Where to buy your art stuff

Something came to my attention the other day when I was out buying some art equipment, know because my art budget is so low I do my very best to get the best stuff that money can buy at a cheaper price than anyone thought possible.

A few places you should look for good deals is first of all, Ebay don't look down on second hand deals because much of the time they have not been used or hardly used, the second store I would advice is an art shop, ocassionaly they have deals on which are cheaper than anywhere else. The Last place I would advice is abroad (i.e not england) now this one is clearly not for everyone and you should by no means book a plane and go of to italy to do this I'm just saying if it just so happens that you are abroad it is worth taking a look at art stores I will give you an example of just how much I saved on a set of Faber Castell Pitt pastel pencils set of 24, i got it for £12.00, maybe even less. Now if anyone has ever bought a set of these I'm sure they can tell you your not going to find it for cheaper.

Theses are all measuers that I am sure not all of you need to do however if your budget is limited don't just rush out there and buy the first thing you see because it says 25% of next to it, shop around.

My Watercolour Painting

First of all I would like to apologize for the technical issue with my last post, I will try to fix it ASAP

I did this Painting when I was 14, it is my first ever watercolour painting and I am biding it on Ebay, feel free to check it out :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120770222377?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1156

A great portrait

In terms of drawing portraits the easiest and best starting point is to draw someone with wrinkles and scares. Now I know  that this sounds like a little bit of a shock, most people would think that you want to be drawing the best looking people  with a clean face, however this makes it very difficult to define the face and make it look realistic. For example a few weeks  ago I drew Rolf Harris and once I got past the center of the face, the eyes, ears and mouth, it become very easy to give the  face the impression of being round and 3D using the wrinkles as a guide line. However I am in the middle of doing a pastel  painting of a beautiful women but I find it much more difficult to give the women any form of a 3D look and sometimes step  back and find myself feeling that it is very flat, When it is finished I will post it on the blog. Another fundament in drawing  and painting, well any picture, is the positioning of the subject on the page, this is especially essential in drawing portraits  this is the thing that makes your drawing stand out from the crowed from being a little thought out drawing and a  masterpiece. I could go on but right now I am busy however if you have any questions email me or comment on the page and I will get back to you :)

Derwent Studio Colour Pencils

A perfect colour swatch

I always find myself designing things and doing draft drawings however when I get to the final stages I need to add colour to these drawings, now drawing and painting is one of thoughts things where its you who makes the picture what it is not the equipment you use, this is true to some degree however I may find myself looking around the studio and I see others coloured pencil work looking quiet dull, they leave it a week and all the colour has almost disappeared. For this reason I went out and I bought a set of 36 Derwent studio pencils for no more than 25 pounds, they have stayed with me for 2 years, of course I still use them and not once has the led in it broke on me, I have drawings I did from 2 years ago, stuck to the wall and I keep on thinking "any day now and the colour is going to fade" but it never does and it wont do because Derwent studio pencils are lightfast, the colours are perfect and much of the time I find that a pencil company is putting in the pencils for the sake of making the array of colours look good, not Derwent each and every colour is thought on how it will be used. They may also be used for drawings and I find that they go perfectly with the Derwent Soft Pastell pencils, moreover they work perfectly with Derwent Artist pencils because they are both colour indexed. I defiantly prefer these over any other brand not only for the great price but also for all the things I have listed.

Soft Pastels

It would be unfair for me to say that I know everything about Soft Pastels because to be honest with you I have only been using them for a few weeks. However with that in mind I can safely say that I love them, this is for me.  I love the great ability to blend and work the pigment you have on the page whenever you want as well as having the ability to add more layers to it, furthermore with the pastel pencils you can add a great sense of detail, as you would with normal colour pencils. In terms of adding detail to my coloured work I have always used coloured pencils however I like the more broad use of being able to add detail and block in a great amount of pigment, furthermore you can mix together more colours so there is an endless array of colours. With all this in mind it does sound like the perfect medium for anyone however it is quiet a flight medium and if you enjoy the thickness of Oil paint then this probably isnt for you, all in all thought I love it :)

Is knowing art history important?

This is something for me I find essential to the development and the progress of my art work. This is for numerous reasons, the most obvious one could be that you can learn from old techniques from the past two thousand or so years and maybe even develop your own style or technique, the artists who know a bit art history are the ones I think are able to develop art work that is either original or a replica to the old techniques. Another advantage of learning of other artists is that you can began to understand wether or not you want to be an artist, this of course only ever applies to you if your not already an artist, wether or not you want to be an artist... In the last 500 years you have a contrast between artists who were well of and earned well, in there life time, from being an artist for example Picasso however there are others such as Van Gough who although his paintings are worth millions in his lifetime he only ever sold two, even thought there is good evidence to suggest that he knew that his art work would one day become famous. A few years back my dad bought me a book on the impressionists techniques and it was at that point I knew that art history was important to me so that I can improve, I'm sure that you can tell from my old posts that my work is not like the impressionists, in many of my portraits I don't add a background whereas in much of there portraits the background is essential and competes with the foreground.

Foreground and backround is competing in this painting
this is an old styled technique

Derwent Graphic and a little on Dewent skeching

Derwent Graphic 

It does not matter what kind of fine artist or Illustrator you are you are more than likely going to need a good set of pencils which acquire to your drawing or sketching needs. For me Derwent Graphic pencils does that, this is not just because I bought a set once upon a time and I have never thought to go back, no, I tried just about every pencil out there and these just did it for me. Affordable and a well made pencil with the graphite bonded right throughout the barrel to allow you to get the maximum out of your pencil. For me thought the best thing is not the affordable price or any of the things I have mentioned above, my favorite thing is the ambiguous use between broad strokes and a sharp point, if desired with a sharpener or a crafts knife. However if you prefer more of a sketchy style and are on the move a lot then this Derwent Sketching is a great option for you, moreover it is a great addition to any graphite artists kit because something I learned completely by accident is that you can rub this stuff out and there is no evidence visible on the page. I thought personally prefer the use of the Dewent Graphic pencils however it cost me £2.99 for a set of 4 I acquired a few years back and I still have and use so even if it isn't for you then its not going to set your art budget back. 

DERWENT SKETCHING

Visit the  Dewernt website for a luck at demonstration with theses products in use or just examples of works http://www.pencils.co.uk/