Supplies Round-Up

Written By Katie Kordesh

Hi! I'm Katie, and I'm a picture book author/illustrator working with ink and watercolors. These are my supplies. Ranked, sorted, and hyperlinked for your convenience.

ESSENTIALS:

Arches Coldpress 140 Lb Paper

Buy it in sheets or buy it in blocks. Either way, this stuff is great. It's textured enough to work beautifully with watercolor yet smooth enough to draw with dip pens.

FW Acrylic Ink

The ONLY ink I use. This dark black ink is exceptionally waterproof; it doesn't fade or bleed no matter how much water is added. The only negative is that, because it's acrylic, the ink clogs my nib pens after a few illustrations. For this reason, I only buy affordable nibs that I don't mind tossing.

Dip Pen holder + Nibs

I have experimented with other nibs but always come back to these.

Schmincke Watercolors

Before investing in a Schmincke Palette, I had used student-grade watercolors. These were a total splurge and made all the difference. I always found watercolors pleasant, but these are magic and the sole reason I switched from digital to traditional illustration techniques. Just so that I could spend more time using them. One caveat: I feel these paints shine best on a heavy-weight cold press paper.

Epson V600 Scanner

I've had no problems with this scanner from Epson. In fact, I love it!

NICE TO HAVES:

Lightpad

This light pad will change your life. It is cheap ($25!) and powerful and will make your workflow so much faster. I haven't listed this as essential because you can get by without one.

Brother Printer

I use this B+W printer to print sketches and random documents, nothing too fancy. It has good reviews and hasn't failed me yet.

Spray Bottle

A quick and pleasant way to re-wet your palette.

Sketchbook

I am very excited about this sketchbook. It is an excellent place for small studies and handles light watercolor washes and heavy gouache very well.

T-Square

Any T-square will do. This is helpful for measuring a straight line to tear your paper along. I like 36” so that it goes all the way across a 22”x30” sheet of paper in one fell swoop.

Tear Bar

A tear bar is a print maker’s tool for creating rough edges. It’s different from a normal ruler in the way that it is MUCH heavier and has a sharp edge on one side.

Paintbrushes

You do not need nice brushes but they make for a very lovely experience. These are soft and hold lots of water.

Katie Kordesh
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