What art supplies have you bought recently?

[Joy]

Kay, I did not want to picture what I actually received in order to keep it a surprise for others that may choose this. She also includes little surprise extras!

 

[Artyczar]

That is a great idea. I hope some people choose to do it Joy. Thanks for linking to it.

Believe it or not, I only just received my Arches hot press blocks. Seems like it takes forever to get these in the mail sometimes. I plan to do some experimenting tomorrow morning. Today, I must go to the dentist for some work though.

 

[Artyczar]

Also, here's a pic of those clear envelops and chipboards I got with the watercolor paintings in them. I put about 20 in them so far, and put many other small ones in some portfolios, as I have a studio visit happening on Saturday with a local gallery. I've been setting up my studio room to get all that ready hoping something good will become of that meeting--mostly hanging a lot of my paintings all over the walls. Usually, half of the art on the walls are of other people's work, but I changed it out for the studio visit.

 

[MrBungle]

I bought some new tips for my pencil and new bellamond paper for my iPad…

 

[Bongo]

I generally hold out as long as I can, then buy a bunch at one time.

oil paints
sap green 200ml
yellow ocre 200ml
Dioxazine Purple 150ml
Titanium Buff, 150ml
French Ultramarine, 200ml
Underpainting White, 200ml

Liquin Original Medium 1 Liter
16" Palette Garage

I heard that French Utramarine blue was warmer than Ultramarine blue - so far I'm not seeing it - looks identical to my eye.
Underpainting white is not as opaque as Titanium and is supposed to dry faster - to be determined

The Palette Garage is this thing -https://www.greatarttools.com/shop/palette-garage/16-palette-garage-for-oil-paints-28/
overpriced but a great tool especially for plein air painters. I made my own - but it had limitations.

 

[16ga]

I heard that French Utramarine blue was warmer than Ultramarine blue - so far I'm not seeing it - looks identical to my eye.

It depends on the brand. The ground up pigment in French Ultramarine is supposed to be larger but I don't think there's really isn't a set particle size to define the split between the 2.

 

[stlukesguild]

The last thing I bought was some gold leaf. Beyond losing my studio space a couple of years ago, the great art supply store that was just down the block from my home was bought by Michael's crafts and moth-balled. A lot of the materials I used on a regular basis I can no longer find anywhere near me... including the metal leaf and adhesive. I ended up trying a new brand from Amazon, and so far I'm quite pleased as it adheres better than I am used to. And it was quite as bit cheaper to boot!

 

[MrBungle]

Got a procreate keyboard .. let’s see how this improves my Speed..

 

[Rich53]

My wife, Linda, and I were strolling through Walmart, and they seem to be having a "get rid of this!" sale on their art supplies. Some items are about half off.
So I picked up
• Grumbacher 98lb 5.5"x8.5" Mixed Media Pad
• Faber-Castell Goldfaber Colored Pencils (12)
• Prismacolor Premier WaterColor Pencils (12)

Linny got a dozen 2 oz(?) tubes of Daler-Rowney oils (good for experimenting) and 2 Grumbacher 140lb 9"x12" Acrylic Pads.

A nice haul, and a nice trip through the country. (Here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, the two Walmarts are about 20 miles away.)

--Rich

 

[Joy]

Rich, we have a very large Walmart, but the art supplies are not very good. Wonderful that you got some brand names inexpensively.

 

[stlukesguild]

I picked up a slew of color pencils... mostly Tuscan Red, Black Cherry, and Burnt Sienna (I use these in the contours of my mixed-media pastel paintings). I also picked up a bunch of pastel pencils and 3 sticks of Sennelier pastels in colors I need.

 

[ntl]

I bought a watercolor pad, 9x12, a pad of tracing paper--my first ever--and a kneaded eraser. though I hope i don't "knead" it too often.

 

[stlukesguild]

I don't do kneaded erasers... but the erasers I do use... usually Pink Pearls... are among my most used tools.

 

[Terri]

Kneaded erasers are like magic when removing photo oils. I don't do much hand coloring these days, but always keep some around. I also have a few Pink Pearls.

Don't know why, but there are lots of erasers out there that are just awful. The above 2 work extremely well with several media.

 

[Ellen Easton]

I posted about this elsewhere but I got the 100-color set of gansai by Kuretake by selling a piece of jewelry. I'm lucky, I guess, because se sold out evidently at about the time I bought mine. Now there are just two places on Amazon that are selling it and the price has almost doubled. I paid $215 but now it's listed at those two places at $379. A set could still be built piece-by-piece by someone who wanted the whole set because it's for sale that way still. The only thing you wouldn't get is the wooden box. I haven't added it all up but maybe I should have gone that route myself. There's the 48 color set and then the pearl, opal, gem, gold and graphite colors each in six-piece color sets for sale separately.

I have so much in the way of art supplies now that, at my age, I'll probably never use them up but buying new things gets to be kind of addictive, doesn't it? For me it has. For instance, I found an eraser I liked a few years ago in a set of drawing pencils so after searching all over the internet trying to find where I could buy some, instead of buying a few, I bought a whole box of 60! What on earth will a woman in her late 70's do with 60 erasers?! I've given them away and still have a whole basket full.

Hmmm, come to think of it----as bad as I am at sketching, I DO erase a lot----and I want to live to be 100---maybe I'll need more----

 

[JStarr]

A roll of glassine.

I had trouble finding it in stock during CoVID, so tried some parchment paper. Yes, that kitchen kind of parchment paper. It did work- nothing sticks to it. Problem is, nothing sticks to it, so I couldn't envelope-up a piece for shipping- nothing, even tape, sticks to it.

So I went researching and found some folks had limited success with double-sided medical tape sticking to it. Bought some of that, and, yes, it works for a given (low) value of "works".

Glad I found glassine again.

 

[Ellen Easton]

Kay, I hope you enjoy those blocks--oh, are they pans? I've wanted a set of the Derwent blocks for years. Maybe I'll get me one soon. I wonder, can you pick those up and use as a block, like a crayon? They are less expensive than the Derwent.
Angela, what were the new neocolor II 's that you got? Are you enjoying them? I never did get more, but still think I want a few.
RW, your work is wonderful, even without the new tools, so these will allow further enhancement. Have fun!

I'm not Kay but I think I can answer your question because I do have those. They're not blocks. They're in a pan like our western watercolors but they're very big pans, about twice the size of one of the western full pans. I've never seen or tried Derwent but I think they're different.

 

[stlukesguild]

Pink Pearl erasers work great for erasing the under-drawing for my paintings on a heavy gauge paper... and later, on the same primed with a matte acrylic. Most of my drawing is done with pastel (NuPastel) or colored pencil (Prismacolor). From time to time I also use colored Conté Crayons and nothing seems to erase these well.

I need to pick up some glassine as well... in a roll at least 48" wide. This would allow me to stack my pastels as opposed to rolling them. I did this for years but ran out of glassine a number of years ago.

 

[JStarr]

I need to pick up some glassine as well... in a roll at least 48" wide. This would allow me to stack my pastels as opposed to rolling them. I did this for years but ran out of glassine a number of years ago.

Amazon has the best price, 60" x 150' = $56

 

[Marksmomagain]

Here are some of my recent purchases of sale and clearance items:

A Weatherproof Garment Co. backpack for $10. Brand new condition.
A very nice brush washer caddy w lid and handle for $5. No name, but very nice.
An older ArtBin box, very dirty for $3.
A steel 3-cup measuring cup w glass insert (for markings) $2. I'll find a use for it.
A very nice wooden caddy for $4. I'll use it on my table top for pencil storage.
A slightly dented Roz pastel box w the trays filled w Art Spectrum and Sennelier pastels for $45.
A bag of 6 canvas aprons in pretty decent shape for $8.