Blog– Art Supplies NZ

October 09, 2020

Lucky Dip - Jan Thomson

I was a wee bit nervous when I opened the courier parcel from Art Supplies – I told Matt that he could choose what I reviewed this week! So, some Daler-Rowney Aquafine watercolours are here to play with today. I also suggested that he choose the colours for me – and that was interesting, very different from my usual palette choices. Paynes Grey (NEVER used that!), Cadmium Yellow Hue, Rowney Orange, Rose Madder, Scarlet Lake, and Mauve. Hmmmmm… well... I guess the first thing is to find out about the paint from the Daler-Rowney website and see what I’m using....

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Calligraphy, Linda Guirey, Pens, Zig - June 15, 2020

Zig Art & Graphic Twin Pens

I was very excited to try out these brush lettering pens, as I have used many other types and own many types of brush pens, but hadn’t used these ones. Firstly, if you are new to brush lettering there are a few fundamentals that you need to get right before you start. You must use good paper whenever using brush pens, otherwise the brush nibs will fray and you will find that your lettering gets spoiled. Try and use printed guidelines to help you get the right slant of your letters. You can join loveleighloops.com and get their free guidelines...

Winsor & Newton Calligraphy Coloured Inks

Life doesn’t always go according to plan, so when a good friend’s husband committed suicide and then another good friend’s husband was killed in a truck accident, the rails on my road got a bit wobbly and I needed to focus on providing support to those in need. It’s just a reality check - sometimes you feel like being creative and sometimes you don’t, which is all ok. I ran out of my creative inspiration for some time and wondered whether it would come back. Of course it did - it just needed time and space for when I was...

Painting Ideas Are Everywhere - Global Student Acrylic

While lying in bed last week unable to move about due to a bad back strain, painting was a no go. However that didn’t stop the thought process one bit. In fact it gave me the needed time to do what every artists has on their mind at some point. WHAT NEXT? With exhibitions around the corner and this blog to write I had time to put my thinking cap on. Impasto. What to do? What to do it with? As in my previous blog painting is not all about painting what you see. It’s about imagination as well. Impasto...

Why I Watched Paint Dry

And you will want to as well... I consider myself to be an experimental artist. I will try pretty much any product, tool or technique and will probably invent a few new techniques along the way. Sometimes it’s a complete failure but for the most part I love the end results. Of course, this could just be because I keep experimenting until I end up with something that I love. I was incredibly fortunate to receive some samples of a number of Derivan Matisse Dry Mediums from artsupplies.co.nz to play and experiment and create and generally have fun with. To...