What else do you think I need to get started?

I just ordered the 3 books reccomended to me in my last post. Thanks for the help there.

-gene

I wish you well in your journey. I must say you've come to a great place for encouragement and advice.

If you are truly at the "beginning" stage. I recommend you get a small drawing kit from your local department store or art store. It will have an assortment of pencils and a small sharpener and erase (get a "kneading eraser"). Get a sketch book and start drawing, unless you are especially blessed with talent you will have hours, days , and months of practice drawings, some good many not so good. As you progress you will find things that work and things that don't, then you can purchase better quality materials, because quality makes a difference in your tools as well as your time spent.

Don't give up.

Read as much of this forum as you can get to. Practice copying some of the example shown here. Read and DO the exercises in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I am emphasiing "DO" the exercises.

Post you stuff regularly here, good or bad. and finally...

Don't give up. (your girlfriend will be glad you didn't)

Paper is a personal journey! If it is just for sketching and practicing you could use any acid free, artist paper. For professional drawings you will need to step up to the higher quality papers like Arches 140 Hot Press, or cold press, or heavy watercolor paper.

Good luck and be sure to post your work so we can be a part of your artistic development!

Everyone's advice here seems to encapsulate any I would offer - just trying every brand, mixing and matching until you get a combo of tools that you feel most comfortable working with or you feel brings out your talents.

It also depends on what you would like to do - sketching, drawing and detailwork, drawing in colour, plein aire sketches ... the long train of possibilities.

Another factor would be how you feel about your drawing skills. Practice ... if you're just starting out, it might be a good idea to do quick little studies with drawing pencils in black and white (b/w) first, as exercises to build observation skills, confidence and focus, before you begin worrying about issues with colour schemes, mixing and tones that another medium may bring.

If you're really, totally, lost ...

Most people find a set of drawing pencils with a range of brightness (or rather, darkness) and hardness useful. There are 12-pencil sets that range from 8B or 6B, to 2H - versatile for most drawing needs. Or you can go for those specialised sets with both b/w or coloured pencils for specific subjects, e.g. landscape.

Coloured pencils - (and no, I'm not "sponsoring" any brand or company) Prismacolour (referring to the regular, not scholar edition) is one of the brands that blend most easily, feels waxier.
Examples of other media alternatives for drawing ... charcoal, conte, chalk, soft pastels, etc.

Some more stores (there's plenty out there, virtual and "real" - just call them up from your search engine of preference) :

http://www.abovegroundartsupplies.com
http://www.cheapjoes.com
http://www.currys.com (Canada)
http://www.danielsmith.com
http://www.utrechtart.com

Just surf around and see what you can find. Same thing goes for things from supports (paper, canvas ...?) to acessories like fixatives (if you're using media that rubs off easily) ...

Hope that helped. Good luck, have fun, and keep at it!

Hedgeworth