Art Supplies and Merit

[gracedpalmer]

So, recently I've been becoming more and more dissatisfied with my old, student grade art supplies. After all, when we say student grade for most of them, we mean high school student. This is causing me to have real trouble finding supplies in a lot of the places I used to buy them. Strathmore 300 series is all that Michaels carries, and the stuff bleeds significantly under pen and ink - even the Winsor and Newton ultra black stuff with the shellac binder. Fortunately, we have an Utrecht nearby. Today I bit the bullet and sprang for some nice illustration board, a sheet of Arches hot press (hot press watercolor paper is nigh well impossible to find in any format other than full sheet) and a sheet of the 100% rag Strathmore Bristol plate. It's all lovely stuff, but I have this persistent nagging feeling:

I'm not good enough for it. Despite the fact that I've been having trouble with the old stuff, I have to squelch the feeling that I am not worthy of good supplies. After all, good supplies are expensive, and one ought to be able to make do, no? Doing my best to ignore it, of course, but I do wonder if this happens to anyone else.

I also got some harder pencil lead, in the hopes that it'd help me deal with my problems with smeary sketches, and a decent white plastic eraser. Also a bottle of sumi ink, because that's what a lot of manga artists use, and I'm curious. We'll see how that goes. In a moment, when I stop being scared of it, I'll chop the full sheet stuff up into managable pieces. Right now it's too alarming. :)

Comments

[theresamather.livejournal.com]

If you don't try new supplies, you will never find the ones that really "work" for you and make your art the best that it can be. :)

[sister-bluebird.livejournal.com]

Oh, intellectually I know this. I just need to get over the craziness first. :) The ink tests I did turned out very nice indeed.

[beloitst.livejournal.com]

I used to have the "I'm not good enough for it" feeling when it came to expensive fabric. But I got over it, and just cut into my $50/yard silk because you just have to DO it, or you never will.

It's about being an artist. You KNOW what you're doing. That doesn't mean that every creation is going to go perfectly or come out the way you want. But very rarely will you screw up to the point where it's equivalent to pouring paint down the sink, and **even if you do** that's just part and parcel of the creative process sometimes. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't use good supplies...the quality of the supplies directly affects the quality of the work. You ARE good enough. :)

[jenny_evergreen]

This. And I'd wager most people go through that "good enough for good supplies" thing, across the board. It's just us silly humans being silly.