My Favourite 'Arty' Materials

I was tagged by the lovely Dork Features to write a post about what is in my pencil case (or in other words, what arty materials I like to use), so here goes! 

1) Collage

Recently this has been my favourite thing to create, using Acrylic painted papers, a scalpel and glue to make my collaged pieces. I then look at an image of something (for this instance, I used my picture of local allotments featuring some lovely strawberries) and cut things out directly. Tip: For small pieces that are tricky to pick up and glue with your hands, put a bit of glue on the tip of the scalpel and pick up the tiny piece of paper with this. However, this does make the scalpel super sticky so not the best thing to do (it might just be one of my bad habits!!)

2) Watercolours

I can find these a bit hit and miss, depending on what paper you use. For this example I used cartridge paper and watercolours really do not agree with this, they just soak in straight away and its hard to blend them. However, with a thinner paper they can look lovely and blend well. I like to use Reeves and Winsor & Newton.

3) Ink

I like using ink for mark making, and the occasional drawing if I want it to be bold. I like to use materials such as string, sponges and various paper to make marks with ink, a long with different sized paint brushes. I love the messy aspect of ink, and  how spontaneous it can be. 

4) Acrylic Paint
Most of the time I use this to paint my own papers for collaging with, however when I am feeling brave I will paint with it also. I like to use 'System 3' Acrylic paint, but there are lots of others just as good!

5) Graphite & Fine Liners

As you can see, I have lots of different fine liner pens. This is because they all vary in size and I think you need this as sometimes you need to do more detailed, refined drawings, making a thinner tip more suited to this. I love using Graphite for texture and thicker lines.

My Desk:

Throughout summer I will be doing most of my work at this tiny desk I built myself, ( it cost £15 from Argos, so i can't complain!). I'm using my wall to put inspiration up, such as research pictures, drawings and fabric samples. However, I really can't wait for my new, larger desk that I will get in second year. 

Thanks for reading, I now tag Charlotte, Hayley, and Francesca (I know you don't have a blog but you could always Instagram it :D ).