What art supplies have you bought recently?

I stopped at Michaels yesterday while I was in the area. I swear that place is getting worse every time I go. but i needed to pick up a few things.
I got a another sketchbook and a sharpener that collect the shavings. both were things I needed. I also picked up a rake brush because I've wanted to try one. Lastly I found a kneaded eraser the size of the one I use now. Ordering online has always resulted in erasers half or a quarter this size.
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Sadly I couldn't find any canvas boards in the size I wanted. They also don't sell individual pencils so I couldn't get an H or 2H to complete my traveling sketch set.
 
WFMartin said:
I just bought about 4, very small brushes, and a pack of 5, 5" x 7" Fredrix Canvas Boards. I plan to do some miniatures for awhile, to get back into oil painting I'll let you know how it goes.
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I do alot of paintings that size and 4.5x6. I quarter 9x12 and 11x14 oil painting paper for them. its not the same as doing a larger painting so try a few to learn the differences and you should be good to go.
Also I saw your comment on another post and the smaller paintings can be sold cheaper and take up less space. If you market them to the right crowed they're sell.
 
From Dick Blick
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a gallon of Gamsol
200ml Underpainting white
2 quick dry Diox purple
1 Radiant Red
2 Chromatic Black
1 Plum Grey

The Underpainting White has been a game-changer for me. Don't use it for underpainting, but as a replacement for straight Titanium Whitel.. This stuff dries quickly. Has less tinting strength which in most cases is a plus - it is more controllable, and comes thick out of the tube. Haven't used T. white since I switched.

The quick dry Diox Purple was on close-out for $5. ea - so stocked up.

The plum grey color I use a lot mixed for pavements. To make Plum Grey, Utrecht uses -T.white, Diox Violet, Ivory Black, Hansa Yellow, and Raw Umber.!!

20230823_211042_copy_800x600.jpg

My brushes are really getting ragged - especially anything #4 or smaller. Can't keep a good small brush.
Usually go with Rosemary &CO. But I wanted some right away and like to see them in person before I buy. So went to Hobby Lobby. The extra-stiff Royal Langnickels are really cheap and I've always had good luck with them. Picked up a few small brushes on sale too. Those blue-handled "scrub" brushes are so handy - use them a lot.
 
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Technically, not an art supply but I've needed a new printer for...well, years! :LOL:

This finally arrived:

20230730_123855.jpg



Setup was easier than I thought, too. I'm so not techie it's funny!

The new kid:

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I recently started messing around with waterslide Inkjet paper for artistic effects, so it is kinda art-related, after all. Yay!

And I'm broke again! 🤪
 
Some recent purchases from a thrift store and an art store:

A 12"x15" brand new pad of Pastelmat w a slightly bent corner for $20.
Two 3-packs of 8x10 Ampersand cradled (7/8") birch panels $24 total. Slight scratch.
A very nice white resin tray about 16x20 which will be great for pastels $2.
 
I need some new darks- I have a drawerful of dark browns and grays, but not many dark *colours*. I do still have my set of Wallis pastel mixes- but man! That's messy. May have to break down and make that mess, though cause I also have three little glad containers of the pastel dust that falls into my easel's catch tray each painting. It makes marvelous greys- but I still need dark colours. I have a set of some inexpensive student brand, and can grind them into dust and mix them into my catch tray dusts- may have to do that.

I could pretty likely go through all the drawers and re-consolidate and then use the leftover bits to create my own darks. I'm not as carefree about just buying 'cause--- ooooo! Lookee all the pretty colours! anymore. I have masses of colours, what I need is darks that aren't brown or dull.

Soft pastels have gotten very expensive; Terry Ludwigs are running over five bucks a stick- lovely things, but I can't eat them. 😆
 
I envy your printer, @Terri , my husband has the wide format Canon for photography, and it does marvelous work in colour output, plus I found the inexpensive off-brand inks for refills on Amazon, I think. But it is a pita (pain in the @ss) for me to print to- it does not like it when my laptop gives it a print command- it tells me it is busy. I say, No, you're just sitting there with one light blinking and that light is blinking because you are telling a lie about being busy. You aren't busy, you're snitty.

I hope yours will print as nice as the one DH has- if I send a ref to his desk top and then HE prints it, it is perfect.

Seems rather weird the relationship those two have....
 
JStarr said:
I envy your printer, @Terri , my husband has the wide format Canon for photography, and it does marvelous work in colour output, plus I found the inexpensive off-brand inks for refills on Amazon, I think. But it is a pita (pain in the @ss) for me to print to- it does not like it when my laptop gives it a print command- it tells me it is busy. I say, No, you're just sitting there with one light blinking and that light is blinking because you are telling a lie about being busy. You aren't busy, you're snitty.

I hope yours will print as nice as the one DH has- if I send a ref to his desk top and then HE prints it, it is perfect.

Seems rather weird the relationship those two have....
Click to expand...
Printers! 🤷‍♂️ Who really understands their emotions anyway?
 
Artyczar said:
Printers! 🤷‍♂️ Who really understands their emotions anyway?
Click to expand...
Exactly! They don't even understand themselves. :rolleyes: Not helpful.

@JStarr : my first attempts were trying very thin papers, like Newsprint. Error messages all day. I moved on to others and it's been fabulous. My husband printed one old B&W and it's gorgeous.
 
Terri said:
Exactly! They don't even understand themselves. :rolleyes: Not helpful.

@JStarr : my first attempts were trying very thin papers, like Newsprint. Error messages all day. I moved on to others and it's been fabulous. My husband printed one old B&W and it's gorgeous.
Click to expand...
Printers, unlike most of the stuff on your desk, are largely mechanical. So therein lies the rub. My first printer was an Epson (jx80? if I remember). It was a 9 pin dot matrix color printer. The pins would strike a 4 color ribbon to make a print. When I'd tell people I had a jx80 they could hardly contain their envy but... If they had known the hassle and how lousey the prints were, they would have pitied me instead.

My second printer was a large format Canon b&w inkjet. I loved that printer, wish I still had it.
 
I think I've been through ten printers already. :ROFLMAO: One of them was an extremely costly Epson (wide format) that I had to take to the shop to fix a few times. Now I have a decent Canon 2-in-one printer/scanner, but it's not a wide format, but I am glad for it. I also have a B/W Brother that has been the most dependable one yet. All the Epsons I've had were finicky, pain in the asses.
 
I was going to try to paint this weekend but it didn’t happen. But I’ll report back on the brush as soon as I do.

What I did manage to do this weekend was get to a yard sale where I picked up this unopened art set for $15.

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Its by masters touch but I figure worth the cost.
The oil pastels are comparable (maybe just slightly lower quality) then the cheap ones I’ve been playing around with. So this really increases the number of colors I have now. I’ve also wanted to play with watercolors which it has.
The kit also has acrylics and watercolor pencils that I’m interested in trying out.
Lastly it has colored pencils which I can experiment with but aren’t really my thing and oil paints which I may give to a kid or something.
 
I played with the rake brush some.
I’m using oil paints. I know they tend to be used more with other kinds of paints but I’ve seen Michael James Smith use them for oil painting and wanted to give it a try.
Here’s some tests with 2 shades of green on some printer paper. Also the paints on the thicker side as I’m not using a medium.

For painting grass or hair it seems to work well enough. This could make a decent cluster weeds if you add extra details with a small brush.
20230828_105039.jpg

It also works were making small clusters of dots.
20230828_105048.jpg

Lastly I tried painting lines with it for a wood grain or ripples in water. Its doable but personally I would need more practice.
20230828_105102.jpg

I was afraid the paint would clump up and close the gaps but when it goes a few swipes on the palette fixes it. Though the brush doesn’t hard as much paint as I would like then. Thinning the paint a little would probably help.
 
16ga said:
I played with the rake brush some.
I’m using oil paints. I know they tend to be used more with other kinds of paints but I’ve seen Michael James Smith use them for oil painting and wanted to give it a try.
Here’s some tests with 2 shades of green on some printer paper. Also the paints on the thicker side as I’m not using a medium.

For painting grass or hair it seems to work well enough. This could make a decent cluster weeds if you add extra details with a small brush.
View attachment 33822
It also works were making small clusters of dots.
View attachment 33823
Lastly I tried painting lines with it for a wood grain or ripples in water. Its doable but personally I would need more practice.
View attachment 33824
I was afraid the paint would clump up and close the gaps but when it goes a few swipes on the palette fixes it. Though the brush doesn’t hard as much paint as I would like then. Thinning the paint a little would probably help.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the demo! Very helpful. :)
 
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