Starting at the age of 5, selling fine works of art from the back of a Radio Flyer for a nickel a piece, you might say I've been a professional artist since the love bug, hippee era.

But it was the 80's when I went to college in pursuit of an art degree and began freelancing. Then was hired by a well seasoned graphic design and printing firm, where I learned the true ins and outs of commercial art.
In the early 90's computers became the rage, and have used them since, like a pencil, it's a must have tool in commercial art.

I have freelanced continuiously ever since those early adventures with sticky paper. With client's from fortune 100 companies to the guy that cuts your lawn. Having over 12,000 designs, illustrations, comic strips and cartoons to my credit.

The stuff used in creating artwork can be junk to absurdly expensive paint.
I draw mostly, so I use a lot of paper and ink. Although I keep a large variety of materials, preferred are Higgin's ink, Hunt nibs, Staedtler tech pens, Pitt markers, Winsor & Newton brushes and paints, General's pencils.
Papers include easy to get Strathmore bristols, HP 32lb laser paper which holds ink well for fast work and I really like the smooth surface of Arches hot press watercolor papers.
Digital includes my old Apple DP G4, Lacie monitor, Mirage 2 tabloid scanner, CorelDraw for Mac, typical Adobe software, and a Windows PC with the same programs.