Expensive

You don’t necessarily have to be rich to be able to make something; I do try things out from time to time, simply because I am not willing to keep getting my wallet out for every creation, and believe me, that’s not something typically Dutch.

I often wonder how artists in the past managed; the average artist was... poor. Artists made their own paint and didn’t buy the most expensive of the expensive, simply because the manufacturer, or rather, the advertising agency, says it’s brilliant, or because other artists say you absolutely must have it to produce anything decent.

Recently, I watched a video on YouTube in which an artist discussed the 5 or 10 most overrated items for artists. It’s always interesting to watch, and it often makes me laugh too. Especially when it comes to the lightfastness of, for example, paint or oil pastels. This lady had tested all of that as well, and it turned out that not much of it was actually true.
In any case, she saved me from buying an expensive acrylic marker. I’d already been hesitating about whether to buy one (mainly to sign my name), but €6 for a marker is, of course, a bit ridiculous.

Today I finally got round to doing something I never do: trying out all the colours in my watercolour set. It was a relatively cheap purchase. I’ve used it once or twice for this purpose. The psint doesn’t seem to contain a huge amount of pigment, but it works perfectly well. To date, I’m still not a keen watercolour artist.

Instead of canvas, I used my favourite bamboo paper. In this case, it’s a sort of sketchbook where the sheets can be torn out, as the bamboo paper pads weren’t in stock. What can I say about my test? That a lot of the colours' shades look very similar. This could, of course, be down to the type of paper or the amount of water, but what also struck me is that the colours actually stand out more clearly on the bamboo paper than on watercolour canvas. In this case I used an old round brush, the bristles aren’t even pointed anymore. I haven’t yet managed to bring myself to buy a special watercolour brush costing more than €50. I think that’s far too expensive and why should I if this one does the job?

I still search for the one I used before. 🤐

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26.9.2026
#ccc #freewrite #creative #steemexclusive}

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#ccc #curatorapplication #steemcurator #october2026 #steemexclusive}