Feeding My Habit

I am an art supply junkie.

If I had piles and piles of cash, some charities would be very happy and I would travel often and art goodies would arrive daily on my doorstep.  Thinking about it makes me giddy.  I would also hire an art trainer - like a fitness trainer, only they'd make me actually USE the paints gathering dust in the studio.

Old and new stuff just waiting around
for the artist to get inspired...

You see, every time I read about a new technique, watch a demo or get inspired by a blog post, I think "I need that pen/paper/paint!"  The must-have item(s) will often end up in my online art store wish list for the next sale.  (No local art store.)  These places send weekly specials, so it doesn't take long, though I do have some restraint.  The boxes show up on my doorstep only about every other month.  Does this actually translate into more art - generally not.  There, I admitted it.  I feed my habit, but my habit doesn't always feed my art.  Sigh.

In related news:

I discovered yesterday that my 1980's gouache paint is still usable.  What!?!  That's fantastic!  I'm signing up for an online class that lists gouache as one of the possible tools.  I immediately went into I-need-that mode.  It then occurred to me there were a few tubes in my old pale green tackle box.  I pulled it out of the studio/guest room closet and managed to unscrew all of the lids.  (Which wasn't easy.  I actually have a blister on my thumb from the effort.)  Three are dry as dust, but the other five are still good.  Woot!

In unrelated news:

I'm cataloged!  I received an email from The Sketchbook Project that my sketchbook has been cataloged into the Brooklyn Art Library.  How cool is that?  It's one of many thousands, but still...coolness.  I'm excited to see how my goofy little illustrations look digitized.

In additionally unrelated news:

Since returning to my art, I've been upcycling lots of bags and jars and such.  My husband was about to toss a big zip-type plastic bag this morning, but asked me first "Do you need this bag for art stuff maybe?"  Not monumental by any means, but it was a first time question that just seems, I don't know, it just made me smile.

Retro Carousel

And now, another blast from the past.  Back when the Pony Express delivered my college acceptance letter...  um...  When my parents helped me load up the model T...  er . . . .  We didn't use computers back when I spent my waking hours in the graphic design room...  Seriously.  Designing and production was done sans keyboard, touchpad or monitor.  Shocking!  I know!  A young friend recently told me she didn't realize there was graphic design before computers.  Yeah, I'm old.

I also worked on campus creating graphics.  My boss bought a Macintosh computer during my senior year.  The original Mac.  I learned the incredibly brilliant MacPaint and MacDraw.  It was amazing!  Stop laughing.  It was.  Prior to that, my lone computer experience was a few weeks of BASIC programming on a clunky computer in high school.

Though the office had a Mac, not a single computer was available in the art rooms.  T-square, airbrush, frisket film, color paper, rapidograph pen, non repro blue pencil, registration marks, x-acto knife, burnished lettering....  No computer.  We were also required to purchase a set of design markers.  Double-ended bright colors that did not come cheap, especially for a college student.  I still have mine, but hadn't used them in years and years - stashed in the basement with the tackle box.

48 Prismacolor markers saw the light of day this week.  Testing time for the 27 year old fine points and chisel tips.  First three?  Fantastic.  Nice clean colors.  Then Warm Gray 20% scratched across the paper leaving no color whatsoever.  Next two were good.  Then Cold Gray 40% - dry dry dry.  My old set was shrinking.  However, the next one was fine, and the next and the next.  One after the other, both sides flowing nicely.  Only two were kaput.  A pleasant surprise.  Time to add vibrant color to the sketchbook!