More art tools I can't live without

I have a number of tools that help me to create my art and I would be lost without them!

Do you have any tools that make creating your art easier?

If you have been following my blogs you may remember I previously listed the following tools as my favourites:

1 Proportional Divider

2 Tablet

3 Daylight Lamp

4 Table Easel

5 Incredible Brush Cleaner

6 Pastel Catching Tray

7 Latex Gloves

8 Memory Foam Mat

Here are some more tools to add to that list:

9 Foam Rollers – I bought these small rollers from Bunnings and use them to apply my gesso and apply the background on some of my paintings. I also use them to paint the edges of my stretched canvases.

10 Natural Sponge – I love how soft they become when they are dampened and how you can mould them into different shapes to depict seagrass on the ocean floor.

11 Small Table on Castors – This was made for me by my late Father-in-Law. It was originally made as a table to hold my pastels and has a lip around the edge so they didn’t roll off. Now I use it for my laptop and to attach my tablet and large daylight lamp. Because it is on castors it can follow me around the studio.

12 Palette Knife – I have only just started using the palette knife for painting instead of just mixing the paint. I love how the colours merge together when applied with the palette knife and think I will experiment more with this tool.

13 Picasa – This is free photo editing software available to download. I use it all the time to crop my photos prior to painting. It does lots of cool things to photos, most of which I don’t really use but they are there in case I ever need them. I believe Picasa is soon to be replaced by Google Photos so I’ll have to update.

14 Fine Water Sprayer – This is made by Atelier (in the smaller blue bottle) and much better than using the normal sprayer if you need to dampen a section of your painting as it uses a fine mist rather than big droplets.

15 Easel – I bought my first easel about 12 months ago and love it. Before that I used a drafting table for my pastels and attached a piece of timber across it to sit my canvases on. Now I have both and can move between the two.

16 Comfy Chair – I have had my gas-lift chair for about 20 years and it is still as comfortable as it was back then. I can move it up and down and swivel it all around … do the hokey pokey! That’s what it’s all about

Supporting Others

Happy to advise that an amount of $3,000 was raised by the charity art auction in aid of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service organised by Ocean Blue Gallery at Belmont. I contributed two pastel paintings to the auction, which I believe is going to be an annual event.