Our Favorite Trinkets
Every artist and gamer needs a treasure trove of their favorite supplies. Check out favorite trinkets below to build your own collection.
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But First, Coffee...
Before we get any further, you HAVE to know about the most delicious coffee of all time. I go into a lot more detail in this post, but Found Familiar Coffee is hands down my favorite coffee company. “But Courtney, what does a coffee company have to do with tabletop roleplay games or art?” Great question! Found Familiar is not only a company making delicious coffee, but all of their coffee is D&D themed. They work with ttrpg artists to use their artwork on the bag labels, and the names of the coffee blends are all on theme. It’s super fun: you get REALLY good coffee, a neat sticker, and the knowledge that by buying their coffee, you’re supporting a small business, the artists that provided the label, and if you use our links and/or code, us! Win-win times four? Anyway, here’s my three favorite flavors.
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Inspiration
This is my FAVORITE of all their coffees. With flavors of brownies, pecans, and dates, it feels like a dessert. You really can taste the brownie!
Spare the Dying
"Berry, dark chocolate, and nutmeg." Can we say yum? It gives off a lot of tea vibes, and I really enjoy it!
Cartographer's Blend
Maybe I'm a little biased since it's obviously made for cartographers, but I really do love the earthy flavors of this blend.
We’ll certainly admit that there are a LOT of options out there for dice. But if you find yourself in the market for some more, we highly recommend Dice Envy. They have a vast variety of materials, colors, shapes, and sizes. From their oversized “chonky” d20s, their uniquely shaped Infinity dice, to their many options of resin, wood, and metal dice, you’re certain to find something unique that you’ll love!
If you’re looking for more hot beverages, we HIGHLY recommend Friday Afternoon Tea. Courtney interviewed Friday in Episode six of Roll Play Grow, and it’s still one of our favorite episodes. Friday has a very unique talent that lends herself to making her delicious tea blends. Based in Seattle, WA, Friday Afternoon Tea ships nation-wide and offers over 400 tea blends. No matter what your taste preferences, you’re sure to find something delicious.
Let's Get Digital
We both splurged and got ourselves these laptops over Black Friday 2019, and we are thrilled with the purchase. We spent time researching gaming laptops that would allow for high quality editing work on PhotoShop, and some future video projects. We certainly don’t expect you to make such a large investment based on our word alone, so PLEASE do your research if you’re on the hunt for a laptop. But our two cents? We’re highly enjoying the Razers, and they’re a huge part of our day
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Brenton got this tablet in July 2020, and he absolutely loves it. You can learn more about his thoughts in his post, A First Look at the Wacom Tablet. Regardless of the tablet you choose, we cannot stress enough how beneficial they are when creating digital art! We definitely suggest you take a look at this one.
Courtney uses the World of Warcraft special edition Blue Yeti microphone and loves it. But if you aren’t a World of Warcraft fan, we still recommend a Blue Yeti.
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Pens & Refills
We’ll be frank–a good set of drawing pens is an investment, but one we wholeheartedly think is worth it. Copic pens are by far our favorite art pens to work with, and we currently only use the Black Multiliner Pens and Gray Markers. The nibs and inkwells on the SP Multiliner Black pens are replaceable, reducing waste and downtime when one pen inevitably runs dry. So while yes, there is an initial investment, the replacements make them more affordable. In regards to refills:
- The “A” cartridge will work for any of the ultra fine line pens: 0.03 mm, 0.05 mm, and 0.1 mm.
- The “B” cartridge is for the 0.2 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.35 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, or the Brush Pen.
- The pens we use the most are the .1 mm and .5 mm sizes, so we’ve included links to their replacement nibs below. You can find replacement nibs for many other sizes as well.
Note: Unfortunately, only the black pens have replaceable nibs and cartridges. The gray markers will need to be replaced in full, like a regular marker. However, we don’t use the gray nearly as much, as we outline in Black ink and only use gray for shading.
Paper
Drawing Tools
This doesn’t need to be fancy! Any plain old 12″ ruler will work, but we prefer to use a triangular architectural model with various types of measurement.
Because drawing a tiny, freehand circle is hard. It’s also nice to have various sizes of rectangles and squares to help you get a sense of the different objects within a room (beds, crates, barrels, mimics, etc)
Because drawing a large, freehand circle is also very hard. If you still have that old compass from Geometry class, feel free to use it. We enjoy this compass, however, because it allows you to remove the lead pencil to add in your own pen.
