15 Tools You NEED for Hyper Realistic Drawings

Hey, my name is Richard and I am a hyperrealism artist. So one of the number one questions that I get on social media whenever I post videos of me drawing is always, hey, what is this tool that you're using? What pencils are you using? What paper are you using? So in this video, I wanted to share all the drawing materials that I've been using for 2023. I remember one of the very first videos I've ever made on YouTube was back when I started in 2021, which was also a drawing materials video. Hey guys, my name is Richard Liu and for those of you that are new to my channel, I am an artist. Now, after two years, I think it's time to update and refresh my drawing materials list a little bit. New products have hit the scene, shaking up the drawing game. I've dug deep, talked to a few fellow artists and stumbled upon a few unconventional materials. So I think it's time to update you guys on what I'm using for my current drawings, as well as uncover some unique tools that you guys might not have thought about. So for the past few years, and especially for this current drawing, I've been working primarily with Faber-Castell pencils, combining both the PIPMAC graphite pencils, along with their old classic 9000 series. Because of my style of drawing hyper-realism, which I kind of describe it as a slow grind over multiple layers, I'm constantly swapping pencils. And personally, I prefer pencils on the harder side. So something like a 5H or HB pencil. When it comes to larger and darker areas of the drawing, I am a big fan of the PIPMAC graphite pencils, which was released around a year ago. They tackle the issue of pesky graphite sheen, which is a real problem for a pencil artist, especially when you're trying to document your artworks. The PIPMAC graphite pencils go up to 14B and there's something like a bridge between the traditional graphite pencils and a charcoal, so it gives you darker tones without secondly losing that pencil feeling. Apart from pencils, the most powerful tool in a hyper-realism artist's toolkit is probably the kneaded eraser. They are cheap, they are versatile, and they last forever. When you're working on a drawing, especially portraits, where you want a precise tool for creating fine highlights and erasing. Notably, when it comes to hair and pores, then the Tombow Mono Eraser is the tool you want. So another tool that I've been using a lot and a tool that you might not really know is the eraser pencil. The eraser pencil is exactly what it sounds like. It's essentially a rubber eraser inside a form of a pencil. I use it for some areas like some soft flowing hair or to have a bend and clean up some edges or do some really soft highlights, whereas the mono eraser is really rough and hard. For darker and larger areas and just when I want a clean background, I use the pink eraser. It's a simple yet effective tool. It doesn't really leave any unnecessary marks and it always gets the job done, unless sometimes when you're pressing too hard with the pencil and it leaves a mark and graphite inside the paper, so it's really hard to get out. The mechanical eraser is something that a lot of people have picked up on recently and something that I was a little bit hesitant on using in the beginning. I was afraid that it would damage my paper because of how rough it was and I see drawing as this delicate process, but after I started using heavier paper, which I will talk a little bit about later, I used it mostly for fine highlights and as I said earlier, it's really difficult to get some marks of the pencil out if you press too hard with the pencil and this mechanical eraser kind of solves that problem by kind of taking an extra step of not having to hand erase using a big eraser. It's not just about putting marks down and erasing them. A big part of the drawing process is blending. When it comes to hyperrealism, the difference between blending can be the difference between making something flat and 3D. My most used tools for this category are paper blenders, a brush, and guess what? The second secret, a makeup blender. I hesitate a little bit to recommend beginner's blenders because you can get overly reliant on the blender and not focus too much on improving your mark and making foundations. Usually what I would do is I would put down a dark area of graphite and then use the paper blender to smooth out the edges and start going over again with an eraser. You have to find a good balance in your drawing materials. Now, the beauty or makeup blender is something I did not expect to work so well. It spreads the graphite evenly without making any unnecessary marks that would interfere with your drawing. I usually would pick up a little bit of graphite powder with the beauty blender and test it out on another separate piece of paper first before laying it on my drawing. This is one of my most frequently asked questions. What kind of paper do I use? And for this project, I'm using the Arches Watercolor 300 grams hot pressed from a roll. The same paper that many other hyperrealism artists like Joe Nodry uses. This paper absorbs graphite extremely well and I'm able to get a lot of darker tones than my previous papers. It is, however, on the pricier range so it's not something that I would recommend for you to practice on. It's something that I would recommend you do some major works on. To avoid smudging, I usually put a small tracing paper underneath my hand whenever I work. This is important especially when you're doing darker parts where it's really easy to ruin a piece of drawing or some very small details that you've completed. You don't want to be spreading the graphite around because it will dull highlights, it will mess up your dark parts, and just overall create a whole mess. To sharpen my pencils, I usually use a knife. There are some differing opinions out there about the preferred length of the pencil and ever since I started training art, I've always been taught to keep it long and sharp so a knife is perfect for me to do that. Some people prefer a really short pencil, some people prefer a really long one, so it's all definitely just personal preference. Something that artists sometimes can overlook is taking care of their works when they're not working on it. Even after just one day of leaving your artwork out overnight or a few hours, dust in the room will settle and it will dull the highlights and lower the intensity of your drawing. And sometimes dust can be hard to get off especially if you don't want to smudge your artworks or take graphite off where you don't want it to be. For that, I got a huge sheet cover. You can use something simple like a piece of paper or a sheet of plastic cover. The last tool I use is fixatives. Beware of which brand of fixative you're using because after spending a really long time on it, fixative is usually the last step to completing a fully drawing and some lower quality fixatives might even damage your artworks and make them yellow. So there you go, that's all the tools that I've been using for 2023. I hope you found this video interesting and I hope it helped you out a little bit and helped you discover some tools that you might not have known about. If I forgot to mention something or if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments and I'll get back to you. I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye!