Online Art Supplies
Why buy art supplies online? There are a variety of reasons. My Karat pencils - the only place I could find the larger set (60) was online and then only 1 online art supply store carried them. The local art supply store told me they cannot special order anything for me if they do not carry it. That leaves online art supply shops.
Another reason … time is money. I live in a very large city - more or less Houston (Katy is western outskirts but you really cannot tell just by looking where Houston ends and Katy begins!) and a 60 mile one way trip across town can be quite a journey for a week-end … really takes away from the painting time when mine is quite limited anyway. Another reason - what if you do not live close to an art supply store? Do you really want to drive 100 miles or more to buy artist quality paints and papers or canvas?
I am still looking and trying to decide what I need for my studio … I have been considering getting an actual watercolor easel as well as a drawing board and a mahl stick. Those are what I find I do not have that I feel would be really helpful when I paint, depending on where I paint or what size watercolor pad I use.
Art making and framing supplies are a constant need in any artist studio. I like to use a variety of watercolor papers by various manufacturers, watercolor pencils, tube watercolors, watercolor brushes or instructional books and videos.
I have a white plastic patio set in my house - it no longer doubles as my kitchen table since the next door neighbor moved Spring 2007 (and sold me his kitchen table / chair set) and my daughter just sent my drawing table home with me instead of keeping it for my grandson to use - they moved and no longer have room for it in the new house - he has had it for 2 or 3 years but it has now made it’s way home to me. My computer desk is no longer also doing double duty in my office as my drawing table - though I still sit here to sketch sometimes.
I have a large master bedroom so the plastic table now resides in my bedroom and the drawing table is in my studio/office with my computer painting programs / watercolor painting supplies and art studio materials (reference books, instruction books, watercolor papers, watercolor pencils, electric pencil sharpener, etc). My Stanrite easel for oil painting is leaned against the supply shelf and it also holds my oil paints and oil palette - the book shelf next to it has my books, several watercolor paintings and some of my watercolor papers stored for when I am ready to use a new pad.
I like watercolor block pads many times … I do not stretch my paper … I usually use 140 lb cold pressed … I’ve never used 300 lb watercolor paper yet … one of these days. I have noticed a difference in the papers feel and textures depending on the manufacturer and even sometimes the paper run. All are good papers I’ve tried by well-recognized names in the watercolor paper world but they have a different feel and look to the texture and the tube paints and the watercolor pencils appear differently. I find this very interesting and fun to experiment with as well.
I do use some 90 lb paper but even using my watercolor pencils with no water can sometimes be rough on it .. I have a fairly heavy touch with the pencils many times and if I use water on it … it runs amuck and gives me rainy smudges … sometimes though, that is the exact look I am going for so then it is okay. I do use spiral bound or top glued down watercolor pads too though for a variety of projects … part of it is just what mood I am in at the moment many times and I generally have at least two to four unfinished partial paintings on a variety of pads at one time … sometimes I go back and work on them more … other times .. they are left as is unfinished (I like what I have and do not want to chance ruining it) and I know I will use them somewhere in the future for a collage or a computer finished painting project. Until I started painting on the computer, I used to just stuff those unfinished pieces in a drawer, box or shelf and forget them because I would never use them for anything unless I wanted to do a paper collage which usually are few and far between mostly - I did several with my grandson when he was younger.
Now, I can scan it and collage something entirely unrelated to watercolor on it and make a mixed media painting or collage quite easily using my scanner and computer paint programs .. computer paint programs and layers are so much fun … or I can take that same scanned in partial watercolor and finish the painting with oils - what a combination - I love contrasts and those are very fun to do - I like the results!
For example, in my current watercolor in progress sketch book that is 80 lb paper, I am sketching at lunchtime … the other day, I did the sketch, then sprayed it liberally with water and let it run and smear and smudge. It is a definitely different look and feel to the sketch but it is exactly what I was trying to do yet not at all the end result I was expecting. I liked how it turned out for that sketch … I may try more of that for some abstract paintings.
I recommend trying a variety of paints, pencils and papers from different manufacturers. That is the only way you will find if you like a different brand better than what you are using right now. I had bought a very nice 36 pencil set of name-brand artist quality watercolor pencils … medium price expensive … I had never used them before so I had no idea what to buy or what I would like. They are okay … but they are similar to regular pencils in usage … the lead is rather hard and it breaks quite easily for someone like me that uses more pressure than is probably needed. I bought another brand to try because they were on clearance sale and tried those … I fell in love - they were softer lead, did not break for me and gave me the results I was looking for in using them. Until I tried a different brand … I didn’t know I was even unhappy with the ones I had.
Experiment … find what equipment you like and works best for you … it is all subjective … what brand I like and what brand you like can easily be very different or be exactly alike … we find out in using the equipment how it works for us with our methods.
