I Must Be Crazy!

In my efforts to learn more about the gouache medium, I've been reading the blog of Roz Stendahl, http://www.rozwoundup.typepad.com/.  Now Roz has some pretty definite ideas of how gouache should behave and there are only two brands that meet her standards - Schminke and M. Graham - both of which are pretty pricey.

Since I've always believed that you should use the best artist materials available (that will do what you want them to do), I decided I wanted to try out the Schminkes when I recently ran out of some colors of the gouache I'm currently using.

So I placed an order for 4 tubes (15 ml size) which were on sale and I nearly had heart failure when the total came to well over $60 even before shipping!  Would you like to see what four tubes of that size look like?

You can click on the picture to see it larger but please be aware that these aren't the gouache I ordered but some watercolor I already had.  (The actual gouache won't arrive until tomorrow or the day after.)

I'm well aware of the quality of the Schminke Horadam brand but I guess I haven't really had to order art supplies for quite a while and just got a case of sticker shock.  These are four relatively small tubes as gouache goes and I can only hope they're of such quality that they go a lot further than the brands I currently use!

I've just about decided that gouache is my current medium of choice as I like that it's water soluble but I can use it on just about any substrate.  It can be used either as a fairly transparent wash or very opaque like oil or acrylic.  But, cleaning brushes after every break or interruption isn't necessary - a quick rinse and the brushes are fine until I need them again.

While they do dry quickly like acrylics, they lack that plasticky look that acrylic will sometimes have.  And another plus is that even though the paint will dry quickly on the palette, it can be re-wet like transparent watercolor and isn't lost like acrylic paint.

Anyway, now that I'm over the sticker shock and both my heart rate and breathing has returned to normal, I'm ready to get those bad boys here and start playing with them!  The one color I really needed was over $20 a tube on sale so I'm going to look it over very carefully to see if there's gold embedded in the binder along with the other pigment!

These paints had better be far superior to other gouache paint brands and I almost expect them to paint the canvas for me for the money I spent!  I'll let you know how they work!  Maybe they'll even finish that portrait of my other half in his cowboy gear!

Great Art Tool

Although not specifically for art, the Preval sprayer is definitely useful for the artist and my number 1 favorite tool besides paint, brushes and supports!

The Preval sprayer acts like a mini airbrush without all the hassle or noise.  I use it for spraying paint and also for varnishing finished paintings because it gives such even coverage.

The full kit comes with a glass bottle and lid, the gas canister and the dip tube (or stem) with filter.  Once you have the glass bottle with the lid, you can just replace the gas canister which also comes with a new dip tube and filter. 

If you saw my post from yesterday - the one with the photo of the messy studio - you'll see a piece of cardboard sticking up on the left side of my table.  That's my "spray booth", lol.  The cardboard keeps the spray contained to one area then I have plastic bags covering the table to protect it.  I also have an old vinyl shower curtain protecting the floor under the table.  I probably don't need all of that as the Preval is really pretty precise in it's spray pattern and there's not a lot of overspray.  I just feel it's better to be safe rather than sorry!

Hope I've given you another tool to put in your arsenal whether you're an artist, a woodworker or another sort of crafter.  This little sprayer is easy, relatively cheap and a real help in many situations!