What's in your art box?

[Octo]

I thought I'd do a thread where we nerd over art materials and related paraphernalia instead of me having to do any actual art, I'm just sat here looking at my stuff and thought 'hey heres a displacement activity'

My stuff:

Mechanical pencil - Steadtler (y'know despite seeing this word since the day I started school I still don't know how to pronounce it.) Mars Micro 0.9mm and one of

Spoiler: these guys

thats 1.3 mm

A

Spoiler: Factis Tri-24 rubber

- just the right amount of softness. Y'know when you're a kid how you covet the soft erasers? Can't stand hard erasers (though they have their uses)

I also have a selection of pencils I've accumulated over the years.

Bristol board - Originally bought for a bunch of Letraset Tria markers that I don't use because I'm afraid of ruining my linework, I digress I quite like bristol board, it's very smooth and holds up to quite a bit of abuse at 250gsm (I've only just started paying attention to paper weights) It is however pretty expensive, so now I just get generic 140gsm cartridge paper which isn't as thick or smooth but does the job pretty well.

I usually get paper/sketchbooks in A3 size if I can, anything smaller is too limiting.

Windsor and Newton Cotman watercolours

Spoiler

- managed to pick this up for £20 when its normally 30 quid. TBH I don't think I've used any other brands of watercolour, they just seem to be the default ones. I like them but I don't know if other brands are any better.

Various sketchbooks with ultra thick textured paper - that I haven't used because they're too nice and whatever I put in there will ruin them!.

Acrylic paints - most of the time I just buy the cheap ones from The Works - college used to use the Daler Rowney stuff and I can't really tell the difference - except for the white - the DR stuff seems a lot more opaque than cheapo whites.

Pastels - both chalk and oil - various brands I don't use them very much but they look pretty and I don't like to throw them away. I like to use oil pastels with turps and sort of smush them around, sort of a lazy way to paint.

Inks - All cheap brands except I bought a silver and gold from windsor and newton - again these hardly ever get used.

Brushes - various sizes, I covet the very fine ones - The most I have ever paid is about £12 for a set of 5 but I'm very particular about them - I like Taklon the best because they're nice and firm, yet springy, and they hold their shape well despite all the abuse I put them through.

Having said that it's not like I've ever used any expensive 'natural' brushes so for all I know they could be fantastic.

Anyway - enough of me - what bits of kit do you guys have? Do you have any 'go to' bits and pieces?

Also, does anybody here use an easel or a drawing table? I've always wanted a proper drawing table but I've never been able to justify the expense (or have the space!)

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Non-Virtual Artbox: Black fat and thin Sharpie markers, markers in various shades of gray (lol), 0.5 mm mechanical pencils, 2H, 3H, 6H pencils (I put a lot of pressure on the paper), 8.5x11 inch sketch-pad.

^^ This artbox rarely gets used outside of school projects. I need more concentration to draw stuff traditionally, then I do digitally. Which is the opposite of how it usually is...

Virtual Artbox:
The entire Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) These programs are usually used to open and save my open source file formats into the file formats most other artists use. I don't do that much actual art in them; they're hog more of my CPU/GPU then the open source programs do.

GIMP for all non-vector stuff. Inkscape for vector stuff. Apophysis for the fractals. These are the main programs I use for art.

 

[Ghost X]

- Mont Marte tripod easel (DO NOT RECOMMEND... need to get myself one of those A-Frames with the dowel thingies).
- Mont Marte willow and compressed charcoal (does the job).
- Sharpie bullet tip permanent marker (preferred choice of permanent markers).
- Airline high performance permanent marker (not preferred choice of permanent markers ).
- Staedtler triplus fineliners (I abhor fineliners)
- Staedtler plastic eraser (does the job).
- Paper Mate plastic eraser (as above... no difference ).
- Putty eraser (can't find it, forgot brand, rarely use, but does the job).
- Bic pens (the shitty quality mass-produced variety, but they have an interesting texture).
- Pilot 05 V Ball Grip pen (good for continuous uninterrupted lines, my pen of choice when sketching random things).
- I got a lot of cheap brand brushes, but I was given some expensive ones recently. Haven't tried them all out, but Artisan seems like a good brand.
- Derivan Polymer Gloss Varnish (will never buy this again )
- Atelier Gloss Varnish (My preference).
- Matisse acrylic paints (got other brands too, but this is my preference). I basically pick warm and cool primary and tertiary colours, plus black and white.
- An assortment of Matisse acrylic paint mediums (spreaders, gel medium, impasto medium).
- Art Spectrum oil paints. As above, colour wise. Haven't used them yet.
- 6 set of Art Spectrum Finest Artists' Gouache (used once, but never again )
- 12 set of Art Prism Watercolours (haven't used them yet, may not ever do so ).
- Art Spectrum Artist's Pigmented inks (black, red, blue, green, yellow)
- Art Spectrum Brush and Hand cleaner (over-rated).
- Canson student visual diaries, A4 and A5 sized (never leave home without one ).
- A1 Oil sketch paper (choice when working with paint).
- A1 135gsm paper (choice for charcoal drawing and such).
- Good quality A1 folio, which cost me AUD$80, to put the above in .
- Cheap 1x1 metre stretched canvases, for my larger works (forgot brand, probably made in some sweatshop... shitty quality, but can't afford anything more expensive)
- Colour pencils of various brands. I think I prefer the softer kind, rather than harder ones.
- Graphite pencils, doesn't really matter what brand, can't say I've found a bad variety in a while.
- Celco stanley knife-thingy (tool of choice for when I am forced to make stencils ).
- Microban Scissors.
- Clag paste.
- Parfix PVA wood glue.
- Ironlak spray paint (I am not a fan of using spray paint).
- Fiddly Bits high gloss enamel spray paint (see above).

Wishlist:

- Atomiser (I got plenty around the house, but none of them are empty of their original cleaning agent-containing purpose ).

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

An old ass Wacom Bamboo and Adobe CC.

And then a whole bunch of bookbinding materials that I really ought to make books out of and sell. Would anyone be interested in purchasing a customized sketchbook by any chance?

Oh and a bunch of fancy papers. As in that's what's in my "art box," not that I'm selling them. I used to do screen printing of business cards and such.

 

[HylianMogget]

- Various graphite pencils. I'm actually running pretty low on them, especially the grades I usually use (I like sketching with either 2B or B). I like Staedtlers, but my local art stores don't seem to sell them. I'll buy whatever brand is there, though.
- Various sketchbooks/pads. I'm not too picky about paper for sketches; I find if I get pretty sketchbooks I end up too afraid to draw in them at all. I should probably get bigger sketchbooks, though, the ones I generally get aren't big enough for me to practice doing larger drawings.
- Toned paper (brown) sketchbook.
- Newsprint (smooth and rough)
- Kneaded eraser. I really need () to get a new one of these. I should get a plastic eraser, too, I either used up or lost mine.
- Col-erase orange pencils. I love these so much, but the fact that I don't even sketch with regular pencils anymore first is probably a bad habit.
- Charcoal pencils. The stores around me only seem to sell General's for some reason, but I like Conte a lot more.
- Black China marker, just for drawing on newsprint sometimes. Unraveling it is a pain, though - dunno if there's an easier way to go about it or if I'm just inept.
- White charcoal pencils. I'm not too picky about these, as long as I can get them in an individual pack and not have to buy other pencils with them.
- Vine charcoal (soft).
- X-acto knife, for sharpening pencils.
- Sandpaper, for the charcoal pencils and sometimes graphite pencils.
- Brush pen and Staedtler pigment liner pen that I never use because I'm too much of a wuss for ink.
- Warm gray Prismacolor marker that I also almost never use for the above reason.
- I've got a bunch of leftover oil painting stuff (oil paints, old brushes, palette paper, palette knives, turpenoid, probably a canvas somewhere) that I never use anymore because I don't have anywhere to paint. I've also got a set of casein paints that I've never really used for the same reason.
- Anatomical plastic skull replica.
- Asaro head.

For digital it's Photoshop CS3, my Wacom tablet that's probably almost 10 years old, and my scanner that is also around that age.

 

[Drax]

A huge stock of Sharpies, because they always disappear on me
Micron pens
Light box, but I'd like a bigger one
Graphite pencils, many sets of them. I only ever use 4H and 6B I think.
Mechanical Pencils
Really fancy tracing paper but I can't remember the name of it. It lets you see underneath so that you can see what you're inking, without tearing the paper or the ink blotting.
Xacto Knives and blades in fancy wood cases
Erasers--gummy knead, steadtler plastic (for inking,) pink
Calligraphy ink pens
Mat Cutter and table for it to sit on
Bristol Board, Mat Board, Watercolor Pads, many blank canvases

Wacom bamboo tablet
Adobe Elements
Gimp
Painter 11

 

[Octo]

Yes im reviving a 500 year old thread to ask:

For those who use paintbrushes, what is the most you've ever spent on one brush? and/or have you ever noticed a discernable difference with moar expensive brushes?

I'm kind of doing watercolours at the moment and I've seen guys on youtube with these fat brushes but their like £30 each which is fucking crazy but I kind of want one >.>

 

[Strangelove]

i have spent at most about £7 on a set of brushes, because i feel like i'd be spending too much money

then i went and got a second hand wacom intuos4 tablet for £120 that spent like 2 years in a pantry not being used

 

[AvecAloes]

I've definitely spent at least close to $20 on a brush for oils before

I usually prefer natural bristle brushes, and don't really mind if they're kind of cheap. I mean, I don't want bristles coming out all over my paintings, but I really like the texture they create. But that's for oil paints, I don't have much experience at all with watercolor or watercolor brushes so maybe I should just back out now...

 

[Flare]

Yes im reviving a 500 year old thread to ask:

For those who use paintbrushes, what is the most you've ever spent on one brush? and/or have you ever noticed a discernable difference with moar expensive brushes?

I'm kind of doing watercolours at the moment and I've seen guys on youtube with these fat brushes but their like £30 each which is fucking crazy but I kind of want one >.>

£30? Jesus
I think the most I've ever paid for a brush is like... $7? I buy brushes from the Michael's store and they have three grades, like from novice to professional... tbh I've not noticed much of a difference I've not had a problem with bristles falling out either, but it can lose its shape after a while (bristles poking out in different directions).

 

[Ghost X]

In my experience, the cheapest brushes are shit, and they are a few dollars each. Middle of the range are sufficient. If you look after your brushes, they last a while.

 

[Octo]

I find synthetic brushes can be very cheap/cheaper and still be decent, but natural brushes tend to be utter pants if they're cheap. I assume so as I've never used a moderately priced natural brush.

But I don't look after anything. I found a jar the other day with the brushes all disintegrated and stuck together. It had had turps in it but it had long since evaporated. I can't have nice things.

 

[Happy Little Lemon]

My brother always had really high end natural brushes (he painted for a living) and I had more moderately priced ones. Occasionally he would let me use his, and while there was a difference it just wasn't enough of one to justify that much extra money!

I find investing more money in something encourages me to take proper care of it, but I don't know if this is universal

 

[trash panda]

I find synthetic brushes can be very cheap/cheaper and still be decent, but natural brushes tend to be utter pants if they're cheap

This.
I've never dished out too much money for brushes. I'm not a professional die-hard artist and I don't do it for a living so I don't see a point. That and, I also don't take care of my things. I can work on something and then just out of the blue not look at it for seven months and when I go back to it I'll realize that I never washed the last brushes I used.

 

[Strangelove]

i would like to say i'd always wash what i've used but then i remember who i am and that's a person who is hella lazy

then again, i have packs of brushes and tubes of paint that i haven't even opened

 

[AvecAloes]

I take ridiculously good care of my paintbrushes. Always have - my middle school art tutor commented on my care regimen once and it's always stuck.

 

[Tennyo]

O lord I have no idea what I have. Everything has exploded all over. D:

 

[Ghost X]

 

[Octo]

Hopefully Tenny is responding to the original question, and not talking about some sort of rash

 

[Tennyo]

 

[Flare]

Oh, also, what's in my art box? Uhhhhh

I have some sketch pads, two with white paper and another with a tan paper. Prismacolor color pencils (for the tan paper), and then I like to use the thin .4mm lead mechanical pencils for drawing and sketching. Random erasers that erase good.

I have some blank canvases and a fair amount of acrylic paints and paintbrushes. I'd like to take time someday to paint for canvases, but for now the acrylics and brushes are used all for my sculptures and clay stuff.

I have some super sculpey clay and yesterday bought some Fimo colored clay to try out as well (all polymer clay). Fimo is supposed to be fairly flexible after baking. I have a mishmash of tools I use for sculpting, but it's mostly my fingers and then some needles, a fee tools I bought, some old sanitized dentist tools, and then of course wire and foil for armatures.

Aaaaand then I have a 3 year old bamboo Wacom tablet I use for all my digital stuff. I love it <3

I think that's everything..... or a good basic round up of it.
In the future eventually I just want to spend several days a week painting and drawing and sculpting and doing art all the time!

 

[AvecAloes]

I have so much crap I don't know if I could ever even take inventory of it all, much less type it all out. I have multiple things that house multiple materials. Let's see if I can give at least some kind of overview...

For printmaking: I have wood blocks, a dremel tool, printing ink, ink rollers, a baren, printing paper, linoleum blocks, linoleum carving tools, a wood carving tool...

Oil painting: Several sets of brushes (synthetic and natural), way too many oil paints, turpentine, medium, canvases, paper for oil painting, a palette, palette knife, scraps of cloth for cleaning up, an easel

Watercolor: I have at least 2 sets of watercolors, though I don't really use them, 3 or 4 brushes, watercolor grade paper

Drawing: Mechanical pencils, non-mechanical pencils, charcoal pencils, vine charcoal, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, several sketchbooks, a few pads of bristol paper, Copic markers, sepia toned pencils and several different tones of conte, a few fine tipped markers, a few different types of erasers, a couple sets of pastels, newsprint


Those are really the major mediums I use right now (or if not RIGHT NOW, then immediately in the past). I think that mostly covers it?