Art is getting a place in Mary Bloomy, in a more frequent way I shall say! Last post featured some of my favourite artists (catch up here) and now I'm about to share with you some of my most used tools to create my paints!

In this New York themed box I have my most used tools and the messiness speaks for itself.

I am a messy person, I paint not only the paper but the table, the chair, my arms.... it is how I work best. You have no choice but deal with it ;)

Ink

A variety of inks from black to gold take place in this box and all sort of brushes I use with them!

I've been using them for my calligraphy, to paint details and in conjunction with watercolour. It is great for silhouette painting (and I love those)! Dries quickly, has amazing pigment but needs to be used on a 200g paper at least! I recommend using on a 300g one for no leaking at all (the same I use for watercolour). Inks can be used in crafty projects and have a long staying power. They smudge when not dry so be careful and they're also very hard to blend even with water.

Calligraphy Tools

Art Pen, I'm looking at you! I have not given enough love to this tool as I much prefer my wood pen holder, or whatever it is called, since I can put any kind of nib on it to suit my needs. I have quite a collection of those nibs and you'll sure see it in a future post! Nonetheless, my Art Pen costs 19£ so I better give it some love! It's great for drawing, not that much for calligraphy itself, depending on what you're trying to achieve but overall I don't think you need it when you can get a set for much less money with more nib options! 

Watercolours

I don't even want to know how many tubes I have. It is my all time favourite material to work with and I can't get enough of! The brands vary but quality wise they all get to the same level as I always buy the artist ones, not those for kids! I love the fact you can build up the colour strength in the paper or make it sheer and beautiful. Watercolour gives freedom and blends amazingly well with water. I used to paint my arms when creating combination of colours as my palette would be always full and I never found enough space to place more combinations. Don't recommend doing it thou as it dries out the skin and is not very healthy!

Liquid Masking Fluid

What I did to get my hands on this! I had to go to a different city in Portugal and get it, luckily it was around 7€ which is not much considering the huge bottle and how long it lasts! This liquid mix serves to mask places in your drawing, the spaces you want white (in watercolour usually) you cover with a thin layer of this product and wait for it to dry. When it's dry you can paint on top of it without worrying about the white spaces and after your paint is ready and completely dry you go over with a rubber and this will peel off! Ta-da white spaces even for a messy painter like me! 

Brushes

I always buy watercolour brushes and in here you have a little peek of what my collection is. I have quite a few and some I left in Portugal. The thing is as you use them with water they go bad really quickly so they last you a couple of years instead of a lifetime. Mainly the reason why I stick to Da Vinci and price like brands! They do the job pretty well and are affordable. I even get some for my makeup (later on you'll see that). The ones I recommend getting multiples of are the thin ones - 1 / 0 / 000 and like so as they are very handy for small details and usually detail work require multiple colours. I also have multiples of medium sizes like 16 round/ 20 flat / 6 flat / 10 round, etc. Maybe more on that later! The most important thing is to have different sizes and at least a combination of flats and rounds!

Graphite Set | Faber Castell 12 set

This is the first thing they ask for in an Art class, you need one no matter what. Graphite is your best friend and even if you thought that mechanical pen would be better, you sure will change your mind. Understanding the various grades of the pencils can be a bit of a work at first but soon you'll get there and see how helpful it is when shading a sketch! This particular set comes with some hard pencils - 2H/H/F & HB which are better for precise lines. Starting from B to 8B you have a range of softer pencils great for sketching and make studies! It is a very complete set that I own since 2010 and still has some pencils in very good condition there. I've repurchased B/2B/3B and 8B as they're my most used! Quality wise I like the brand and wouldn't replace these! 

This resumes my NY themed box full of Art material but on the upcoming Art Box series I'll be sharing many more materials I have that don't fit in here and talk about them more in depth! Hopefully you'll enjoy the series and learn a bit more about Art!

Thanks for reading,