Tools of The Trade: Art Supplies

When I was around 7 or 8, my mom gave me a box full of dot matrix printer paper to draw on. That Paper is flimsy and doesn’t hold ink or marker too well, but for years, it was what I drew on, with No. 2 pencils, ballpoint Bic pens, and the original 10-color set of Crayola markers.

There is this idea that you need to spend a lot of money to make great art or to be an artist - and it is blatantly false.

It is not the tools that make the art or composition, it is how you use them. I’ve used a variety of India ink or gel ink pens in my work over the years, and in a world of Faber-Castell, Tom Bow, and Micron pens - I choose the unassuming Sharpie S Gel pen.

My beloved pen - The Sharpie S Gel

I love these pens so much that I am going to get the outline of one tattooed on my drawing arm. Yes I’m serious. I first used a Sharpie S Gel in 2022 working in the Personnel office at a prison that my supervisor lent me and I fell in love with it immediately.

These pens have a rich matte black finish with and are strinkingly bold. They don’t skip or dry out quickly and are cheap as far as art supplies go.

Good Ole Copy Paper

As mentioned, I used to draw on old school printer paper, as I got older, I’d sneak large chunks of modern copy paper from the family computer room to draw on. Mom would get pissed off at me for it, but I kept doing it, because it was thicker than the dot matrix paper and didn’t have those annoying blue lines that wide-ruled paper has. Obviously, it’s not designed for art. And as I’ve invested more in my craft, I’ve shifted to Bristol paper for most of my work.

But occassionally I will sneak copy paper from the office to draw on. I highly recommend it. A box of 5000 sheet of copy paper averages about $40-60, or about $0.01 per sheet, where as Strathmore 100 page Sketchbooks go for $10 and average about $0.10 per sheet.

Throw Some Color in the Mix

Honestly? To hell with Copic markers and anything fancy. They don’t have good milage and are expensive. There are many cheap alcohol marker packs online (a lot of them are on Amazon, which I try to avoid.) that will last you a long time (I bought a 48 pack of markers on Amazon in 2021 and it’s 2025 and I just now need to replace most of them. I can’t provide a brand name it’s one of those weird-ass ‘Btchuluudosisoma’ brand names.)

Bottom line: Start off Cheap, Build Your Supplies as You Gain Experience

I strongly believe art should be accessible to everyone. Don’t be intimidated by all the fancy supplies. Most of your favorite artists have their cheap tried-and-true favorites, because it is you that makes the art, not the supplies. Of course, higher quality materials age better over time, and don’t fade as quickly, but often times when I talk about art with people they use cost a reason why they don’t make anything.

“It’s such an expensive hobby.” Then don’t let it be one. Forgo Prismacolor and master shading and saturated color with Crayola until you are ready to switch. The brands you grew up with, that made up your school supply list, are the brands that will grow with you on your journey - so don’t listen to what everyone says about the right supplies.

There is no wrong way to make art.

Art should have a soundtrack

Music has always been what guides my pen.

I have been drawing since someone first handed me a crayon. When I was about 10 I became obsessed with bands like Nickleback (don’t judge - I still love some of their older grunge-inspired stuff) and Green Day. My mom was really into rock music. Our formal dining room in the house was where she had her drum set, and her large stereo system with 4ft tall speakers that made our double-paned windows rattle in their frame. Mom didn’t like me listening to pop or whatever was on the radio, so she made me and my brother lots of mixed CDs with acts like AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Aerosmith, Boston, Bon Jovi and the Eagles.

I would listen to the same CD over and over again, and get fixated on a song and then listen to that same track for the entirety that I worked on a drawing. I had those shitty knock-off Walkman headphones that came with whatever Wal-Mart portable CD player I had at the time, and I’d fall into a trance while drawing and coloring and would hit the back button whenever the disc tried to go on to the next song.

As a child, my explanation for this was I wanted to stay in the mood that that song put me in. The thought is that the tone of the art would shift too much if I changed songs or music genres. This lead to me listening to entire albums start to finish, and building an intimate relationship with the music I liked.

Albums like The Black Parade, Sing the Sorrow, The Long Road and All the Right Reasons were memorized.

I still hold the belief that whatever drawing or painting you are working on should have a companion song, or album, that compliments it visually or energetically - slow and sad songs go with dark colors and smooth lines, and powerful rock anthems go with high-contrast and striking compositions.

Often times when I am in a creative rut, I will let myself go into a musical trance, visualizing cinematics and scenes and trying to bring some of it to life on paper or canvas.

In fact, Martyr the Bride falls into this practice. The storyboarding happens while i stay on the same song or album, and I’ll notate what it is somewhere on the page in small print.

So, if you want to draw or paint, even if you are a beginner or have no experience, don’t think! Just listen to something that resonates with you and let those vibes guide your pen or brush!

Why ‘Martyr’ the bride?

Wednesday, October 8 2025 4:44PM

My in-progress graphic novel (or comic series, I use both interchangeably, though ‘comic’ is not technically correct) Martyr the Bride got its start as a short story I penned in a legal pad in mid 2022, called The Creature and The Coward. I have not released TCATC since much of the core theme and plot make up the meat of Martyr, but I plan to publish it as part of a collection of short stories and essays at some point. One thing at a time!

The Creature and the Coward is a first-person narrative that follows a guilt-riddled young woman’s thoughts as she crashes her car and stumbles out to the edge of a cliff that overlooks sharp rocks and water. In the sky she sees the eye of two separate storms forming, each with a larger than life entity appearing in the middle - one a creature, and one a coward. She must choose which of these two possibilities to embrace, and instead of doing so, she leaps to her death, with the irony being that the cowardly way out actually transformed her into the creature. She became both. Through long-winded monologuing, the unnamed protagonist reveals that she is a young and lovelorn wife to a man that pays her little attention, and how desperation lead to her having a steamy affair with an irresistible lover. Her morals and religious upbringing cause extreme guilt and identity crisis, which is worsened by taken substances. The story is one of multiple lovers, remorse and finally redemption.

Martyr carries the spirit of this story. It follows Chase Grayson as she navigates a new job at mental health clinic, her marriage to a man who shows her little interest, her affair with a new coworker, and her increasingly disturbing hallucinations that disrupt her thoughts. Chase, whose real name is Chasity, has always dreamed of taking her poetry and song writing and being the vocalist of a rock band. Her pious family disliked her love of ‘secular’ music, and it isn’t until her life starts to fall apart that she meets the right people to form a band with - a band named Martyr the Bride.

I chose the title because, to be frank, it sounds cool as hell. It sounds like a rock or metal band I would listen to, fitting in with acts like ‘In This Moment’.

It’s more than just Chase’s band name though. The word martyr means a person who voluntarily suffers death, according to Merriam-Webster:

“1. : a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion. 2. : a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle. a martyr to the cause of freedom.”

Chase experiences a spiritual death, and the death of the life and love she once knew. The title also refers to my own personal belief that marriage under patriarchal standards subjugates women to the whims of their husbands, often to their detriment. It is a nod to the immense sacrifice women make to become dutiful wives - everything from forgoing career opportunities (which I’ve done in my marriage) to relocating far away from family, and to enduring the pain of childbirth and overall loss of independence.

I should be clear that this story is not ‘man-hating’, nor is it anti-marriage. It is however, a very raw and honest look at marriage through the eyes of many women across all time periods and cultures.

Martyr the Bride is a ‘coming of age’ story, but not for teenagers- like with most YA fiction.

This is the story of a late bloomer who was told she could never be anything great, and taking agency of her own destiny.