Peek inside my studio- Day 2: Acrylic paints

 

   As much as I enjoy urban sketching and illustration, painting has always been my first love. whether oil, acrylic, or even gouache, I love the feeling of moving paint around on my canvas and the texture and three dimentionality of the medium.

   Crimson red, Prussian blue, and white. Three small tubes of acrylic paint, a two euro canvas, and a package of brushes from the local hardware store (more appropriate for painting furniture than canvases) are what began my adventure in painting and my career as an artist. That first painting still sits in my studio shelf reminding me of how far I have come. It is terrible, but I was so proud of it. And with my gradual improvement as an artist my collection of paints has grown as well. In fact, it may have grown more than my ability.

  I long ago decided to fight my natural urge for neatness while painting. I love the chaos and the colour of my acrylic painting station. The rags, with their splotches of colour make me feel like a 'real' painter, and the pile of plastic ice cream lid palettes remind me of the hopes, dreams, and struggles of past paintings. I keep my paint tubes in a metal rolling ikea cart and take out only those tubes or bottles that are applicable to what I am currently working on. Since I often work on multiple pieces simultaneously, and since I am a bit lazy, the number and colour selection often appears spontaneous.

   I haven't given up those hardware brushes altogether. I still use them for backgrounds and clouds. But I have supplemented them with davinci brand brushes from my local art shop which do a much better job. The scissors are for cutting open tubes of paint when they are nearly empty.

   And perhaps most important of all is the cat's water bucket on the floor under the table. She was getting so desperate to drink the paint water that I finally washed out her favourite paint water bucket and filled it with fresh water and set it on the floor. she drinks from it everytime I paint and it is probably the thing that keeps her out of trouble most in the studio.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this messy little corner of the studio and it has made you feel better about your working space.

This is the second day in my 'peek inside my studio' series where I will show you around where I work everyday. I hope it will inspire you to create a working space that you love to be in, even if it isn't always beautiful.

If you enjoyed this you might enjoy:

-Field sketching kit must haves
-Taking and using reference photos
-Sketching kit for the US
- Choosing the right paper 

-Choosing the right paint brush for the job

To get posts as soon as they are published click on the subscribe button at the top of the page or Follow by clicking on the follow button.