they four drawers is plenty!
They also come with handy dividers inside so you can separate your colours and have everything organised and easy to use. I highly recommend getting them as a must-have studio tool.
You can also find them on Amazon here:
A0 Drawing Table
My A0 Drawing Board is definitely one of my favourite items I have bought for my studio. It’s worth spending more money on a quality drawing table so it can last your entire artistic career. As a professional, I use it all day every day and I am constantly tipping it backward and forward for drawing and photography of my work. It is really easy to use, and you can even adjust the height, so if you are a shorty like me you can have it lower than a normal table, or a lot higher than one. This A0 size gives me plenty of elbow room and the foot supports on the bottom are a great height for keeping your legs at a relaxed angel. I recommend buying this A0 Drawing Board if you have the room.
Storage Trolley
This the most beautiful storage cart I came across on amazon. It has a removable white tray on the top which is super useful and stops your materials from falling on the floor. It is also wide enough to fit the pencil storage draws so you can easily wheel your materials around the room with you. It is made of bamboo and is one of my favorite studio items. This particular style can only be found on amazon.co.uk.
Daylight Lamp
The right lamp is so important for drawing so you can trust you are seeing the right colours all the time and you are not dependent on a good sunny day. When I lived in a cottage in the middle of Wales, I don’t have the best lighting in my studio so I was so happy I bought this lamp. The Phive daylight lamp lights my work with a bright even light and you can hold down the power button as a dimmer switch. It secures well to my drawing board or a desk and has a long cable which is useful for plugging it in, far from a socket. I would recommend getting this lamp to work on your latest creation, all hours in the day and night.
Pencil/paintbrush holder
This item is new to my studio since moving to France and was a wonderful find. It is originally a paintbrush holder for your wet paint brushes but I have found that it is a useful way to stop the pencils I am currently using from rolling off the table and onto the floor. I bought this particular one in my local art shop here in Nice but there are similar ones on amazon.
Technology Must Haves
Technology wise I cannot complete a portrait without my Lenovo Tab E7 Tablet and my Canon LIDE 220 Scanner. I upload the reference picture to my tablet so I can zoom in on details and have a clear picture to work from. There are many tablets out there by this was the most affordable for me and does its one job perfectly.
I trace the outline of my portraits using a Super Thin A3 Light Box which is USB powered. You can get these in various sizes but I fid the A3 size the best as it is not too large or expensive. A4 was too small.
After I have completed a portrait, I use my Canon LIDE 220 Scanner to scan in my work at 600ppi. This means I have a high-quality image to use for prints and on my website whilst the customer keeps the original. This is an A4 size and larger sizes are available at a higher cost. But usually, I scan the image in parts if it is larger than A4 and then use the automation setting in photoshop to match them together which takes seconds!!
Thank you for reading my blog about my 5 Artist Studio Must-Haves. I hope it was helpful and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or comment below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.