Materials, Tools, Habits, Beverages, a bit of personal history, and "The Process"

In my early twenties, my move from my hometown in southern New Mexico to the Pacific northwest coincided with a period of artistic inactivity. While I still drew and painted occasionally that time in my memory is one of stagnation as a painter. While entertaining the notion that I could be a successful writer if I could only finish the draft of the science fiction novel I was working on, I mostly drank, hopped between jobs, and tried to get laid. This chapter in my life lasted a good three and half years. Looking at the work I've kept there's a pretty clear gap, both in quantity and progress.

Mine looks 1000% less pristine than this but this is it. It's a wonderful product. 

Eventually, my desire to paint slowly crept back up. In the fall of the year before I moved from Seattle to the Columbia Gorge (personal and professional life in shambles, depressed, all that) I spent $40 on a  palate of Pelikan watercolors. Prior to that, I had been making due with craft store garbage; spending that amount of money on a set of paints seemed obscene, though in doing so I felt reinvigorated. While I am a firm believer in creating art on whatever budget your means allow, there is something to be said for the pleasure of using high-quality materials. 

This rekindled my love affair with making art, and from then on I began to paint again regularly. Over the course of the next several months, changes in career, scenery and company provided me with an emotional stability I hadn't had for several years (though I still drank too much, of course).  All under the influence and companionship of that Pelikan palate. 

I still use it in virtually every painting. It was only this year, more than half a decade later, that some of my frequently-used colors have started to run out. Needless to say I've gotten my money's worth. 

So yeah, this is the basis of most of my work. In the following months I would occasionally go to a craft or art store and buy more paints- this is when I started incorporating more gouache. It started out mainly because I didn't really know what I was looking for (my arts education, as you can probably tell, has been limited to a few years of art in high school and what I would later learn poking about online). I started dipping into various new media, bringing them in as I experimented. I started using India ink to solidify my lines. This eventually gave way to other colors, and my eventual discovery of Noodler's Ink, which I bought at random and by mistake thinking it was alcohol-based. 

It's fancy! It's French! It's super high quality and not super horrifically terribly expensive (I mean, I kind of is, but it's worth it). 

These water-soluble inks are a relatively recent favorite of mine, as they have a lot of intensity with out the opacity of gouache. I do use these with gouache, though, blending in a bit of white when I want that solidity. 

It took me a while to start using good paper. Up until like five years ago I had been using whatever I could find at the craft stores for a reasonable price, but eventually took the plunge and started buying rag paper. While I still use wood-pulp papers for quick sketches and such, any painting I start with the intention of selling I do on cotton. I don't necessarily have any loyalty to a specific brand but I like something with a medium grain, though I've found myself preferring something a little smoother as I veer more towards gouache and a more opaque texture. 



Brushes are something I don't like to spend too much money on, but I'll be honest: I know fuck-all about them, and as such I've never had much of a problem with the cheaper, synthetic ones, but I have invested in some good-quality Chinese and Japanese calligraphy brushes, typically made from horse or yak hair. Calligraphy brushes are great for water-based media because of their versatility (I mean, they're mean to be able to do a range of strokes, right?) and smoothness. These I've found have a bit of a learning curve, but I've come to really love working with them. They have a good feel and you can accomplish so much with a single brush. 

Beyond that is an assortment of various crap. For finished pieces, I use a Kryolan acrylic spray fixative for sealant, but this is typically something I don't do unless I've actually sold the piece as I have a habit of going back to work on finished paintings every so often. I use masking fluid occasionally but that's mostly more trouble than it's worth for me; I'll typically use painter's tape instead. 

While paintings sometimes begin as a sketch more often than not I end up drawing directly on the paper/canvass. Frequently I'll use an alcohol-based black ink to accentuate certain lines then go back and erase superfluous pencil marks. Again, as my style shifts into a more pronounced opacity I'll usually go over those with a few layers of paint. Markers sometimes have their place-- I'm a big fan of the Tombow water-based markers that marry very well with other water-based media. 

If you're wondering how I actually paint, it's pretty simple: I paint really fucking slowly. Because I work full time, it's something that I have to sometimes prioritize otherwise I just don't really find the time. These days I've been setting aside most of one of my off days entirely to paint (my favorite day of the week, yay). I like being a bit a lazy about it (often at the expense of productivity); I usually start with a pot of coffee and Netflix and let it go from there.  Rushing shit just frustrates me, and hey, I'm an adult, I do what I want. 

I've struck a pretty nice balance with my life right now, and painting is a central part of that. While I've accepted the fact that I will likely never make a living from it, I have also allowed it be a central aspect of my day-to-day, and I make whatever reasonable concessions I may have to to ensure that it remains such. Few things give me as much pleasure. 

This ain't me, this is Pam Beasley.