kita_dawg
07-15-2011, 08:05 PM
You see, I began getting back into painting again a couple weeks ago. I set up a little art space, lined the area with tarp, lined tubs around me for surfaces, and have a bunch of primed sheets of 150lb cold pressed paper ready for paint. As I was setting stuff up, I pulled out some old samples and education material I received from a slew of vendors during a big invite-only artist's night the big artist supply store in Reno had a few years back. I didn't have a chance to get into the stuff when I got it, as it was near the end of my semester, and I already was knee deep in projects and had no time to tinker. But I saved everything.
Every little bit is very, very important information, I now realize. I was spoiled by this well stocked and very friendly and reasonably priced store. There is nothing even close around here. I found one small store, but their prices blow. The selection is just ok, but it really is mostly just paints and class supplies they carry. Michaels' prices are laughably horrendous. The only things worth my time are clearance priced things if they are 70% off. Every time I look for art supplies on clearance, they are wiped out. At least, the ones that are actually a deal and not still a ripoff on clearance (these local artists know what they are doing! :fist:) They have more cheap shit than quality stuff, and the quality stuff is horrible. The cheap shit is actually cheap... but it is cheap. I am currently fighting cheap gesso and am none too happy with it. I am pretty sure it is white house paint labeled as gesso >.<
I bought a one gallon can of Gamsol from the tiny local art supply store, as low odor spirits has always been the medium I have used for my oils. The lady there recommended it to me, as i had been using Turpenoid for years. I thought Turpenoid was the end-all, since I started out with turpentine, and in terms of odor, Turpenoid was miles better. She told me Turpenoid wasn't OMS (odorless mineral spirits) even though it says no odor. She said I would love the Gamsol. She was right, I do! It is as big of a difference from the Turpenoid as the Turpenoid was to the Turpentine!
Anyways, I had started painting, and was getting frustrated trying to get some paints to do what I wanted. I needed dark colors, shades of blacks, for the base. I had always worked with light colors in the past, so when I mixed them with titanium white, I got the desired consistency. Mixing with white was not an option with this. I knew there must be a special medium I could get to thicken my paints that were too thin. I always worked with thin, subtle layers with small detail work in the past, so the Turpenoid worked great. With the dark colors, it has been a headache.
So, I pulled out the materials from that vendor night. I found samples of all the watercolor paper and boards offered by the two major vendors. Having it in front of me allows me to order them online from Dick Blick! Blick has, hands down, the best prices and selection on art supplies ANYWHERE. They carry EVERYTHING and have wholesale pricing options! The only downsides are shipping cost and time. The huge store in Reno had prices competitive with them (I am 99% sure they ordered most of their supplies in bulk from Blick, which allowed them to stay competitive) so I never needed to order blind when I could go into a store and pay a few dollars more to get exactly what I needed that day. Anyways, with the paper samples in front of me, I am not ordering blind! I know exactly what to order for my projects!
It is the same for paints! I found color charts for high quality Windsor paints. They have been my preferred paints (or, other higher quality brands on sale :p). Having an accurate color chart eliminates the chance of color discrepancies occurring when ordering with a computer (I know my colors are not set properly on this, just haven't taken the time to do so yet). So I can order paint without having to see it with my own eye or drag samples into the store!
I had already sorted through most of the samples, added the colored pencils with my colored pencils, paints with my paints, etc. There were some mediums too, which I went through again. Two samples were some nifty specialty ones for acrylic. One reduces crazing (?). The other one is really impressive :) You spread a layer over any printed image you want to copy. Once it dries, you peel/ rinse the paper from the printed image off, and you are left with a clear film that contains an exact replica of the image! You can take this film and lay it over a canvas and seal it down for some really fun effects! Useless to me now, but there can be some fun down the road.
The other samples were for oils. One, coincidentally, was the Gamsol I already bought. I never tried the sample or looked very closely at it. I now have this tiny 1 oz sample bottle of it plus a 1 gallon can of it XD The other two are Galkyd and Megilp. Galykyd claims to be for glazing, a technique I don't use, so it has been collecting dust. Not understanding mediums, the Megilp seemed to decrease drying time. To me, this was silly. One of my favorite parts of oils has always been how long it remains workable. I can come back to it for days to continue working on it. At least, that is how it was when I only used Turpenoid as my medium... XD
And, finally, most importantly, I found a chart from Windsor about mediums.
I. Had. NO. Idea. I was CLUELESS about them. I thought they were only needed for special projects or effects (like the ones for the acrylic)! All of my classmates used acrylic or watercolor (half of my paintings were watercolors) so I never saw anyone using much medium. To be honest... it was most likely my fault I didn't know about mediums. I was a horrible student. And I think it is just catching up to me. I was late to most classes, and used it pretty much just as studio time. I skipped most non required ones and just came in whenever I wanted when I wanted to use the studio. Most likely, mediums were covered, and I missed the class on it >.<
But! The good news is how much info I was able to find online about mediums and in my chart! It even has a mixing guide that shows you the proportions to mix and the effect they have! So, I have about 200 dollars worth of mediums, papers, and gesso sitting in a cart on blick, waiting for some money to come in :p All of the frustrating things about oils, I now realize, have an answer! I now know how to make EVERY color, EVERY shade and tone BEND TO MY ARTISTIC WILL!
Muahahahaha!
Every little bit is very, very important information, I now realize. I was spoiled by this well stocked and very friendly and reasonably priced store. There is nothing even close around here. I found one small store, but their prices blow. The selection is just ok, but it really is mostly just paints and class supplies they carry. Michaels' prices are laughably horrendous. The only things worth my time are clearance priced things if they are 70% off. Every time I look for art supplies on clearance, they are wiped out. At least, the ones that are actually a deal and not still a ripoff on clearance (these local artists know what they are doing! :fist:) They have more cheap shit than quality stuff, and the quality stuff is horrible. The cheap shit is actually cheap... but it is cheap. I am currently fighting cheap gesso and am none too happy with it. I am pretty sure it is white house paint labeled as gesso >.<
I bought a one gallon can of Gamsol from the tiny local art supply store, as low odor spirits has always been the medium I have used for my oils. The lady there recommended it to me, as i had been using Turpenoid for years. I thought Turpenoid was the end-all, since I started out with turpentine, and in terms of odor, Turpenoid was miles better. She told me Turpenoid wasn't OMS (odorless mineral spirits) even though it says no odor. She said I would love the Gamsol. She was right, I do! It is as big of a difference from the Turpenoid as the Turpenoid was to the Turpentine!
Anyways, I had started painting, and was getting frustrated trying to get some paints to do what I wanted. I needed dark colors, shades of blacks, for the base. I had always worked with light colors in the past, so when I mixed them with titanium white, I got the desired consistency. Mixing with white was not an option with this. I knew there must be a special medium I could get to thicken my paints that were too thin. I always worked with thin, subtle layers with small detail work in the past, so the Turpenoid worked great. With the dark colors, it has been a headache.
So, I pulled out the materials from that vendor night. I found samples of all the watercolor paper and boards offered by the two major vendors. Having it in front of me allows me to order them online from Dick Blick! Blick has, hands down, the best prices and selection on art supplies ANYWHERE. They carry EVERYTHING and have wholesale pricing options! The only downsides are shipping cost and time. The huge store in Reno had prices competitive with them (I am 99% sure they ordered most of their supplies in bulk from Blick, which allowed them to stay competitive) so I never needed to order blind when I could go into a store and pay a few dollars more to get exactly what I needed that day. Anyways, with the paper samples in front of me, I am not ordering blind! I know exactly what to order for my projects!
It is the same for paints! I found color charts for high quality Windsor paints. They have been my preferred paints (or, other higher quality brands on sale :p). Having an accurate color chart eliminates the chance of color discrepancies occurring when ordering with a computer (I know my colors are not set properly on this, just haven't taken the time to do so yet). So I can order paint without having to see it with my own eye or drag samples into the store!
I had already sorted through most of the samples, added the colored pencils with my colored pencils, paints with my paints, etc. There were some mediums too, which I went through again. Two samples were some nifty specialty ones for acrylic. One reduces crazing (?). The other one is really impressive :) You spread a layer over any printed image you want to copy. Once it dries, you peel/ rinse the paper from the printed image off, and you are left with a clear film that contains an exact replica of the image! You can take this film and lay it over a canvas and seal it down for some really fun effects! Useless to me now, but there can be some fun down the road.
The other samples were for oils. One, coincidentally, was the Gamsol I already bought. I never tried the sample or looked very closely at it. I now have this tiny 1 oz sample bottle of it plus a 1 gallon can of it XD The other two are Galkyd and Megilp. Galykyd claims to be for glazing, a technique I don't use, so it has been collecting dust. Not understanding mediums, the Megilp seemed to decrease drying time. To me, this was silly. One of my favorite parts of oils has always been how long it remains workable. I can come back to it for days to continue working on it. At least, that is how it was when I only used Turpenoid as my medium... XD
And, finally, most importantly, I found a chart from Windsor about mediums.
I. Had. NO. Idea. I was CLUELESS about them. I thought they were only needed for special projects or effects (like the ones for the acrylic)! All of my classmates used acrylic or watercolor (half of my paintings were watercolors) so I never saw anyone using much medium. To be honest... it was most likely my fault I didn't know about mediums. I was a horrible student. And I think it is just catching up to me. I was late to most classes, and used it pretty much just as studio time. I skipped most non required ones and just came in whenever I wanted when I wanted to use the studio. Most likely, mediums were covered, and I missed the class on it >.<
But! The good news is how much info I was able to find online about mediums and in my chart! It even has a mixing guide that shows you the proportions to mix and the effect they have! So, I have about 200 dollars worth of mediums, papers, and gesso sitting in a cart on blick, waiting for some money to come in :p All of the frustrating things about oils, I now realize, have an answer! I now know how to make EVERY color, EVERY shade and tone BEND TO MY ARTISTIC WILL!
Muahahahaha!