I found some new "stuff" that I got excited about

Ellen Easton

Ellen Easton

Was Ellen E. on Wet Canvas
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I think I posted about the notebook style sketchbooks on Amazon when they came out last year. Well, this year I've found some fantastic sketchbooks I like even better that Lightwish offers now. Here's a link to one of them but if you surf a little you'll find more styles and they even offer replacement 100% cotton paper. None are expensive. I ordered one and I love it. I'm going to order more in different styles and may even give one or two as gifts for Christmas. Do a search on Lightwish to find even more styles.



I'm so sorry for the big ugly url there but I don't know how to fix it.














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Thank you for the link Ellen. It looks and sounds lovely. I will check out if they are available here in India, either though Amazon India, or our local art shop which is very well stocked.
 
You just click on the little chain link at the top of the typing window and paste your "bit ugly URL" in there. :giggle:
 
@Ellen Easton, thanks for the recommendation. Have you used this paper? It seems rather inexpensive for cotton paper. I have frustrated myself over the years working on poor quality paper, so I am only buying the better ones now. Still, I enjoy a good bargain and don't want to blame my materials for my personal ineptness.
 
I can't say I've used this particular paper because I haven't yet but I've tried some of the other inexpensive cotton papers you may have seen me mention in other posts and I found them to be nice to use. I've never used Arches so I don't have that to compare to. I do have this Lightwish sketchbook though, but I just haven't had time to actually paint on the paper in it. There have been many papers that have come up in the recent past I've tried and, while I can't compare them to Arches, I've used Baohong's and others agree with me that it's good paper for a bargain price. You might try that brand. They have both student and professional papers.

I'm self-taught, though, but I just can't stress my budget with Arches in good conscience when I'm not a trained pro. I just paint to give as gifts and to "entertain" myself. Now when you come across a post I've made about something, you'll know it's just old self-taught Ellen again sharing one of her "finds". :ROFLMAO:
 
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@Ellen Easton, thanks for the reply! When I first took some workshops nearly 25 years ago, I thought I would be painting a lot more and thus overbought paper and paint on sale. The supplies are at least double the cost now! Even though I am also self trained, working on cheap paper gave me such frustrating results that I am starting to use my "better" supplies up. For someone who really paints a large quantity, I could see that it could get costly. Most of my Arches are in sheets. In a sample pack. If I wait until I am "good enough" I will never use the Arches! I tried Baohong and liked it. Winsor & Newton is also good. YT artists recommend Saunders, so I may try that.

Please keep sharing your "finds"; they are very helpful. Sometimes one orders a "cheapie" from Amazon and is pleasantly surprised.
 
You're such a good artist, Joy! And you're way more prolific than I am, too, so I just figured you were a pro. I suffer from "fear of the blank page" and I'm terrible with sketching as well as not wanting to "waste" my supplies so it takes me forever to get going on a new painting. I post my "finds" in hopes it will help newcomers and, in general, help more experienced artists save some money on supplies. If you try one of my items I post and you like the paper or whatever it is, then I'll be really pleased but I just wanted you to know that I may not be a really good authority on the subject. I only know basic things, you know?

By the way, if you do try something I've posted about, maybe you could post to let all of us know if it's a good bargain or not. :)
 
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Ellen, are you my "sister from another mister"? ;)Thanks ever so much for the kind words. Despite all of the reading and videos I have seen, I procrastinate for fear of "messing up" the pretty white paper. I spend more time thinking about what to paint, how to approach it, what supplies to use, etc. than I do actually painting and drawing. More practice is the answer, but I so often find other "more important" things to do for fear of failure. For everything I post, they are many that I have done. Since the only wasted supplies are the ones sitting in the closet, I am trying to use more of what I have, even it is "good" paint and paper. In a (somewhat) related hoarding stash, I have had several cosmetic items (lipstick, nail polish, perfume) go bad because I was saving them for the "special occasions" that never materialized. And instead of persevering with something that is just a hot mess, I abandon it and move on.

I would like to see your work posted. Perhaps I don't see it b/c I am mainly on the watercolor and animal forums.

Another YT artist recently was recommending the Lightwish books.
 
I broke my hip in April and after I got healed up and got rehab and stuff done, my daughter and I had to get busy packing up to move to a house where she can live with me and we both have our own art rooms so I think the last piece I posted was a sunset I did from one of the photos PaintBoss took of a sunset. In addition, I think I posted an elk I did somewhere. I only hang out in the water media forum, so that's where you'd find anything of mine. Maybe on Wet Canvas but I can't remember.

I'm still within the same RV park in the mountains but just in a different space and this is an actual mobile home, not an RV. The mobile home is so old that I think a wagon train on the Oregon Trail must have dragged it in here but I love it anyway. My daughter and I live at opposite ends of the house and have separate craft/art rooms.
 
Hi @Joy and @Ellen Easton

A hack I've found for saving on paper is buying plain cards (and envelopes.) I'm in the UK I got 100 cards for £10 recently (Hobbycraft). The paper is 220gsm which is better quality than the notepads I've got so I often do colour drawings on the cards and if they turn out ok lol, I use them as birthday cards etc, if they don't, I used the other 3 sides to practice. I might start selling cards with colour drawings at craft fairs. I thought of this the other day when you were saying how big you work Joy, I usually work smallish (but don't like too small as it's hard to get the detail I like).. 6 x 6" cards or A5 notepad.
 
Ellen, those paintings look very good, especially the elk. I wish you had better pictures of them.

Jade, that is a good idea about the cards. I don't order supplies often, and usually get them from Blick. The only store like that in my area is Michaels, and they mainly have craft items and are very expensive.
 
Joy said:
Ellen, those paintings look very good, especially the elk. I wish you had better pictures of them.

Jade, that is a good idea about the cards. I don't order supplies often, and usually get them from Blick. The only store like that in my area is Michaels, and they mainly have craft items and are very expensive.
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Yeh, it's finding a reasonable priced place. Hobbycraft here is reasonable but eBay obviously needs to add postage costs so isn't that cheap. I just found the watercolour papers etc scary prices.. £6-8 for 20 pages or so which I'd use in a few weeks ..
 
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