tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65220489263941576402026-03-25T10:56:28.321+00:00a consumer's guide to quality and value in art books, art supplies and services to artistsKatherine Tyrrell (ipad)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18345629498932465265noreply@blogger.comBlogger191125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-20651607587851557342015-09-26T10:02:00.002+01:002015-09-26T10:20:10.883+01:00

A lot of artists will be very pleased that Winsor & Newton have listened to all the complaints about the design of the new tubes for professional water colour paints - and have changed them - again! There's nothing on the website as yet - and I can't find a press release but the announcement is on the W&N Facebook Page (on 16th September) about their plans to change the tubes. No

Katherine Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05881638811516585790noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-43433345266169108312014-10-08T09:00:00.000+01:002014-10-08T12:02:39.657+01:00

Virtually the complete range of Ampersand panels are now available in the UK - from Jackson's Art Supplies.   They are the business!  There are surfaces for every type of art medium (see below) and some work work well with more than one media. These are the ones which are now going to be available in the UK: Aquabord - for watercolour. Check out  Painting in Watercolor

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-22952675983455656462014-08-30T09:30:00.001+01:002014-08-30T09:43:38.999+01:00

If you are an artist and want to market and sell your art online then one of the things you'll end up doing sooner or later is investigate ecommerce software. The aim will be to try and evaluate whether any of them do what you want and which one might work best for you. For those who have never had to deal with anything more threatening than a new version of Microsoft Office, this can be a major

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-33455595948846467982014-08-17T16:21:00.000+01:002014-08-17T16:21:10.177+01:00

Websites and blogs for Artists: RECOMMENDED - A broken link checker which works.For those artists with websites, you may or may not be aware that essential maintenance involves making sure that all the links on your website work.  Google's not fond of sites with broken links. That's not a problem if you only have a few - but if you use a lot like I do then checking them can be just plain

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-71396762867487607402014-04-20T10:42:00.002+01:002014-04-20T12:34:43.850+01:00

Yesterday I updated my website The Best Watercolour Paint for Artists and included a new section about a new artists' watercolour paint which becomes available in the USA next month. branding on the new dedicated QoR website QoR WaterColor paint is produced by Golden who are well known for their acrylic paints. The new section devoted to this paint includes links to: the new

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-53415647442691244212014-02-02T14:30:00.000+00:002014-02-02T14:30:01.182+00:00

Jackson's Art Pricewatch Scheme is the sort of marketing effort by art supplies companies which impresses me.  Jackson's Art website page for the Pricewatch Scheme Pricewatch Scheme Our dedicated team of price watchers will constantly check our online competitor’s prices for the most popular branded art materials so that we can guarantee that the lowest prices can always be found at

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-49908295184862540822014-01-31T15:30:00.002+00:002014-01-31T15:42:33.884+00:00

Arches Oil Paper Pad (140 lb x 12 sheets) Below you can find a video by Professor Steve Levin and Canson about the Arches® Oil paper: A new paper for oil painting links to reviews of the Oil Paper and Oil Paper Pads introduced by Arches. details of suppliers and the prices they've got for the different types of Arches oil paper on their websites as of today's post. It includes both

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-89134611239404063882014-01-07T19:16:00.001+00:002014-01-07T19:16:09.475+00:00

The new 2014 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? is now open to voting - by pastel artists - on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists. It will run for the whole of 2014 and I'll do a report on the results at the end of the year (eg see The Top Five Soft Pastels in 2013) You can also vote in the polls on: POLL: Which is your favourite brand of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-50269580294897913702014-01-04T17:50:00.003+00:002014-01-04T18:40:38.572+00:00

This post reviews my poll Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? which ran on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists during 2013. Here's the chart of the results for 2013 It's the same Top 5 Pastels again - plus a tweak! The top Five Soft Pastels, according to people who responded to the poll, were as follows.  Links to more information about the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-82200443356514704972013-12-28T16:05:00.002+00:002013-12-28T16:05:47.140+00:00

Personal preferences were expressed in the product review poll "Which are the best artist-quality watercolour paints? (2012 / 13)" on my website Which is the best brand of watercolour paint for artists? The chart below records the results of 360 responses. Derived from Which are the best artist-quality watercolour paints? (2012 / 13) The TOP FIVE WATERCOLOUR PAINTS IN 2013 are:

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-7574531985680617642013-10-29T20:24:00.004+00:002013-10-29T20:27:26.708+00:00

Grayson Perry's exhibition of the tapestries which make up The Vanity of Small Differences continues its travels around the UK .  This work is so good it gets its own tour of the UK! It's now reached Manchester City Art Gallery where it will be on display until 2 February 2014. Well worth visiting if you can get to Manchester! (More details at the end of future tour dates!) The tour prompts

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-64331762583956453682013-10-04T18:34:00.002+01:002013-10-04T20:56:18.031+01:00

This review kicks off the The Big Drawing Book Review 2013 - which I introduced on my main blog Making A Mark.   It follows on from The Big Drawing Book Review in 2007.  There have been so many new books in the intervening years I thought it was time for another one! You can find out how you too can participate by reading my introduction blog post (see first link above).

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-67113915236012204872013-09-14T14:57:00.000+01:002013-09-14T14:59:00.036+01:00

Zazzle and Fine Art America are the most popular choices of artists using print on demand services for their artwork.   Print on demand is a service where you upload an image and a company fulfils all orders for a giclee print, invoices, processes payments and despatches the print on your behalf - for a fee.  many artists like it as they can make money from their artwork even if the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-6525350688916761242013-09-13T11:33:00.001+01:002013-09-13T11:33:56.699+01:00

Colour Chart Coasters A lot of artists I know are very fond of collecting trivia which is artist related - and this is a post for those who have a tendency to buy art tools on items wholly unrelated to the studio. Those clever people at the National Portrait Gallery shop have been exploiting this tendency of late with a fantastic range of goods based around a colour chart and a palette. In

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-73233579048051346432013-08-23T09:23:00.000+01:002013-08-23T09:23:14.050+01:00

A NEW 3rd Edition of Color Studies by Edith Anderson Feisner and Ron Reed has just been published in the USA (21 August 2013). It should be available in the UK in either September or November depending on which reference source you read. It's even worth buying just as an investment! Without even having seen it, the value at which the 2nd edition (which I own) now trades for on the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-39568836909997139182013-06-12T13:36:00.004+01:002013-06-12T17:21:18.040+01:00

I've had a bit of a splurge on Luminance 6901 Coloured Pencils by Caran d'Ache!  Here's my haul from Monday's Private View of the Pastel Society Exhibition at the Mall Galleries  Caran d'Ache Luminance Coloured Pencils £2.49 each from open stock at the Pastel Society Annual Exhibition! I've been building up my stock of Luminance Coloured Pencils slowly - because they are

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-33295561405783574532013-06-03T12:27:00.006+01:002013-06-03T12:29:09.372+01:00

This is an update on my previous posts about the introduction of IKEA Hemnes Bookcases into my home last May. Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #1 - shows you what I bought - the Hemnes 90cm wide bookcase by IKEA. ie the naked version as per IKEA catalogue Hemnes Bookcase x 4 for "The Art Library" #2 - RESULT! - this shows you the top two thirds of the first one we made up -

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-72984955345307341282013-05-20T16:39:00.003+01:002013-05-20T16:39:40.135+01:00

I'm monitoring your favoured brands of pastel and I'd appreciate it if all pastel artists click this link 2013 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? to visit my website Pastels - Resources for Artists and vote on the BRAND NEW POLL for your current favourite make of soft pastel. Is it the same as in previous years or have you switched allegiance recently?

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-30316597655894092572013-05-19T16:15:00.000+01:002013-05-25T11:47:19.820+01:00

Unison Colour's Soft Pastels are still pastel artists' favourite brand of soft pastels.  The image below is of the poll results after 445 people voted between January 2011 and May 2013. The chart comes from the opinion poll which asked this question in a poll held on my Pastels - Resources for Artists website.  Only soft pastels available at the beginning of January 2011 were listed (

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-60296355480106861502013-04-13T12:56:00.001+01:002013-04-13T13:01:26.669+01:00

I came across an offer of three handmade laminated colour charts for Unison Pastels made by Unison Colour this morning.  It struck me I'd never done a post about Unison Pastels colour charts - so here it is! Colour charts - and colour charts for pastels Colour charts are available in a number of different ways. printed - needs to be matched to CMYK colours to get the colours

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-2974658174731968352013-03-23T13:13:00.004+00:002013-03-23T15:06:33.596+00:00

I'm a huge fan of pencil sharpeners with helical blades.  These are the ones which have a helical blade - that's the one where the cutting edge of the blade spirals around a core.  The reason I like them is because they cut cleanly, efficiently and very effectively.  The best points I've ever got have been produced by a pencil sharpener with a helical blade. Three years ago

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-20520622051753149542013-02-24T09:00:00.000+00:002013-02-24T09:00:01.471+00:00

Yesterday, I added a new section The Best Art Supplies Stores in New York to my 'resoources for artists' website USA: Art Supply Stores & Online Art Supplies Pearl Paint, 308 Canal Street, TriBeCa, New York NY 10013 I've constructed the section by reviewing what I can find online.   The thing is - I KNOW I've read excellent reviews by art bloggers in the past about

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-55066798689801548142013-02-18T21:45:00.000+00:002013-02-18T21:46:31.248+00:00

This is my Annual Report on the results of the Annual Poll which asks which is your current favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil. Artist grade in this connection means: used by fine artists (whether professional or amateur) - people who would like their artwork to last and/or to sell it. suitable for fine art rather than commercial art where longevity is of no relevance once the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-774544818232883672013-02-16T18:34:00.005+00:002013-02-16T18:34:57.805+00:00

This post is about my Annual Poll to determine the best brand of Watercolour Pencil on the market from those available to purchase at the beginning of the year. Once again Faber Castell is the market leader in terms of both market share and the favourite watercolour pencil. The Favourite Watercolour Pencils Awards 2012 Favourite Watercolour Pencil in 2012 - Faber Castell Albrecht Durer

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522048926394157640.post-44167758502980754062013-02-14T23:00:00.000+00:002013-02-15T03:21:46.721+00:00

I like using different brands! This is an invitation to coloured pencil artists to VOTE for your CURRENT FAVOURITE BRAND of: Artist Grade Coloured Pencils and  Watercolour Pencils.  You can find two BRAND NEW 2013 Opinion Polls about coloured pencils for 2013 on my website Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists The links to the polls are below 2013 POLL: Which is the best brand

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0