A global Adobe study discovered that while only half of adults in the United States consider themselves to be creative, 70 percent of Americans believe creativity is necessary to the economy. Creativity has numerous proven benefits such as increased happiness, lower chances of dementia, improved intelligence and a stronger immune system. 

People who do not consider themselves creative probably feel discouraged by these benefits. It is easy to be jealous of individuals who seem to have an abundance of creativity when you feel like you lack any artistic talent. 

Often, we fall into a habit of equating talent with creativity. However, creativity has a much broader definition than just the ability to create something unique or interesting. The “Encyclopedia of Creativity” calls for an expanded definition, one that includes a process in addition to personality and product. 

We typically think of creativity as a personality trait that people are born with. We decide whether or not someone has this trait based on the products they create. Children who can paint beautiful and unique art, who appear to be gifted at piano or singing or who frequently tell imaginative stories are marked as creative. Those children who struggle more with the arts are told they are not as creative. They are encouraged to try other disciplines, like sports or math. 

When we think of creativity as a process, the end product no longer matters. An unattractive drawing does not mean the artist did not engage in a creative process. People get quickly wrapped up in whether their dancing or singing or writing is good or bad and ignore the fact that simply engaging in these activities is acting creatively. 

Of course, good dancers and singers need a level of precision, but the creative process requires no judgment. Even activities like sports or math involve the creative process. Both require many decisions and moments of improvisation. Where should I kick the ball next? What will happen if I move this number here? How am I going to successfully complete this problem or this play? Answering these questions is a creative act that provides all the benefits of creativity. 

There are many ways to try to become a more creative person – and one of the best is by exposure to creativity. Mask up and take a trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Read more poetry. Watch a musical. Follow Instagram accounts with striking or interesting pictures. Get on Pinterest, and try to copy outfits, making due with what you have available. 

Little changes in daily life can also help you implement creativity into your routine. Make a substitution in a recipe, or try a new flavor combination. Write a little every day.  Come up with a way to safely keep in touch with your friends during a global pandemic. Put on some music and dance around your room. Fix a problem or a sink. Rearrange your furniture, or move an item from one room to another. Go for a run, and try a new route. Choose a word a day and try to work it into conversation. 

Creativity does not have to be something that’s never been done before. It can be your own take on something that is done all the time. Imitation becomes an act of creativity when improvisation is necessary. Improvise on everything. There is creativity in every small decision, in every annoying change of plans. 

You don’t have to be good at every avenue of creativity, but it is important to enjoy the process. If something isn’t working for you, try something else. Never limit yourself. If you tell yourself you are not creative, it will be much more difficult to enjoy the process. Creativity can be a private act – something you never share with anyone else. You do not need to love the product, but the more you complete the process, the more you will feel the benefits of creativity.

The sheer variety of art supplies that are available can be daunting to the artist who is strapped for cash. For me, entering an arts and crafts store means preparing to wistfully gaze at the aisles and aisles of things I know logically I would rarely – if ever – get any use out of, but gosh if I don’t want them anyway.

Ideally, finding your favorite art supplies would mean getting to try as many as you wanted until you hit upon that perfect tool – but this isn’t quite feasible for those of us with empty pockets.

If this is the case for you, you probably already know you’re in for some hands-off research. Here’s a short overview of a few different traditional art essentials to help you get started!

Erasers

If your traditional process involves any kind of erasable media, you’ll want to keep an eraser handy. There are actually a few varieties of eraser to choose from, but the one I have found best suited to my artistic workflow is the kneaded eraser.

Unlike plastic, gum or rubber erasers, kneaded erasers don’t leave behind a multitude of eraser shavings that you have to stop and brush off your piece. You can also mold them easily to ensure you only erase very small areas if you need, or ply them into a longer roll to lift wide areas at a time.

Because they don’t leave shavings behind, kneaded erasers don’t shrink significantly over time as other erasers do, though they do require cleaning if you use them heavily. To clean a kneaded eraser, all you need is hot water – though it might take a while to get in this weather!

Pencils

The staple of traditional media, almost everyone starts drawing with just a regular pencil and paper. You can draw with any kind of pencil, but some are more suited for different drawings than others. For example, if you’re looking for something to draw your undersketch with and then erase you won’t want the same kind of pencil you’d use to create a piece solely in graphite.

For a strictly graphite piece, it might be tempting to indulge in a set of 6B-6H pencils for the full range of values – with 6B lead being the softest and darkest and 6H the hardest and lightest. However, if you’re strapped for cash or don’t do the majority of your work in graphite, you can get a solid value range with the standard HB.

If your use of pencils is largely limited to sketching with the intent to finish in another medium, you’ll want something that is easier to erase and less intrusive than graphite would be.

For this, Prismacolor’s line of Col-Erase pencils is better suited – or, if you prefer mechanical pencils, you can find colored lead to draw with. I have the Faber-Castell TK-Color lead in 0.5 blue, but I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly – while it erases well, it tends to snap very easily with pressure.

The nice thing about Col-Erase pencils is that in addition to being able to draw and erase in your favorite color, they also work well with other media. You can lay out your sketch in Col-Erase, go over your lines with ink, and then erase the pencil underneath, or you can paint in watercolor right over the top.

In the latter case, you’ll want to use a pencil that matches the temperature of your paint: a red pencil for a warmer-toned piece, for example, or a blue pencil for a cooler-toned piece. This can really help emphasize your tones!

Pens

If you, like me, have a fear of commitment to ink and ink-related media, pens are a great place to start overcoming that fear. Whether you want to line your pencil drawings or start directly in pen, it’s not only possible to do but will help build your line quality.

For sketching in pen, it’s ideal to use a pen that has a lower ink flow, such as a regular ballpoint pen. This makes it easier to get a wider variety of values, from light to dark. For inking a drawing, liners are more preferable.

There are several kinds of liners available, and most work well, making this more a matter of preference. I started with regular black Pilot G2 pens in ultra fine, which do smudge if taking an eraser to the undersketch too soon, before moving to Sakura Micron Pigma pens in a few different sizes, including their brush-tip pen.

If you’ve never used a brush pen before, they’re excellent for creating expressive lines, allowing you to get a more diverse range of line widths with a single stroke. This can be especially beneficial for pieces you want to be particularly dynamic. Faber-Castell’s Pitt Artist Pen line is another popular option for ink liners – though they tend to run slightly more expensive than Pigma pens.

Markers

My personal favorite way to color, alcohol-based markers are a great way to add vibrant color to your art and simultaneously fulfill your childhood dream of coloring in markers with shades not limited by the Crayola eight-pack.

This is easily the art supply I spend the most on – what you pay for is almost always what you get when it comes to art markers. Markers that have a brush tip will blend the most smoothly and give you more control over how detailed you can get with your coloring, while chisel or bullet tips will be more difficult to blend and work into smaller spaces.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you’ll like working with markers, I would suggest starting with a cheaper brand such as Prismacolor or Windsor-Newton. Both these brands offer a fantastic selection of colors, offer dual-tipped markers with brush tips and bullet or chisel tips on the other ends, and don’t typically leave the noticeably streaky stroke marks you’ll get from lower-quality markers.

Neither of these, however, can be refilled, meaning that once you’ve used up the marker, it’s done. Copic markers – the industry standard for illustration markers (and priced accordingly) – do have ink refills available, as well as tip replacements if you need them.

These markers are the industry standard for a reason: not only can they be refilled, meaning that if you use them a great deal they become much more cost-effective, but they also blend smoothly, don’t tend to streak and come in a range of colors, from soft pastels to deep earth tones. For these reasons, Copic markers are a great investment if you know you’ll get a lot of use out of them.

While this is by no means a comprehensive guide to traditional media, hopefully you now are armed with a little more knowledge and a little more confidence for the next time you end up in an art supply store. Happy arting!