Art Supply Addicts Anonymous for 2012 - Page 19

ullahennig · #**271** 08-01-2012, 06:14 AM

I bought some acrylic paints from Daler-Rowney (System3 ones), and an acrylic pad to paint on. I was staying with some very good friends, and one of them is an artist who works mostly with acrylics. He let me try out them and I was so pleased and had so much fun that I had to buy them. 10 tubes for about 10 Euros which is not too bad I think.

gakinme · #**272** 08-01-2012, 08:29 AM

Ulla, congrats on your purchase. Daler Rowney has good paint. I like their watercolor even at student grade and it has superb soft pastels. Great consistency, texture and colors!

CandAlArt · #**273** 08-01-2012, 11:18 PM

Question for all: I may have missed this info somewhere already posted, but where are the water soluble wax pastel/crayons like Art Bars and Neocolor II usually posted? OP, or watermedia or??? Frankly I love the variety on the Ongoing Sketch Thread. But I wondered where those media would "officially" fit?

RebeccaJFleming · #**274** 08-02-2012, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CandAlArt

Question for all: I may have missed this info somewhere already posted, but where are the water soluble wax pastel/crayons like Art Bars and Neocolor II usually posted? OP, or watermedia or??? Frankly I love the variety on the Ongoing Sketch Thread. But I wondered where those media would "officially" fit?

I've mainly seen them mentioned under oil pastels, but I have seen references to them in watermedia as well. It would be good if they were given their own category, I think.

gakinme · #**275** 08-02-2012, 08:54 AM

Candace, if you use them with a wash, it is watermedia. If you don't, then really nowhere to be honest except my thread.

Artbars are not really oil pastels. Nor Neocolor I or II. It has been mentioned a few times before in oil pastel forum. However if you use it as an underlayer, and then on top, you slather some oil pastel on, you could could it as oil pastel.

Color Pencil forum wouldn't think they are colored pencils.

If you wash them, Drawing forum probably wouldn't think it would fit. You could try Art Journal thread which is anything goes in one sketchbook.

But yeah, my all media thread is everything! Post at my thread.

halthepainter · #**276** 08-02-2012, 09:37 AM

Your watersoluable wax crayons and watersoluable oil pastel like products are welcome in the oil pastel forum.

Some of the art bars are actually gum arabic based watercolor sticks. They are more suitable in a watercolor forum or the Water Media Forum.

There is a Water Media Forum: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=450

Where all forms of watermedia are welcome, especially if your media doesn't easily fit in another forum.

gakinme · #**277** 08-02-2012, 09:23 PM

Oh, Hal, so the oil pastel forum now accept Cretacolor Aquastics and Neocolor II plain drawings?

I thought I read otherwise, but well, now that the flood gate is open, you'll see more of my creation using just those.

But what if they are washed? Would you still accept them?

And what about Crayola crayons? I melt them and make them into painting. Would that be accepted in oil pastel forum? It's wax crayons - just not watersoluable.

Also, what about Prismacolor Artstix? They are wax crayons in a stick form? And the Derwent Drawing sticks also in a rectangular wax crayon form, do you accept those too at oil pastel forum?

CandAlArt · #**278** 08-02-2012, 10:44 PM

Rebecca, Hal & Sandra, Yes - you see how broad the medium of w/s crayon items can be, depending on how we use it? I like them as a OP "feeling" but less smudgy form, and also washed as I love washing everything, so it is a watermedia. But it also lends itself to mixed media and oddly creative bursts... which is Sandra's thread!!! And you want to post where the group likes it. Interesting thoughts everyone!

The OP forum is just such nice folks, we love everything sticky enough to fake it as an OP thing!!

gakinme · #**279** 08-05-2012, 10:53 AM

I'm ready to buy something finally. I'm looking at drafting tables that gives me a tilt of 45 degree or more. So I'm browsing around the online stores.

Anyone has any experience of those tables? Any recommendations?

It's to save myself from hunching over with my injured back.

Then I'm finally ready to buy an Icarus heating board but I need to find an angled table that could take 15 lbs and still has a protuding lip to catch my rolling pencils.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

gakinme · #**280** 08-05-2012, 07:10 PM

Here's my first mini and not so mini purchase of the day.

3 packs of 36 pcs each grit 150 sandpaper of 4.5 x 5.5 inch to practice my oil pastels and soft pastels. Only $2.97 per pack.

This is a good way to waste the Erengi I don't like.

Left one is Koh I Noor Woodless colored pencil and after I did it, the colors fall off.

I expect it'd be the same for pastel pencils. I'll give it a try later.

And you could see my makeshift inclined surface for now until I figure out what table to use.

Then my not so mini purchase is a set of garden table and 2 reclined chairs made of wood. Finally I could sit a bit without cushions and it's the right height for this 29 inch high table.

CandAlArt · #**281** 08-06-2012, 12:08 AM

Sandra, There are tabletop easels that are flat, solid drawing boards on the kind of legs/rack that props them up to fairly steep angles. That may work to try out before investing in the full size drafting table. They look like drafting board surfaces, without the table attached....

Link to something like this at Blick:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/ma...-34/#itemspecs

I prop a canvas board, with paper clamped on, on my small ordinary table easel sometimes, but things tip and can fall over. I can't lean on it like you could with a solid one. A solid wood surface you can tape your paper to would be nice, I think.

I'd shop around the net for something like that. Besides helping your back, slanted work surfaces keep heads from looking all squeezed--- mine look pinched if I do them on the flat & forget to hold them up & recheck often, haha! Beanheads.

Your sandpaper tests look fun, and funny that the Koh-I-Noor fell off!

gakinme · #**282** 08-06-2012, 09:12 PM

Candace, the Icarus Heating board owner emailed me back and showed me how she and other users prop the board up. She literally put hers vertically on a heavy duty easel and tied the handle to the post of the easel. That is out of my range. One of those easels is easily $1000.

The other user propped a bunch of styrofoam blocks behind it and have kitchen grip mats underneath so it wouldn't slide.

I have a wooden plank from Borders that I could prop up like that too but I'd lose the entire length of my makeshift table since it's same length. I'll probably buy a wooden board for this purpose and slant it up at least.

I think I'll give up on the 150 grit sandpaper. I put some coarse molding paste on it today and it's still coarse. It'll be used to sand wood down.

CandAlArt · #**283** 08-06-2012, 11:54 PM

Sandra, the sandpaper is always great to use instead of a pencil sharpener for some pencils, and it's useful around home, so nothing wasted.

My package from Blick arrived ( a belated anniversary gift, I decided to call it ) O, O, O! The Caran d'Ache Neocolor II (30 piece) ARE WONDERFUL and I have only made a small test bit in a sketchbook. SO creamy and the waterbrush blends them more beautifully than any other water-sol toy I have used to date.

Also got the 24 set of Art Bars. They differ a bit from the Neo, with more crumbs and slightly less creamy/blendy. BUT the colors are fab, 4 groups of: tints, darks, primaries, earths. I can probably mix the 2 media to expand the color range, but I believe I will enjoy using the Art Bars separately for their color palettes. It was a good sale but I stuck my neck out spending this much after getting many very low priced art supplies over the years.

I also got a small pack of Derwent Drawing- the 6 earth/traditional brown drawing colors, in 4 pencils and 2 sticks. A quick test sample & I know they will be fun for that Leonardo daVinci look I am so good at

I plan to try them at portrait group and then try watercolor washes over them, possibly in abstract ways for interesting effects. (I so often use washable pencils so now it will be the opposite effect.)

And all of this expence is not my fault, but that of the Addicts here egging me on...

gakinme · #**284** 08-07-2012, 08:50 AM

Ooh, Candace, you got your packet! What fun. Draw something with the Derwent Drawing set. I want to see how you use the earth tones and subdued colors.

And don't forget to post some work of your artbars and neocolors at my thread. I want to see the result of all that waiting.

gakinme · #**285** 08-11-2012, 01:20 AM

I am now looking around for a tilted angle stool.

Definitely, I need to find some surface to rest my torso but I can't sit yet. It's a pain. And definitely working with a 45 degree or more is easier on my back.

Tonight I improvised with my heating pad - the one you get from dept store to warm your back in bed, sandwiched it between a masonite board to prop up as elevated surface and a metal drawing board for architecture students.

At high heat, it is very gentle compared to the encaustic iron but there are no fumes at all and just warm enough to melt stuff around.

Here are the the results.

140 lb Arches watercolor cold press
Neocolor II is really prettier washed because the colors are richer that way.
Color pencils can't be used on cold press.

The harder oil pastel benefit from the heat and blends easier. However, to add layers on top, you have to wait until it cools or it will just pick up the color from bottom layer. That's why there's a cool and warm section for Icarus board but the more I thought about it, the easier this is solved. Just removed the piece from the heat source for a while. The other half of the space is really wasted space.

Both acrylics and watercolor looks good on watercolor paper.

And if you use high quality oil pastel that is very soft, you don't need a heating board. They are so soft already. If you layer it with cheaper harder oil pastel at the bottom, then this primitive set up will work.

This one is on Stonehenge. The paper itself is superb for colored pencil but even more so when used with heat.

Prisma acts almost like markers. Very rich colors once melted. Luminance and Faber Castell are harder to melt. Lyra is super soft right after Prisma. If one is concerned with lightfastness, then use Lyra. Koh I Noor is superb for large background. And it melts so readily too. I get tired with Koh I Noor because sometimes I need slightly more finger pressure but with heat, it's so much easier.

Until I recover fully, I have to hold off until I know how long I could "sit/shift" in my chair before buying the Icarus board.

But hope these little experiments are interesting enough forcolored pencil and oil pastel users.

Salute to our Partners