Art Supply Addicts Anonymous for 2012

[mij]

It was interesting to follow the experiments with different media and how you find them. I have read of all the hauls but this has been a lean couple of months for my art purchases and it looks as if September's is going on an art break LOL.


This month I needed to learn more about values so got a book from the states which said it would get here on the 4/6th of September. Had a call just now that I had post – and that book has arrived – and it's only the 10th of August....


Here's a photo.
Jim

[RebeccaJFleming]

Sandra, thanks for those heat board experiments. It's interesting to see the difference between the heat and watercolour effects. I really like the look of those Cray Pas Specialist.

In Art Supply Addict news, my attempts to acquire more art supplies are being thwarted I want a few things from ASW (some Arches watercolour blocks and some Cretacolor Aquastics, which I need to make up for my incomplete/wrong colours in the eBay set I bought), but it keeps emptying my cart I've been trying on and off to place an order since yesterday, but when I add a few things to my cart and then go looking for something else, when I go to add another item, the cart has been emptied. And sometimes it waits to empty my cart until I'm halfway through the ordering process and have put my delivery details in before saying "Your order cannot be processed because your cart is empty" This isn't the first time I've had this problem, and I've emailed ASW but so far they haven't replied. I was hoping to be able to place an order today so I could use the discount coupon

On a positive note, I did order a few more watercolour paints from Blick; a discounted Sennelier pan set, and a few tubes of M Graham (I wanted to try some paints with honey to see what they're like). Now just to wait until they arrive

[gakinme]

Jim, you have to show us a few of your notan exercises when you have a chance.

Rebecca. sounds like a glitch is there for now. Persevere! You have to spend some money. LOL.

I have a couple of M Graham watercolor tubes and I'm not sure I like them as much as Daniel Smith. It hardens when dried and much harder to reactivitate than Daniel Smith, thicker too, and at times, when dried, there's more residue than Daniel Smith when reactivated. But then, I'm a real Daniel Smith fan. You might like them more. It's highly rated in any case.

Went to a garage sale from an old art center and picked up 5 full sheets of watercolor paper, Arches Rives, and some other paper for 25 cents each. Got a stack of 6 inches tall of brown cardstock already cut to 5.5 x 8 inch. Good for practice or for making cards or backing.

[CandAlArt]

Good garage sale haul, Sandra. All I found lately was old furniture, lol. I need to go look more often!

[gakinme]

For those who are interested, I did an 8 brand test on layering, solvent properties for colored pencils.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...42&postcount=1

[gakinme]

Rebecca, I read in the other thread that you are eager to collect an 80 pc set of Aquastic.

The more I use the Aquastic, the more I like it. And I still can't let go of my Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 watersoluble crayons.

I think Robert Sloan has a set. You could ask him if he's willing to sell his to you.

Here's a test piece on the two product on these business card sized black cardstock I bought for $1.50 for a pack of 50 pc.

Thai chili from my kitchen on the 3.5 x 2 inch black cards.

I have given on blending or smudging them because they look prettier when laid down plainly over one another or else it gets muddy.


Cretacolor Aquastic



Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 watersoluable crayon

[RebeccaJFleming]

Originally Posted by gakinme

Rebecca, I read in the other thread that you are eager to collect an 80 pc set of Aquastic.

The more I use the Aquastic, the more I like it. And I still can't let go of my Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 watersoluble crayons.

I think Robert Sloan has a set. You could ask him if he's willing to sell his to you.

lol I'd feel terrible asking anyone to part with their beloved art supplies I have found sets of 40 in a few online places, will keep hunting for an 80 set (I found one on some obscure site but it was like $180 or something ridiculous that I refuse to pay) but if I can't find the full set, a 40 tin will keep me happy, I'm sure.

I've never heard of those Stabilo crayons before. I just looked them up on Blick, small sets look quite cheap, but I'm guessing they're student grade/not lightfast etc? They might still be fun to play with alongside the AquaStics for journal work. Thanks for those samples, both look like art goodies I'll just "have to" add to my collection at some point

[RebeccaJFleming]

Originally Posted by RebeccaJFleming

On a positive note, I did order a few more watercolour paints from Blick; a discounted Sennelier pan set, and a few tubes of M Graham (I wanted to try some paints with honey to see what they're like). Now just to wait until they arrive

Wow. I only ordered these last week, and they've already made the journey all the way to Australia from America Here are my new toys:


I got a Mijello palette (I already have one of these in blue but I use it for acrylics) and one of those cheap Blick folding palettes. I used to have more plastic watercolour palettes but they all seem to have vanished. I picked up the 12 greys set of the Blick coloured pencils, since I wanted to try them out and I thought they'd make a good portable monochrome sketching set as well. I got myself a Da Vinci Travel Brush in size 5 and I think I'll get another one with my order; it's the perfect size.

The main things I was looking forward to in this order are the four tubes of M Graham watercolour (Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Rose, Pthalo Blue and Burnt Sienna) and the Sennelier Landscape watercolour pan set. This is the older formula with less honey; I got this set cheap because they're being discontinued. I really like the colours in it, but I don't understand why they've included the fugitive Alizarin Crimson when every other colour in the set is rated as highly lightfast. I do like the brush they've included, though; a size 3, so it's small enough to do nice details but not so tiny that is impossible to use for anything bigger than a fingernail.

I haven't had a chance to play with any of my new goodies yet, but that's what this afternoon is for

[CandAlArt]

Rebecca, Let us know how the folding palette works for your watercolors. I got a new one (the old one had acrylics I hadn't cleaned out well & they stuck & stained.) -the same or 99% similar to yours. So I filled it with gouache and when I went to use it a couple weeks later, all the paint pieces fell out! How bizarre! One paint type sticks, the other won't stay! Let me know if your w/c's fall out

[RebeccaJFleming]

Originally Posted by CandAlArt

Rebecca, Let us know how the folding palette works for your watercolors. I got a new one (the old one had acrylics I hadn't cleaned out well & they stuck & stained.) -the same or 99% similar to yours. So I filled it with gouache and when I went to use it a couple weeks later, all the paint pieces fell out! How bizarre! One paint type sticks, the other won't stay! Let me know if your w/c's fall out

hehe Will do! Though I'd imagine that if anything is going to stay put, it'll be honey-based watercolours I'm not usually the type who pours out a huge dollop of colour into each well; I only squirt out a small amount as I go, just enough to get me through that painting session. So far I only have small little dabs of each of my four M Graham paints in there. Speaking of which, I am very impressed with these watercolours. They just seem so bright and clear on the page. I've been playing around with them and mixing them, and so far I've found that I can more or less mix any colour I like with just these four. The only weakness is orange... I can't get a bright, vivid orange, it's more like a burnt orange or brown-gold. Still, I don't really paint anything bright orange so that shouldn't be a big problem anyway.

Nickel Azo Yellow was a bit of a surprise though. When I opened the tube and saw it was a poopy brown-gold colour, I thought it looked horrible and wondered if I'd ever find a use for it. But when I actually painted with it, it produced a nice clear yellow-gold (still with a slight brownish tone though).

[RebeccaJFleming]

Hi all, I've updated my blog post comparing coloured pencils after scanning both charts (one kept in a drawer and one in a sunny window) and comparing them after a month. The post is here if anyone's interested. The Graphitint results are truly horrifying, but I was also surprised to see some fading in the washed areas of the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils.

I'll be ordering some more AquaStics soon, so once they arrive I'll be able to do my pastel/crayon comparison post.

I've also had a play with my Sennelier watercolour landscape set. Here it is with all the pans unwrapped:

I quite like most of the colours (though as I mentioned in a previous post, it would have been nice if they'd included a non-fugitive Alizarin crimson alternative), but I don't see the point of Terre Verte. I'm not sure if the colour is meant to be like this or if it's just because the set was old/clearance stock, but the colour is so weak and wishy-washy it's almost not worth using. It's okay when mixed with other colours, but even then it barely makes a difference. That being said, the colours are generally good landscape colours and I can mix just about anything I like. I also love the set itself; the pull-out palette will be very handy, though I'm going to get a slightly larger travel brush for it than the size 3 provided.

[gakinme]

Oh my goodness, thank you, Rebecca, a million times, for doing this chart. You are right. Derwent Graphitint indeed is horrifying in its lightfastness. Everything left behind is just gray.

And what a surprise to see Faber Castell Albrecht Durer fading so soon. It was noted that watercolor pencils when washed has lower lightfastness in general. At this point, then using high quality plain watercolor would make more sense.

Good to see Luminance and Polychromos holding up. I'm really eager to see the 2 months checkpoint for Prismacolor, and Derwent Coloursoft.

Looks like your tray is very handy.

[gakinme]

I've done a couple of experiments of Prismacolor Artstix and Derwent Coloursoft on gessoed surface, non gessoed surface, Colourfix pastel paper, 1500 grit sandpaper and with solvent if any one is interested.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...2&postcount=31

[RebeccaJFleming]

Originally Posted by gakinme

And what a surprise to see Faber Castell Albrecht Durer fading so soon. It was noted that watercolor pencils when washed has lower lightfastness in general. At this point, then using high quality plain watercolor would make more sense.

I guess it makes sense that washed watercolour pencil would fade sooner, but I didn't think it would happen that quickly (or that dramatically). When I use watercolour pencils, it's generally for work that will just be scanned and used digitally anyway, so I guess it's not that big a deal, but I would have liked to think it would hold up better. I'll be interested to see how it fares over the next few months.

The Graphitint is indeed terrible, especially when you consider that it's faded that much when we've barely had any sun for the last month (it's winter here and it's rained almost everyday, and been overcast every other day).

I thought I'd share a few more goodies I got; the first is a cheap collapsible water cup, from Faber-Castell. I picked it up cheap from where I work, most retail shops should have them in their stationery department. Here it is in its open and closed states:


Quite convenient as part of a travel sketch kit.

Also, another order arrived; a Schmincke 12 colour pan set, and a few more DS watercolours. I love the compact size of the Schmincke set, and will probably either make or buy some more pans to fill it (there's room for another six, and it's missing a few colours I consider essential). I like that it has two proper white metal mixing areas (the lid, and a fold out tray).

[gakinme]

Rebecca, that's a handsome looking cup. Very stylish looking.