My art supplies basket

I promised a wee look

Welcome to my wee corner of Substack. I am a seasonal artist living on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. I am the custodian of approximately two acres of land that includes a woodland, a meadow and my wee garden. I offer a seasonal book arts project for paid subscribers if you are interested and you can read more about that HERE. Grab a cuppa and lets delve into our relationship with the shifting seasons….

In my piece ‘Sowing the seeds of your own creativity’ I mentioned how I had scaled back my art supplies in recent years in an attempt to stop the overwhelm which is a common feature in our creative minds. I am also away a fair bit in our campervan (more news coming on that soon) and we do need to take more than art supplies on our trips! I promised I would share what I have ‘left’ in my basket that I use almost daily. I hope it is useful.

Paint

I use Winsor and Newton small acrylic tubes very regularly. Good quality paint and a good colour range. I store them in a plastic tub and use the lid as a palette.

Inks

I love inks and will choose this medium over acrylic paint and watercolour paint. I only have a few though so I consider myself very disciplined. I like Liquetex and have a brown and a blue. Not sure why, I just do.

I also love Derwent Inktense and have the pencils and the blocks although the blocks have seen much better days. These are water soluble so perfect for moving pigment about the page.

Pens

I don’t have a pencil as I only really draw with pens and Sakura is my go to place as I get three useful pens in their pack. I also have gold, bronze and white Posca pens which are acrylic pigment so excellent for adding in small details.

Quill

My absolute favourite art supply is my bamboo quill. It is an essential tool for me that I am still mastering. I love the mastering process though so hope that experience never ends. I use my Liquetex ink with my quills and often produce an entire sketch with just the quill.

Brushes

I just have a range of brushes for all sorts of different projects.

Gel Medium

I work a lot with collage and so having some gel medium in my basket is pretty essential. Any brand will do. You can also move pigment around with gel medium so it is useful to have. I go for matt as I don’t like the gloss ones.

Van life

I am away more and more and have a wee bit of joyful news to share with you all soon on that front. There is nothing quite like working in the field as a seasonal artist. I also work inside the van with the doors flung open. My art supplies move from a basket to an old vintage suitcase then and I include a couple of sketchbooks and I am ready for art on the go.

I can also fit in a small stitching project into the suitcase so that is a huge win. The crayons you can see in this photo are also a super addition as they are water soluble too. Caran d’Ache are my brand of choice but make sure you get the 11 version.

None of the links are affiliate and I apologise that they are all Amazon but it lets folk see the products pretty much wherever they live. We used to have an art supply shop on the island but that is, sadly, no longer here. I buy online and my favourite hang out is Jackson’s art.

You might also like -

Exploring seasonal ideas