ARTdiscount Blog

EVENTS & FEATURES

We are all more than ready for creativity and inspiration this year. To help you, we have begun collating Arts & Culture events that are happening during 2022 (continually updated) we hope this gives you plenty of opportunities to quench your creative thirst!

Charcoal has been and is still used by many fine artists, illustrators, and performing kinetic artists. There are many types of charcoal on the market today that can be used to create illustrations, sketches, finished drawings, used to lay out a painting on canvas, or work on large scale pieces and during performance art.

Tim Muddiman is an English artist, musician and creative. In his own words, Tim's work is "an exploration of the human condition through contrasts: strength and fragility, depth and height, colour and monochrome". Tim takes us through his journey from successful musician to professional Artist.

After finding that all important pencil set that suits all your needs, the next step is to make sure you have all those little extras to complete your tool kit! Erasers are one of the most important tools you need along with the pencil and it is best to have several types in your drawing box for all those different drawing functions.

The pencil that you hold in your hand does not contain lead!             This is a misconception, it is actually graphite, also known as plumbago or black lead.

There are many different types of easels on the market today, and we have one for every project and every kind of studio, even the kitchen-table kind of studio! We stock many easels for up and coming artists and the professionals alike, however, what other applications can an easel be used for beside painting?

Jamie Holman is an Artist, writer and lecturer based in his home town of Blackburn. Works from this collection have been exhibited at The Royal College of Art, The Saatchi Gallery Magazine and more recently British Textile Biennial. We are thrilled that Jamie could talk to us and give our readers an insight into his practice.

It can be a little tricky finding the right gift for someone but we hope with this article we can give you some ideas for some interesting and innovative gifts for a fellow artist.

December is here and Christmas is approaching, it's time to purchase the perfect gift for someone close to you. Through this blog we hope you get inspired!

Lapis Lazuli is thought of as a semi precious stone, it is in fact a rich deep-blue metamorphic rock (metaphoric means it has undergone transformation by heat, pressure, or other natural occurrences).

EVENTS & FEATURES

As we begin to attend public events following the end of pandemic restrictions, we have collated creative activities and events for the remainder of 2021 and into early 2022 bringing joy and togetherness back into our worlds.

Perhaps the most important factor when it comes to picking a watercolour paper is deciding on which surface you want or need to use, as each will give your work a different look and finish.

Using watercolour glazing techniques from episode 5 of Watercolour Wednesday, Ellie guides you through some festive creating to make your own Christmas cards using techniques shown in our previous episode.

A Uni Posca Pen is basically an odourless, water-based pigment paint marker for most surfaces. It is very popular amongst artists, designers, calligraphers, illustrators and creative hobbyists. It is used by amateurs and professionals on all types of materials, hence its versatility and compatibility to use with other mediums.

EVENTS & FEATURES

To help to give direction and a personal goal to aim for, we have listed below artistic competitions and call-outs for 2021, beginning with January deadlines, which we will update throughout the year.

EVENTS & FEATURES

We take a look at two very different projects that show how art is used to shine a spotlight and gain valuable support for charities within our own communities.

Alongside our Christmas cards, we have been filling our sketchbook with wonderful festive artworks.

As a teacher it is vitally important to always have the right equipment to hand to assist with the ever evolving process of teaching the next generation.

Traditionally Gesso was a mixture of gypsum plaster and chalk mixed with water and other binders to make a white slurry that creates an absorbent surface for painting on.

Our final episode of 2020 brings together all the techniques showcased over the last 7 episodes along with new techniques, to conclude with a final piece.

Our episode shows you how to create texture using non-specialist supplies such as sponges, rock salt and clingfilm.

Our In-House artist Ellie Jakeman takes you through resist techniques using both tea-light and taper candles plus masking techniques with our own ARTdiscount masking fluid and masking tape.

We explore Glazing, an important technique for all watercolour artists, especially when using a limited colour palette.

 This episode, Ellie Jakeman, guides you through how to use your new brushes with mark-making, textures and patterns...

Welcome to our first episode for Watercolour Wednesdays! We are joined by artist Ellie Jakeman who has extensive experience using watercolour both as an artist and an art teacher, designing courses for large classes and small groups.

Create a colour chart with your new watercolour pan set or tubes

All 36 colours and 3 mediums of System 3 acrylic paints can now be used for Block Printing! What’s not to love about these highly versatile paints!

For this article you need to get your wellies and warm coats on before the paint brushes come out! Long walks in your nearest park, local wood or even on the beach, should bring you lots of great source material to observe then paint and lots of things to collect and use to paint with! If you have a garden bursting with autumnal colour even better!

We recently met Alex Fleming, a Wildlife, pet & equine artist. Alex creates incredible realism using pencils and pastel and became a finalist for SAA Artist of the Year 2021.

Following on from our ‘ThINK INK’ article, which introduced October Ink and our huge collection of black inks, dip pens and ink fine liners for all your creative monotone needs, we didn’t want to stop there!

INK is a solution that contains at least one colourant (dye or pigment) and a Solvent, (plus a few other ingredients for quick drying)  it is used for writing, drawing, painting or printing.