List of Art Tools and Supplies I Use Frequently

I've been asked a few times what I use to work with, so I decided I'd list all my supplies here and a little more info about me. The only art training I've had is self taught and a few things from my mother, and various art teachers from junior high and high school. Remember, there's sometimes more than one way to do things, so don't be closed minded! The only way to find out.. get your hands dirty and DO IT... I've been in comics, alone for about 6 years working on inking/storytelling/layouts etc and airbrush for almost one year (I don't really mess with it anymore right now)... and was being taught basics from my mom since I could hold a pencil. Now, onto the supplies. Remember, these are what I use... they may not be what you want to use - this is only because I've had requests for information on my art from others.

Paper:

Strathmore Smooth Bristol 100 lb: I work from 11X14 sheets mostly. You can buy them in an easy to tear out pack at just about any arts and crafts shop. For smaller pieces simply trim and use the discarded part for another time. I've been known to work on cardstock, laser printer paper, and anything I can find, but I love the crisp lines ink can create on a smooth thick bristol. For textured looks, simply use a textured paper, you can also dry-brush on textured or smooth paper for neat effects. Also the same thing I use for my airbrush paintings.
Strathmore Watercolor 140 lb: These are 11X15 sheets. This is what I use for gouache paintings, now. Airbrush (gouache as the paint) seems to hold up ok on it but I don't know if I'd use it for a lot more than just adding to an already existing painting for effects. I'd probably mix media, gouache is really too heavy for my airbrush. I just like the smooth bristol for airbrush (habit I guess). The thing I love about this paper with the gouache is its tooth - it's textured.

Pencils:

Eberhard-Faber col-erase Copy-Not Non-photo Blue: the main "pencil" I use whenever I draw something to be inked or even the roughs on some of my pencilled pieces. When scanned or copied, the blueline does not show. A major part of what I kept from my comic book illustrating days.
regular pencil: believe it or not, on most of my pencilled pieces I use a regular soft pencil. My favorite way of determining a good pencil to use - hold the pencil, lead broad against finger, and if the pencil leaves a nice dark lead streak it will be a nice soft pencil. You can control the lightness/darkness of the lead going down for the most part. The only time I use harder leads is to mark spots on acrylic paintings on canvas.

Inks:

Higgins Black Magic: wicked name, but I love this stuff. Was recommended to me by a fellow comic book inker. Goes on smooth and doesn't get a greyish shine to it... it's like the name says.. very dark and works magic on a nicely inked piece ;)
Windsor-Newton Series 7 sable #1: A mouthful, and literally if you keep it clean correctly. This brush can be expensive but sometimes that extra $ goes a long way. These brushes keep a fine fine point that broadens and thins very quickly in use. To keep the point, clean the ink out of the brush, take the hair and put it in your mouth and twirl while pulling it back out. Sounds disgusting, but the spit keeps the brush hardened and "perfect" for the next use. I've found keeping a scratch sheet handy to work ink back through before your next project gets it flowing ink perfectly. If you care for them correctly they'll last longer than a cheaper brush might have.

Paints:

Windsor & Newton Designer's Gouache: This stuff is too much fun. I'd used watercolor before once, but never had a chance to use it much after that. If you don't know what gouache is.. imagine if watercolor was a bit more flexible in its uses. Imagine.. being able to thin something out watercolor-style (although still a lot of pigment is there so watercolor still rules in the subtlety of that use), or brush it on with smaller amounts of water creating an opaque color. We're talking, black is black and white is white and you can even put it over other colors!
Watercolor: Surprisingly, since this is a subtle paint, I really don't have any fancy watercolors. I have some in tubes (I can't remember the brand) that I don't use because the stupid tubes' caps are on tight and I don't want to shred the tube just to get to the paint. I figure if I have to use it that thick I'll just use gouache. I have various watercolors in the "tins" (although more plastic heheh)... one particular one I like but I can't remember the brand of it either... if it works for you, use it.. I'm sure some paint brands are better than others (color selection, pigment quality, fade/age resistance), but I'm much too lazy to care :)
Brushes: At a glance, I seem to have some Windsor & Newton "Galleria" brushes... I've always been the type that would just look at brushes.. look at the price but consider what I thought the brush would do with the paint/media. If the brush looks strong yet will give me a variety of lines and retain its shape easily (and not kill my funds), it's a good enough brush for me.

Airbrush and Paints:

Olympos HP-100A: Dual action airbrush. Top load, no cup so you need to mix a side-dish of paint if you do a bigger painting. Just eye-drop the paint in when you need more. I wouldn't recommend it for anything you intend to move around on (holding it upside down will dump your paint) or for anything too large. Just remember to keep your airbrush CLEAN and make sure the needle is immaculately clean and not broken.
Paasche D500: Amazingly not as noisy as I thought it'd be, but still can be a little annoying. It's definitely not a top of the line but for the minimal times I sit down it works just fine.
Golden and Createx Acrylic Airbrush Paints: I don't know what's best, I just use whatever is handy.. I mostly use the acrylic airbrush paints although I have some other paints I could play with for airbrush.
(for other items to use for airbrush, flip through some airbrush books that list supplies or talk with an airbrush seller - there're so many things you need.. maybe that's why my work area is so cluttered!!)

What are some of the colors on the Belfour art gallery then?:

I simply scan in greyscale jpg, not lineart, at 72 dpi and then take it to Photoshop and use a technique I learned while doing comics that enables you to color and then lay the lineart back over the colors for the crisp "colored in the lines" look. My images have to be saved at some of the lowest possible settings to save space since my website has so many images (2 art galleries and photo gallery). I really have never truly learned anything about computer art - I just self taught myself what I could to get by.

Photography:

Pentax MG: the camera we use mainly for night photography now. The shutter speed does not change (not really in the way I'd like it to, it's good for night photography mostly, might be good for hockey if we had really fast zoom lenses).
Pentax ZX-M: my new "hockey" and "bird/nature" camera. It's not fully automatic in that I focus on my own, but that's ok.. using Pentax cameras enable us to change lenses among the two.
Pentax K-1000: Camera that Chris' been wanting for a long time. Now we don't have to share night photography cameras. I'm really happy about this one. We'd wandered onto a camera show a few blocks away and all the K-1000's there were not in the best shape and most were close to $200, I found one in immaculate condition, plus lens and flash for $150.. cool deal! yay!
Kiev 60 TTL (medium format camera): Yes I finally have a medium format camera. It's a great way to start off. They're affordable enough to allow you to see what you like from a medium format before having to drop the really big bucks down. You have to baby them a little because they're notorious for some problems, but there are modifications that can fix that. It came with an 80mm lens, and a view finder that you can put on it and look down into it (it also came with a few other things but they're really not that important to list).
Sony DSC-P71 (digital camera): We just got this camera but we LOVE it! It'll come in handy for when we want to just take some photos quickly and not haul around a lot of equipment.
Lenses: an Ozunon 75-200mm/4.5 zoom lens, a Tokina 100-300mm/5.6 zoom lens, a Focal 28mm/2.8 wide angle lens, a Pentax 28mm/2.8 wide angle lens, two Pentax 50mm/2 lenses, and an 80mm/2.8 Arsat lens for the Kiev. We also have a Vivitar 2X teleconverter.
Tripods/Tripod Heads and Monopods: (All are Bogen/Manfrotto) #3047 tripod head, #3262 ball head, (#?) tripod, and #3249 monopod.

That's all for now, I'm sure I'll add more since I have only covered my more common art supplies. Remember, just because it works for one person doesn't mean it'll work for you.. if you have other supplies/techniques you like.. then by all means, use them!