equipment

Equipment

Artists Canvas from 151 Artists

Size 8 x 10 inches, suitable for acrylics or oils, ready to use. Pure cotton, softwood frame, Tripe acrylic gesso primed. I get these at my local poundshop and as I only occasionally dabble in oils or acrylics they do the trick nicely.

Art Carry tube from Crimson and Blake.

to carry art work up to A3 these are available from the Works bookshops. Ideal for transporting work to and from classes or to mail a piece of your work.

Crimson and Blake Brush Holder

Easy to assemble and take apart again for storage. Ideal to keep your brushes to hand when working and for drying them prior to storage. Available from the Works bookshops.

Winsor and Newton Cotman Water Colours Sketchers' Case

This compact and lightweight case contains all you need for a day out. A6 heavy weight case bound sketch book with 48 perforated 170gsm hot pressed pages. It is suitable for works in pencil, pen and ink and water colour. Sketching pencil, putty rubber, paint box with the following half pans cadmium yellow pale hue, cadmium yellow hue, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine, cobalt blue hue, sap gree, viridian hue, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber and chinese white. A plastic water bottle and size 2 Cotman series 111 paint brush. In addition it can be worn on the belt as above or the attachable strap can be worn around the waist or over the shoulder.

For myself I will add a couple of more brushes, craft knife, piece of sponge, pocket tissues and a small pallette, two plastic egg cups to hold water, possibly even an additional sketch pad of lighter paper for sketching and keep the heavier for painting and another paintbox for additional colours. There's even an additional zipped pocket on the front for your ciggies or money/bus pass etc. Review by Jane

Winsor & Newton Cotman Portfolio set.

Retailing at just over £25.00. This set comprises an A3 strong semi transparent portfolio with ten 8ml tubes of cotman water colour paint, plastic palette, two Cotman series 111 brushes and an A5 pad of paper. All of the high quality you would expect. The portfolio is strong yet lightweight and is ideal if, like me you use public transport. Review by Jane.

Masquepen Masking Fluid from Cruddas Innovations U.K.

When I saw this item in my local art suppliers, I thought what a brilliant idea, masking fluid to be applied with a fine nib. It is expensive around £5 for 30ml as against bottled fluids which retail at roughly £4.25 for 75ml. But I considered it worth the investment. Sadly I have been disappointed. Sometimes the fluid comes out in fine lines, but it has a tendency to suddenly produce a great big bubble as air traps in the nib. In addition the masking fluid appears rather strong and often damages even good papers. I've had it in my kit about twelve months now and have tried diluting it with water, with no improvement. When the bottle is empty I shall try putting regular masking fluid into it, maybe that will work. Well I have now done that, and experimented with a number of different dilutions to no avail.

Mr Cruddas the inventor of this device has contacted me and asked me to try the masquepen with the super nib. This makes a big difference. The super nib allows me to create very fine lines in masking and is much more suited to my style. The super nib has a very fine application and comes complete with a fine wire for de-clogging the nib and a water bottle to aid cleaning. It is essential to clean the nib as soon as you have finished as the masking fluid dries quickly and failure to do so would rob you of your investment.

I am now very happy with the masque pen. Mr Cruddas ensures me he has sold thousands of the pen without complaints. Maybe my initial review was biased to my own style or the way I was using the pen. I still cannot get on with the pen alone, but encourage all to invest in the super nib for those really tiny applications. I find it especially useful for masking window frames, which is something I often need as I love painting byuildings. review by Jane

Start Watercolour Wooden Box from Derwent.

Presented in a stylish wooden carry case with brushed aluminum handle and catches it contains 24 watercolour pencils, 6 sketching pencils ranging from 2H to 3B, brush, palette, pencil sharpener and plastic eraser. I have used watercolour pencils before being a set from WHSmith but found them very difficult to work with as they were not easily soluble. However this set has changed my opinion of this medium, being a delight to both draw and paint with the colours blend easily. Only one disappointment was the palette, which is very thin plastic, however if you keep it in the carry case it is sturdy enough. Review by Jane.

Crimson & Blake 144 Piece Artists Set.

Whilst this suppliers papers and brushes are of a lamentable quality, their hardware is on the whole a good cheap and cheerful quality and I possess several items. This item is presented in an attractive polished wooden box of A3 size and will make a useful porfolio when the contents are used up. Contents are 42 coloured pencils, 32 watercolours, 32 marker pens, 28 oil pastels, 4 drawing pencils (two of each 2B and HB), eraser, pencil sharpener, mini stapler, 2 brushes and a small ruler.

The coloured pencils are of an acceptable quality, with a wide range of colours including useful skintones. They proved to be waterfast when tested but blending of the different colours proved impossible.

Again the oil pastels contain useful skintones. But it has to be stated that I have bought better ones from the poundshop. These are very soft and very greasy, having a texture of wax crayons. They are impossible to blend and difficult to soften the edges. However they will prove very useful with resist techniques in place of wax crayons.

Well marker pens are marker pens, some had dried out, but there is a wide range of colours. And hey I'll never be stuck for a bingo pen.

The water paint pans are also of a very poor quality. Stemming partly I believe by too much binding agent. They work up instantly giving a very strong colour but flat washes would be very difficult as every brush stroke is visible. Many of the pigments are very grainy giving an unusual texture. Wet in wet was hopeless, and also lifting out. Yet when a clean brush was run through when the paint had dried, pigments were very easily disturbed. The range of colours are very unusual including my favourite dayglo pink.

Despite the poor quality of the contents I like this set very much. I believe with some experimentation these unusual qualities can be taken advantage of to create some interesting mixed media works. Great fun for the unconventional, bad news for the purists.

The Perfect Paper Stretcher from Ken Bromley Art Supplies

This wonderful invention is supplied exclusively by the above company, see suppliers links. A simple but effective product, the board is made of lacquered wood and comes complete with four plastic gripper rods and full instructions. Sizes are to fit 1/4, 1/2 and full imperial size paper of up to 140lb. I have spent the past couple of months working on 70lb paper with complete success. Single boards cost from £19.65 but discounts are available if you wish to purchase more than one. Very easy to use and you can save pounds by buying lighter weight paper.

The Perfect Paper Stretcher from Ken Bromley Art Supplies

This wonderful invention is supplied exclusively by the above company, see suppliers links.

Please contact me if you are a supplier and would like me to review your products.