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Unloved art materials
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Message
Posted
I'm just about to complete a picture using art materials I never reach for. I have an awful lot of materials .Many I had put on Xmas and birthday wish lists. For example two sets of Tombow multi coloured brush pens when I only use the greys. My other half bought me the largest of the Caran Dasche Luminescence boxes of pencils....I won't have long enough on the planet to use them all. Boxes of Staedtler fine liners, you get the picture. My favourite materials are Uni pens 1 and 2, Daniel Smith and Schminke paints and Prismacolor pencils. That's it really. The Windsor and Newton's I make into travel tins.
I decided to paint a whimsical harbour using some of these materials. I just don't like them. It would be interesting and fun to know what other members do with products they never reach for. I have given some items away to charity, but then I feel bad when they were a present. Of course the answer is not to put things on a list! I'd love to know what others do.
Edited
by Julie White
Posted
Just wondering if I've ever bought materials I never use or didn't like - I have soft pastels, hard pastels, watercolours from different makers, oils and acrylics ditto, vine charcoal, carbon pencils, Mars Lumograph pencils, Derwent Graphic, a bit of gouache, dip pens, Indian ink, carbon ink, fude pens, hake brushes, Chinese ink and stone, coloured pencils, I even have a few water miscible oils.....
The only materials I don't like are some metallic pencils I was given - I can't think of a use for them - and the water miscible oils; I'm not very fond of oil pastels, but that's largely because mine are very old and past their best (please: no unkind comments!). Far from disliking them, I'm always on the look-out for new things to try; but I know what Julie means about the issue of being outlived by your materials; even so, I still believe you can't have too many - and there's so much I still haven't tried; I'm going to have to reach the age of 100, that's all.
Posted
Well Julie, the things I haven’t used but was keen to buy at the time - acrylic inks, massive painting knives, water sol wax crayons, cheap pastels, hog brushes ( I like the softer man made brushes ) , I used a hog brush this morning to reach some crevices in the shower, various grounds to thicken paint etc…I could go on…..I feel guilty every time I come across them but they stay put, you never know ( well I do).
Posted
I’ve got more materials than I can possibly ever use… sounds obscene but they aren’t wasted, and a lot have been given to me by manufacturers.
As well as buying lots of new products to try out, and perhaps only using them once, I’ve won a lot of stuff in competitions, Patchings in particular but online competitions run by Warners.
Couple that with having materials given to me in order to write test reports for The Artist magazine, etc etc. I’ve written probably a dozen or more!
I’m talking many hundreds of pounds worth of materials over the years, thousands of pounds in fact, but I’ve given a fair bit of stuff away, some to members on here…
I’ve also got two daughters who paint as well as teach art, so they are the beneficiaries of quite a bit of stuff…and then I have grandchildren.
I’ve still got a lot of art materials in my store cupboard, but bit by bit, they do get used… or given to a needy cause!
Posted
Robert I think that's very commendable that you use all your materials. I am very impressed. I do still lookout for new materials , my downfall being pens. I have an awful lot of pens, yet tend to use only two types.
Alan you have a big excuse being given materials and winning competitions. It's nice that you've given some to others though.
I'm more like you Marjorie. Things bought which I intended to use. I've repurposed brushes in my time. I like a lot of Japanese illustrations and have been englamoured by their use of manga brush pens.
But with all I have. Like Robert I.have live till I'm 100.
My daughter is well trained she knows the word Jacksons and Daniel Smith.
Posted
Good idea Denise. I will have to try and find somewhere and also try to stop buying things in the first place. Paints that I don't use I'm really good at upcycling into palettes to take out to cafes etc in old tins. Sketchbooks, again I have a lot, I turn into journals. Having said that I do all my art in either Pith or moleskine so they gradually get used. One thing I have really learnt over last few years is that I do not need 120 pencil sets. It becomes overwhelming in colour choice.
Posted
And good quality coloured pencils are now extremely expensive - and wear down quickly. I've seen some gorgeous sets, i.e. those with 120 or so pencils, but for that money I'd rather get paint. Of course, there are artists who work almost exclusively in coloured pencil - for them, the price wouldn't be so outlandish.
Posted
The pencils both Prismacolor and Luminescence i absolutely love. I was gifted both some years ago. My daughter gave me the 48 set of Prismacolor which I use within my paintings. The Caran D'ache box just basically has to many colours. I have read of colourists saying you don't need these huge sets. I just find it overwhelming. Plus I'm using the same dozen over and over. Having said all that I have to try and stop myself from buying more paints from Daniel Smith range. There's 260 I believe!
Alan, the Museum Aquelle look lovely. They would suit my art style!
I love working in coloured pencils but as the fibromyalgia has got worse the layer upon layer work can be to painful if my hands are bad......plus I hate sharpening them. You have no idea how many sharpeners I own. Really top quality ones as well. Then the cheapo ones from Smiths works better.
I hate wasting art materials and will avoid mega sets of anything in the future. As Robert said high quality pencils wear down quickly, and they really do. Where this has happened I have only replaced the Prismacolor with open stock. The 120 set, no. Not when I have about 100 non used!
I think the main problem with these huge sets (apart from horrendous cost) is the amount of similar colours, when in fact they blend with the layers. One doesn't need 10 shades of Paynes Grey. It's all a learning curve I guess. I just feel a bit guilty that my other half bought me the box and I only use a few. Mind you he's never asked.
Edited
by Julie White
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