Artist's babble

Let me say this straight up: I can't always afford the best art materials and that bothers me. Why? Because a lot of the time, the more expensive art materials are noticeably better than the cheaper ones (orly?nowaiBBQlolsauce). Yes, I know this is an obvious observation, but hey - being Ms. Obvious here. Get over it~

So the purpose of that was to rant more about art supplies. Not even bad rant - more like a ponder than rant.

I recently assisted in designing for Odyssey at UCSC and used my awesome watercolor set of awesome along with prismacolor pencils to achieve a desired texture and effect in my renderings. After spending some time on the renderings, I realized that I would really love to try out some watercolor pencils. But there was a dilemma: I had two different parties whom I respect equally tell me the exact opposite responses about the idea of watercolor pencils. One disliked the idea of them, as after usage they did not end up looking as well as just watercolor or watercolor mixed with pencil. The second one adored the idea of watercolor pencils, because they gave her a great range of textures and were extremely easy to work with.

So I went on a research hunt and realized this: The first one was using Derwent brand pencils, while the second one was using Faber - Castell. And here comes in my love for Faber - Castell. As a fan, I decided to splurge and get the set of 12 basic pencils to test them out, meanwhile borrowing the Darwent ones from the first friend.

Of course, as an art nerd, I had to see for myself how the two compare, and this is what came out:

Faber - Castell




Darwent




As you can see, the Faber - Castell ones are less grainy than the Darwent ones. I was not surprised, really, but I was more than happy to have chosen the slightly pricier ones, as they will make a difference in the future. Yay for good choices.

So I guess the whole purpose of this was mostly for self - reflection and thoughts about using best quality materials to create the best pieces of work. I always try to get the best, even if it is pricier, as long as it makes a difference.

How about you guys? Do you believe that using higher quality materials will improve the quality of finished work? Or do you believe that any quality materials can be used, as long as you have the skill?

I these are the things I think about in the middle of the night during a finals week.

Cheers!