So, I've taken advantage of some art sales as well as other nice offers in the past month. Just thought I'd show you guys what I got, plus talk about short-term goals and a (maybe) plan for next month.
First, let's go over the new art supplies first. So, up front you can see a watercolor box. That is a Sakura Koi field sketch box. Now Sakura is rated as student grade watercolors, but they are highly rated with excellent bright and vibrant pigmentation, which is why I wanted to get it. I got the 24 color box and it comes with a Sakura water brush, which is in my opinion, the best water brush on the market. I would never recommend Aquaflo water brushes. They simply do not flow well at all. To continue, there is a palette you can set up to mix your colors on and you can also use the lid as well, although I would definitely wipe it off before packing up the box. Can't wait to use this!
Next, I also got a Mijello Fusion Palette with 18 wells. This palette is lightweight, airtight and leakproof, although I have seen reviews that say it is not entirely leakproof. Personally I don't care because I plan on cleaning it up before I pack it up. I have another Mijello palette, but I made the mistake of using acrylics on it and ruined it completely. This one I will be setting up with watercolors from tubes. The ones I think I am going to use are mostly Winsor & Newton Professional Artist Watercolors, Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors, Sennelier French Artist's Watercolors, and Holbein Artist's Watercolor, plus maybe three Grumbacher Watercolors. Also, attached on the inside of the cover of the palette you can remove a transparent mixing pan. You can also use the inside of the lid for mixing, and there are two mixing areas on the section inside of the color wells. Excellent and highly recommended palette.
I also got a few more Winsor & Newton Watercolors to add to all the others I have to put in Mijello palette: cobalt blue, Alizarin Crimson, hooker's green, and winsor red. I have been trying to learn watercolor for about 8 years now, without much luck. I haven't been real serious about it though and I think my lack of patience has something to do with my not being very good at it. But, I seem to be determined that one day I will be able to paint in watercolors successfully and I am now all set to do that! I'll show you how I end up setting up the Mijello palette in another blog article next week.
One other thing I have wanted to do is learn to paint in oils. I actually have some oil paint and did a little bit of painting with them, but I don't like all the mess and what you have to go through to dispose of the paints and rags you use with the paints, so I just stopped using them. Well, now I can start back up because I just bought some Winsor & Newton Artisian Water Mixable Oil Colours. I only bought the primaries and white and black since I can mix all the other colors I need. So maybe you'll see some oil paintings from me soon.
As you can see in the first photo of this article, I also got a lot of different kinds paper. Legion Paper has a great deal on paper samples if you like to work very small - trading card size to be exact (2.5" x 3.75"). So I bought the sample pack and got a mini pad of each type of paper they make:
Stonehenge Aqua coldpress and Aqua hotpress (which is their newest paper that came out in 2017)
Stonehenge white
Stonehenge colors (my favorite is fawn)
Stonehenge warm white, light, and kraft.
Lenox Cotton
Yupo heavy, medium and translucent.
Overall, a real nice variety of paper to experiment with and practice on, as well as create complete paintings and drawings on. Looking forward to using them.
Strathmore's Visual Journal has been very popular since it came out. I never paid attention to it, but I want to start doing some plein aire painting, so I took a look at them. I ended up walking out with a 5.5" x 6.5" 140 lb watercolor journal. In addition, you all know I like to try new things so I also got a 4" x 6" Master's Touch watercolor pad and it's companion 6" x 8" watercolor pad. Now, I don't know if Master's Touch is archival or not, but I'm going to be experimenting and learning. I'm not looking to sell these pieces, so I just wanted to try something new and see how it goes. The thing I like about this paper is that there are two different sides to it. One side has a rougher texture while the other side is smoother so you can choose which side you want to use. I like that.
Lastly, I got two paint brushes: Silver Kolinsky Sable #8 oval and a Royal Taklon #6 round. Funny that the #8 brush is smaller than the #6. Oh yes, and I also got a small bar of Premo Sculpey clay. I need to make a platform for one of my horse statues that just refuses to stay standing. It's already got one broken leg glued back together. I'd rather not have any more broken pieces, so I'll make a platform for it to stand on and no more worries about it falling and breaking.
Almost forgot, I also picked up a Dr. P.H. Martin's Frisket Mask Liquid, of course to use with my watercolors.
I will see if I can get reviews of each of these items posted once I've put them to sufficient work.
There is a new 30-in-30 Challenge hosted once again by Leslie Saeter starting in February. I'm not sure yet if I can manage it, but I am considering it. Otherwise, I will be experimenting with watercolors and oils, and venturing out to do some plein aire painting. I hope to be able to show you all my work once I get it done - if it's not too embarrassing that is. Lol!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and as always .........
........................ HAPPY ARTING!!!
