G'Day all,
I have a question, or two, aimed mainly at the Australian members of this community (looks towards bigs, aka Sue).
What tools do you use? Which type of paper, pencils, etc.
And where do you get them from? A particular store, through the Internet, etc
At this stage, I have been using good old fashions printer paper (Reflex and the like) and graphite pencils from one of the local "bargain" stores. As I am doing all of this pretty much solo, except for this community, I don't have much experience to draw from. And since my cash flow is rather tight, it makes general experimentation a bit more limited.
Anyway, that's all for now. If someone outside of Australia wants to share their general wisdom, please do. It's mainly I am not sure whether what is available overseas is also available here in Australia (Brisbane in particular).
Cheers,
Craig
Very Rank Novice
Full Version: A little help from my Fellow Aussies (Mainly)
QUOTE (gridlock @ Jun 5 2008, 07:21 AM) 
G'Day all,
I have a question, or two, aimed mainly at the Australian members of this community (looks towards bigs, aka Sue).
What tools do you use? Which type of paper, pencils, etc.
And where do you get them from? A particular store, through the Internet, etc
At this stage, I have been using good old fashions printer paper (Reflex and the like) and graphite pencils from one of the local "bargain" stores. As I am doing all of this pretty much solo, except for this community, I don't have much experience to draw from. And since my cash flow is rather tight, it makes general experimentation a bit more limited.
Anyway, that's all for now. If someone outside of Australia wants to share their general wisdom, please do. It's mainly I am not sure whether what is available overseas is also available here in Australia (Brisbane in particular).
Cheers,
Craig
Very Rank Novice
I have a question, or two, aimed mainly at the Australian members of this community (looks towards bigs, aka Sue).
What tools do you use? Which type of paper, pencils, etc.
And where do you get them from? A particular store, through the Internet, etc
At this stage, I have been using good old fashions printer paper (Reflex and the like) and graphite pencils from one of the local "bargain" stores. As I am doing all of this pretty much solo, except for this community, I don't have much experience to draw from. And since my cash flow is rather tight, it makes general experimentation a bit more limited.
Anyway, that's all for now. If someone outside of Australia wants to share their general wisdom, please do. It's mainly I am not sure whether what is available overseas is also available here in Australia (Brisbane in particular).
Cheers,
Craig
Very Rank Novice
Craig,
I do not live in australia, But i was stationed there for a time when in the army, and I have a foster brother and sister that live in new zealand and christ church, respectively. printer paper is just fine for the time being. but here are a few places to help you out from my family there...
www.allartistsupplies.com
Location Address:
PARADISE POINT
GOLD COAST, QLD 4216
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Rosemary Robinson
Phone: 0416 180546
Mobile: 0416180546
www.seniorart.com.au
Location Address: Phone: +61 3 9639 6662
21 Degraves St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
AUSTRALIA
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Open 9am 9am 9am 9am 9am 9:30am Closed
Close 6pm 6pm 6pm 6pm 6pm 3pm
Location Address: Phone: 03 9804 3404
1357 Malvern Rd
MALVERN
Melbourne, VIC 3144
AUSTRALIA
www.artmarte.com.au
Location Address: Contact: Cindy Kent
Phone: 07 33446588
64 Clausen St
MT GRAVATT EAST
Brisbane, QLD 4104
AUSTRALIA
Open
24 hour web site!
www.eckersleys.com.au
Location Address:
91-93 Edward Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Graeme Barr
Phone: 61 7 3221 4866
Store Trading Hours:
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Open 8:30am 8:30am 8:30am 8:30am 8:30am 9am 10am
Close 5:30pm 5:30pm 5:30pm 5:30pm 5:30pm 4pm 2pm
This should help!
Marc
Craig, don't know which side of the river you are on????
You can look up a great many sites on the intrenet and order from them. Marc has listed a few there is also Oxford Art in Sydney, Art Materials, Jovian, The Art Shop, and a new one is The Office Club - its like a wholesale Club where you pay a fee according to how much you'll buy eg. $16.50 (incl GST) will enable you to buy up to $100 worth, $33 will get allow you to buy up to $300 worth of supplies. I have done some comparisons with Winsor & Newton Artists watercolours and could save up to %50 on them depending on the series.
When it comes to drawing supplies it will come down to personal taste. I would suggest that you get some supplies locally where you can handle papers and try the pencils before you buy, until you get a handle on what will work for you.
I always say buy the best you can afford. Don't blow you budget but get decent stuff. I find a pad of a good weight paper is worth the outlay. I like Bristol, but I haven't seen any pads of it for a while. The last A3 pad I bought was from Eckersleys, at Milton (its in Douglas St, just off Park Rd - its easier to park there than in the City) and it was Winsor & Newton 220 gsm (100lb) smooth. You can also use watercolour paper (just use stuff that's not too rough) The MonMArte watercolour pads 300 gsm aren't too bad and you can get them quite cheaply from ARteMarte. While she is a web store you can contact her & visit - she specialises in MonMArte products.
So you don't "ruin" good paper when you are new it isn't a bad idea to nut out your outline (get the perspective, position of say facial features in the right place, when the major adjustments are done you can transfer those broad outlines (don't press too hard when tracing onto your "good" sheet) to the "good" paper and start your shading and details. Paper only takes so much rubbing out and that is why I say this.
As far as pencils go I don't draw my entire pic with a pencil. My major works I use a method of applying graphite powder (I make my own) with a cloth and then I erase and add more graphite to get the depth of colour that I want. But I sketch with a 2B, 0.7 mechanical pencil - and my preferred one at present is one that you can pick up in Woolies It is a Faber-Castell that is has a clear red body with black ends and comes with 12 replacement leads (only about $2) also you can get my preferred eraser Staedtler Rasoplast from Woolies too and they come in a 2 pack - it is a good firm plastic eraser that you can use a box-cutter to slice to a sharp edge easily, so that you can erase clean fine lines with the edge.
Next I would find a good local newsagents where they have some school art supplies - you can pick up a 2H pencil (good for fine lines in hair etc - be careful is very hard and you can damage the paper) also if you are going to use pencils to draw get a 4B, 6B, and 8B, I also have faber-castell solid woodless graphite 9B great for achieving darkest darks. And while you are there pick up a Kneadable Eraser. You should be able to get stumps from the newsagent too - but if not pick up a few from Eckersleys (or whichever art shop you go to).
I found when I was starting out that Eckersleys was great - its like an Alladin's Cave, and the folk who work there are very helpful in guiding you (just don't get too carried away).
These supplies shouldn't cost too much - I would also add an A4 sketchbook - just a 110 gsm visual diary from the Newsagent, and you can do challenges in there on a better quality paper than copier paper (they aren't that dear) and then you can have a lot of your work in the one place which makes it easier to follow your progress. The "good" pad keep for those works that you might want to give someone, or frame for yourself. This paper will keep better over time and is nicer to work on.
Hope that helps - let me know which suburb you are in.
Sue
You can look up a great many sites on the intrenet and order from them. Marc has listed a few there is also Oxford Art in Sydney, Art Materials, Jovian, The Art Shop, and a new one is The Office Club - its like a wholesale Club where you pay a fee according to how much you'll buy eg. $16.50 (incl GST) will enable you to buy up to $100 worth, $33 will get allow you to buy up to $300 worth of supplies. I have done some comparisons with Winsor & Newton Artists watercolours and could save up to %50 on them depending on the series.
When it comes to drawing supplies it will come down to personal taste. I would suggest that you get some supplies locally where you can handle papers and try the pencils before you buy, until you get a handle on what will work for you.
I always say buy the best you can afford. Don't blow you budget but get decent stuff. I find a pad of a good weight paper is worth the outlay. I like Bristol, but I haven't seen any pads of it for a while. The last A3 pad I bought was from Eckersleys, at Milton (its in Douglas St, just off Park Rd - its easier to park there than in the City) and it was Winsor & Newton 220 gsm (100lb) smooth. You can also use watercolour paper (just use stuff that's not too rough) The MonMArte watercolour pads 300 gsm aren't too bad and you can get them quite cheaply from ARteMarte. While she is a web store you can contact her & visit - she specialises in MonMArte products.
So you don't "ruin" good paper when you are new it isn't a bad idea to nut out your outline (get the perspective, position of say facial features in the right place, when the major adjustments are done you can transfer those broad outlines (don't press too hard when tracing onto your "good" sheet) to the "good" paper and start your shading and details. Paper only takes so much rubbing out and that is why I say this.
As far as pencils go I don't draw my entire pic with a pencil. My major works I use a method of applying graphite powder (I make my own) with a cloth and then I erase and add more graphite to get the depth of colour that I want. But I sketch with a 2B, 0.7 mechanical pencil - and my preferred one at present is one that you can pick up in Woolies It is a Faber-Castell that is has a clear red body with black ends and comes with 12 replacement leads (only about $2) also you can get my preferred eraser Staedtler Rasoplast from Woolies too and they come in a 2 pack - it is a good firm plastic eraser that you can use a box-cutter to slice to a sharp edge easily, so that you can erase clean fine lines with the edge.
Next I would find a good local newsagents where they have some school art supplies - you can pick up a 2H pencil (good for fine lines in hair etc - be careful is very hard and you can damage the paper) also if you are going to use pencils to draw get a 4B, 6B, and 8B, I also have faber-castell solid woodless graphite 9B great for achieving darkest darks. And while you are there pick up a Kneadable Eraser. You should be able to get stumps from the newsagent too - but if not pick up a few from Eckersleys (or whichever art shop you go to).
I found when I was starting out that Eckersleys was great - its like an Alladin's Cave, and the folk who work there are very helpful in guiding you (just don't get too carried away).
These supplies shouldn't cost too much - I would also add an A4 sketchbook - just a 110 gsm visual diary from the Newsagent, and you can do challenges in there on a better quality paper than copier paper (they aren't that dear) and then you can have a lot of your work in the one place which makes it easier to follow your progress. The "good" pad keep for those works that you might want to give someone, or frame for yourself. This paper will keep better over time and is nicer to work on.
Hope that helps - let me know which suburb you are in.
Sue
Wow sue ....thanks for being such a big help to Craig...I read through your post and you were a book of information 
G'Day everyone,
Wow. I didn't expect this much useful info in a small number of posts. Thank you everyone for your assistance.
Sue, from your responses, it looks like you're from Brisbane as well. I'll send you a PM shortly.
And to anyone else reading this thread, please feel free to add any further information.
Thanking you all for your time,
Craig.
Wow. I didn't expect this much useful info in a small number of posts. Thank you everyone for your assistance.
Sue, from your responses, it looks like you're from Brisbane as well. I'll send you a PM shortly.
And to anyone else reading this thread, please feel free to add any further information.
Thanking you all for your time,
Craig.
Thanks everyone for the information and I bought my art supplies from Eckersley only because I do not know about the art store. Like Sue said the staff from Eckersley are very friendly and very helpful too.
Craig .. You can register your e-mail address in web and time to time they will send the letter to you.Sometime there is a special 20% of selected art supplies and last time was canvas on sale and now is big Jule sale. I will go next week to find out what I can get because I cannot spend a lot money for hobby.
lily
Craig .. You can register your e-mail address in web and time to time they will send the letter to you.Sometime there is a special 20% of selected art supplies and last time was canvas on sale and now is big Jule sale. I will go next week to find out what I can get because I cannot spend a lot money for hobby.
lily
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