Back to school supplies

What's better than a fresh box of crayons? Not much. If painting is my practice, buying art supplies is my hobby. And since it can get expensive fast, it's usually worth it to go back and revisit the treasures I've already collected and dig into using my favorite ones.

Here's overview of the supplies that frequent my desk most often these days, with a focus on what's new since I gave my recommendations last year. And if you're in the mood to look back, here's a link to the archive of materials related posts. Enjoy!

The biggest change

After years of leaning most heavily on watercolor, I now find myself almost always reaching for gouache or acrylic when I go to paint. This has created a cascade of changes for me in what I need out of paper, brushes and palettes.

Here's my gouache set up – I'm still using the wet gouache that I set up in this air tight palette back in April. These paints have been in here for almost 6 months now and they're still going strong. I had another one of these palettes that was filled with my M. Graham gouache, but it had persistent mold issues. It wasn't a surprise as M. Graham includes honey in their binder and are known to be more likely to mold. Still, they did pretty well for about five months with the support of clove bud oil and some rubbing alcohol every now and then.