The Wonderful Words for this Wednesday are,

‘Setting up Art Supplies’

This is relevant even if you have no ‘studio’ space like me currently.  When you go to play some art, the amount you enjoy your session has some to do with HOW you set up your space.

We are going to talk this through as if we are talking about the perfect world.  Now, do NOT walk away from reading this and think, well, that’s too hard so I can’t get creative.  NO siree!  I often play art amongst models, school papers, books, computers, you name it, but when I have time to set up my supplies on a clean table and put some soft spa music on in the background, it’s next level stuff.

So now that we talked through that, allow me to invite you into my home and to my table to see how I set up my supplies when the stars align and I have space and time:

*It should be noted here that I’m a lefty.   If you are right handed, this would be reversed (art supplies on the right and subject to the left).

A Tour

Let’s start with the top right corner and go clockwise, shall we?

• First we have my little pouch in which I carry all of my essential art items like my sketching pencil, erasers: big, medium, and small, my best black drawing pens, etc.
• Next is the subject I’ll be drawing/painting.  Today’s subject is this beautiful Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in the round pic (bottom of the left hand page in the book).
• Third is my watercolor paper, my sketching pencil, and a kneaded eraser, all of which I have on top of a strong piece of cardboard.  Where did I get this?  Well, it’s the back of a watercolor paper pad of course!  Always keep these, they are great for placing under your drawing, painting, stamping, etc. just to keep your table surface clean.

Oh, you in the back, you have a question?  For those who couldn’t hear, she asked why I have a kneaded eraser.  This is used to roll over the graphite of my sketch after I get it just right.  It removes a lot of the graphite and leaves a faint outlines I can use as I paint, but that won’t show up in the painting later.

• Right to the left of my paper (does that sound weird? ‘right to the left’? Well, I think you know what I mean…) is my favorite ceramic palette. Ceramic palettes are very easy to use and clean.  There are small ones and big ones and even rose shaped ones!
• Above the palette is my patented style of how I keep my paper towel and water.

This last one deserves some explaining: When you do watercolor, you use a lot of water (go figure), and you are dipping your brush in and out of that water constantly, which makes a mess.  The other thing I do a lot is blot my brush on my paper towel.  By the end of this painting, that paper towel will be soaking wet and that is not good on a wood table.

To keep everything neat and tidy, I use a little rectangle plate and place a paper towel folded in half (double the strength!) on top and then my water on top of that.  This way, when I dip my brush in the water and blot it, it all just stays contained on that little plate.  AND, here’s the bonus, my brush sits nicely across it and the tip does not get smooshed. Am I brilliant or what?  Feel free to steal this idea!

• Then I have a jar of brushes in all sizes and shapes, but I mostly use round brushes sizes 2-8, my favorite is a round size 8.
• Lastly I have my watercolors and their swatches so I know what they look like on watercolor paper.  The swatches are essential and if you haven’t made swatches for yours, do it!

How do YOU set up your table when you have space and time?

Now, for those of you who made it to the end, I left one little thing out from my list of things on my table.  I didn’t name it or explain it.  The first one who comments below with the right answer (or emails me if you’re reading this in your in-box) will get a handmade card sent to your mailbox from me to you and it might even have a few fun little things inside.

Well, that’s a wrap friends!

Kimberly Snider, virtuoso, Signing Off

Links to all the things, including upcoming in-person classes, click HERE

*There are affiliate links included in this post which means that if you click on the links and purchase something from those links (amazon links only), you’ll be supporting me and I’ll get a small percentage of the purchase (at no additional cost to you).  Thank you!