Yeh, it''s not like you "can''t do art" w/o a certain kind of pencil. Heck, you could piss on a piece of paper and call it art if you want to.

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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams."
- Willy Wonka

I''ve sketched for years and I love mechanical pencils. But to get to the point... use what you feel comfortable with.

Thank you for all of the wonderful advice this will help me immensely. I can see myself improving already.

I do agree that art does not require a certain medium. That being said, using "art" pencils does give you more choice (because of all the different kinds) and that could be the reason that it is considered better for artwork.

"When i was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of
the corner of my mind. I turned to look, but it was
gone, I cannot put my finger on it now. The child has
grown, the dream has gone." -Pink Floyd

The way I see it is that for a begginer artist, mechanical pencils are much less forgiving, go for a softer pencil like a 2B.

practice practice practice.. that''s the #1 thing here..
the more you do it.. the better you''ll get..
reading some tutorial off an internet site won''t really help you..

just look at something.. ANYTHING.. and try to draw it..
prolly one of the most important aspects of art is proportions - or the sizes of things reletive to everything else. something that has bad proportions will normally look funky.. and ametuerish (sp?) anyway.. the best artists out there have VERY good proportion skills.. i''d say learn those first.. MASTER them..

the best way to learn proportion is just pick anything within eye shot.. start with something simple.. like a pop can or your monitor or something geometrical.. see if you can reproduce the lines.. can you get the angles right etc.. it takes a lot of practice to take a pencil and paper and draw something with good proportions..

the next item i suppose would be shading.. that''s a whole other artform unto itself. but once again.. your simple shapes are the easiest to practice on..

and as for supplies? i''d say don''t get too fancy.. i used a dixon-ticonderoga 2B pencil for most of my childhood and i think you can pick em'' up a walmart for a dollar a pound these days. ANY paper will do.. in fact.. the wider range of types of paper you practice on the better.. because you will learn to utilize the texture of the paper itself as part of your drawing...

good luck!

Michael S. Crowley
digital euphoria

No More Clones!
Stop The Madness!