Shopping day

[altivo]

So I was sorta naughty and spent money. It's not that I can't do that, but I'm trying not to do it too much. This is a tight time of the year, equivalent to early fall when the tax payments, hay bills, and home owners insurance all fall due. Now it's the horse vet bills (paid a year in advance to get a discount,) auto insurance, and possibly income

Comments

[avon_deer]

Art supplies are always expensive. I cannot get over how much pastels were when I last visited a stationary shop.

[altivo]

Things like pastels or paints can vary quite a bit depending on whether they are "student quality" or "professional grade." For most of us, the student version is good enough much of the time. This set was $5.99 before discount and $4.19 after. It has 12 colors, which I find to be plenty since pastels blend so readily

[mondhasen]

I find I'm lusting after Rapidograph pens but at $20 apiece, I told myself "not now

I have two of those, a yellow band and a blue (can't recall the yellow size, the blue is a 3 I think). You should get the cleaning kit for them as well. I used mine intermittently, and they would dry up between uses.

Sounds like a great day!

[altivo]

Gary used to have a whole set of them in a little round plastic case. His first job after high school was as a draftsman for Great Lakes Dredge and Dock in Chicago. He still had it after I met him, but neither of us knows where it is now. He wouldn't have thrown them out, certainly, but he may have given them away and failed to remember it after all these years.

[mondhasen]

His first job after high school was as a draftsman for Great Lakes Dredge and Dock in Chicago.

Ah, then you have experience to draw on, so to speak. I bought mine after using a set of disposables up. There're great for even, consistent lines on smooth paper.

One of my frat brothers worked for Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company after HS as well. Went to Saudi Arabia for them after college.

[ext_227120]

Amusingly enough, GLD&D was blamed for the great Chicago flood that took place back in 1991 or so, when work they did on protective pilings in the river pierced a hundred year old freight tunnel 40 feet below the surface. Subcellars and transformer vaults all over the downtown area were flooded, causing economic havoc for weeks. I was at work in Evanston when I got a voice mail message from Gary saying just "Don't worry, we're being evacuated." As you might guess, I worried, having no idea of what was going on 20 miles south. He worked in a high rise building many floors above street level, but the floods caused power outages all over including there. His building was evacuated through the fire escapes, with some people climbing down 40 flights in semidarkness but no one hurt.

[cabcat]

Oddly enough my local news agent seems to have rather a lot of art supplies that they must get on clearance and sell very cheaply I don't know if they're really good but they seem to be okay.

Wow handmade paper O.O Poor RikkiToo, a guardian of the property injured in the line of duty. Its been raining here now for 2 weeks much of the inner state is flooded but the places have been drought ridden for many years so they're kind of happy and sad.

[altivo]

Handmade paper is the best thing for watercolor painting. I've even experimented with making it myself.

100% cotton fiber is ideal. Cheaper papers mix in more and more wood pulp or recycled paper, and aren't as durable or absorbent.

Lint from the clothes dryer lint trap after washing cotton towels or bedsheets is the best material to save up for making watercolor paper. ;p You need a lot of it, though.

[quoting_mungo]

I've never seen thin tip Pitt markers, but I doubt you'll be disappointed with it, judging by the quality of the Pitt brushpens I loaded up on back when I was in sequential arts. Could be a little blacker, but it handles nicely and the tip material seems to be high quality.

-Alexandra

[ext_227120]

The thin tips come in three breadths I believe, and this one seems pretty comparable to the Prismacolor artist pen in both design and function. They also have a brush tip available, and probably a chisel tip too.

[jumpyfox]

Happy Birthday Pony-man!

[ext_227120]

Heh. Thanks. Good thing I still get notified by this old account or I'd never have seen your message.