July 28, 2020

How much should I spend on a pencil, paper, and eraser?

Whenever anyone begins an art journey, the overwhelming advice from an expert in a medium is to “buy the best art supplies you can afford”. I’ve never found that very helpful. A pencil, paper, and eraser can cost anything from a few dollars to $50. Should a beginner spend $50 to try drawing? The answer is almost always no.

Creativity thrives under constrained conditions, constraints like time, space, skills or, yes, money. For anybody wanting to try art, there is no right or wrong when it comes to money. I know artists who produce amazingly moving work from materials they found at the dump ($0). I know other artists who have spent thousands of dollars to make a single sculpture that fits in the palm of my hand. And yes, while there are slight variations in the costs associated with starting in a particular medium over another (e.g. sculpting in pure bronze will set you back a bit more than drawing an apple with a pencil), the amount of money you spend is far less important than how you feel while you’re making it, and when you’ve finished.

Art, after all, isn’t really about the product, or the materials, it’s about the space you create for yourself to be brave enough to try to work out what you think about the world, and how you think about it. Taking the first step in that journey, with any medium, is the best place to start. Only when you begin will you learn, for yourself, what’s next, and how much you want to spend to get there.

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