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The Art Student's Basic Kit
A list of supplies put together by Art Department faculty that every Art student, whether just starting or graduating, should have.
Parents: These make great gift ideas for the holidays!
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Portfolio Case
- Digital Camera
- Sketch Book
- Safety glasses and goggles
- Dust mask
- Earplugs
- Utility knife and lots of blades
- Xacto knife and lots of blades
- Rulers/yardstick/18” metal ruler
- Flat nose pliers
- Round nose pliers
- Compressed charcoal—4-6 sticks, 4B or 6B
- Charcoal pencil, 6B
- Vine charcoal
- White contè or pastel
- India ink
- Kneaded eraser
- White plastic eraser
- Tool Kit/Tackle box or container to keep supplies
- Drawing board
- Drawing pencils 4B (dark), 2B, HB, 2H (light)
- Pencil sharpener (metal works best)
- Black marker – fine line
- Gift Cards to your favorite Art supply store!
Good Reads for Art Students
- Philip B. Meggs and Alson W. Puruis: Meggs’ History of Graphic Design
- Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art
- Kendall Buster and Paula Crawford, The Critique Handbook: A Sourcebook and Survival Guide
- David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear
- Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary and Interpreting Art: Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding
- Robert Atkins, Art Speak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords
- Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bone: Freeing the Writer Within
- John Berger, About Looking and Ways of Seeing
- Susan Blackmore, Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
- Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
- David Rosenberg, The Art Game Book
- Dana Arnold, Art History: A Very Short Introduction
- Ben Shahn, The Shape of Content
- Stephen Luecking, Principles of Three-Dimensional Design: Objects, Space and Meaning
- Paul Zelanski and Mary Pat Fisher, Shaping Space
- Emma Dexter, Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing
- Barry Schwabsky, Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting
- Paul Zelanski and Mary Pat Fisher, Color
- Wucius Wong, Principles of Form and Design
- Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New
- Cynthia Freeland, But is it Art?
- David Joselit, American Art Since 1945
- Linda Weintraub, Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art’s Meaning in Contemporary Art Society 1970-1990s
- Caroll Michels, How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist
- Blythe Camenson, Great Jobs for Art Majors
