[Closed] What kit for illustration?

iPad with apple pencil using an app like Adobe sketch, you can turn out some decent stuff on it.

Well, the easiest option is to just do your illustrations on art paper and supply them with the manuscript. Alternatively you could try using a drawing app on a tablet with a stylus, if you have an iPad there are a couple cheaper than Apple’s Pencil, and drawing and sketching apps like Paper.
https://www.creativebloq.com/features/best-ipad-stylus
If you don’t have a suitable tablet, it probably a lot cheaper to just buy some sketching tablets of watercolour paper and a bunch of different types of pen and pencil, Lakeland watercolour pencils are interesting, you can sketch lightly, or go really heavy with them, giving a rich, shiny finish, or you can sketch then use a brush and water to give washes.
I was at college years ago with someone who did all of her illustrations in black ink, but using a whole bunch of different makes of felt pen, and fountain pens with different makes of black ink, and then she’d do careful washes over the lines, which would cause the black lines to start bleeding out different colours, green, red, blue, purple, etc. She’d experimented with them for ages, knew what pen or ink bled out what colours and could plan the whole illustration with all the colours where she wanted them.
Quite unique, but that was many years ago, and I’ve no idea what her name was, she was at Bristol Poly Bower Ashton - I’d like to think she went on to have a good career.
Not my sort of subject, but this is about the nearest thing I can find to the effect I remember from forty years ago...

have you ever drawn before? It's no something you can just pick up without a lot of practice and learning!

I use Procreate and Apple Pencil it’s comprehensive, fast and the scope for customisation covers most stuff I could wish to do. (Raster, not vector - depends what you want from an app.)

I also use paints, graphite, ink, formulate my own paints etc - yet the tablet is mega-useful for the little I get at the end of a day when I can work in bed rather than sit up late/early morn in the study with daylight lamps on. Much more relaxing to use the tablet/stylus. Even if for studies to be finished later in other medium/s. ymmv

From what I know (am an illustrator/artist and know a couple or three published illustrators) most publishers are happier to look at (and initially focus on) the manuscript with *maybe* a few rough sketches suggested rather than a ‘finished’ style-set fully-illustrated work. That way they have more editorial freedom and might want to match your MS with a different illustrator.

Sorry to be a buzzkill but start with paper and a pencil. Your ideas will flow out much faster and you'll be able to tell if you have the ability to get anywhere near the level you're imagining. Once you have a happy starting point then take it to the computer.

If you start with tablets, pencils and apps as a total noob you'll disappear down the rabbit hole of youtube tutorials.

Something you could turn out in 5 minutes on paper could take hours of faffing around with digital brushes and pencils and layers and masks etc.

(Owner of a dusty Wacom Intuos)

I've played with sketching on an iPad as someone with little artistic ability. Might not work for your needs but tracing photos produces reasonable results, but then I struggle with anything more than linework.

[img] [/img]

Before anyone says thats not drawing, i'm ok being a tracer...

Cheers folks. Food for thought!

Appreciate the detailed responses