CinderQuill's Blog

Okay! Actually something I'm super happy to share. I went for graphic design, so particularly computer and partially fine arts. That being said, I think there's a lot of digital art tutorials, so I'll focus on fine arts because working with materials IRL is harder because of amount of materials to work with and time to apply and/or set.

Oils

Using cheap oils? Little pigment to oil ratio? Put it on cardboard to soak up the excess oil and make your colors more vivid.

Oil taking forever to dry? Most standard oils take like 6 months. There are fast dry oils. Ignore what your teacher says, unless you plan to be touching this painting up for the rest of your life use quick dry oils. I think it's still wet for 2 weeks - a month, so plenty of time to dry but still put layers down.

Water color

Is your paper curling or peeling? Make sure your paper has the thickness to handle the amount of paint your going to apply (100 lb is the most minimal imo) and tape the edges down. It'll dry flat.

Paper tearing up? Dab the color on, not rub. Also use a hair dryer between layers to keep the paper dry. The longer paper is wet, the less integrity it has.

General paint

Your drawing disappearing behind your paint? Lay a thin layer down (using water for acrylics or water color, paint thinner for oils). You can build up shading and layers before your original sketch is hidden.

Pencil

Feel like you shaded enough? Do it more. There's literally no point to stopping til your paper is almost entirely colored. Always keep shading with a darker pencil.

Blending an issue? Bending stumps work, but they aren't easy to clean. Paper towels that don't have deep designs and q tips work well as a replacement. On the upside both methods are biodegradable!

Is your paper turning silver from all that shading? Look into a "black graphite" pencil. They cost a bit more but have extreme color pay off in comparison.

Colored pencil

Don't buy the hype, my $150 pencils color just as well as my Crayola set at like $20. The difference is that the expensive set will have more "muted" tones compared to the Crayola set. But you can make them anyway, I'll explain in color theory later on.

Need to blend out those pencil lines? With the expensive set there's a wax blending pencil (you have to buy separately 🙄) that helps blend, but because of their base you can also use a light amount of paint thinner. For cheaper pencils you can actually use the white pencil. For some reason they don't have a lot of pigment (unless it's super dark paper) but they blend colors together well and actually make them pop more. Go figure.

Charcoal

MY FAV RIGHT HERE YES

You can get an extreme range of light to dark. Easy to get dark, but how to stay on the lighter side? Willow/vine charcoal is very thin, ranging from like 2 mm to the width of a finger, it's very soft and transfers to paper well. However, unlike traditional soft charcoal it can smear off SUPER EASY. Awesome for lighter to medium tones. White charcoal can be used to give certain areas pop, but use it sparingly because it can turn your paper a weird color when mixed with dark charcoal.

Always have an arm gaurd. Not just a sleeve, but literally another piece of printer paper over where you will be laying your arm while drawing. Cloth can pick up and transfer charcoal super easy, printer paper has almost no texture to grip the charcoal and it remains still even as your arm moves.

Huge mess after using charcoal? It doesn't come out of SHIT. Once it's there it's really hard to get out of. Wear clothes that are black/you don't care about. And I mean you don't care about AT ALL. try to lay down an old blanket/towel/mat under your work area that you can throw into the wash with your shit clothes when you're done. If you don't have shitty clothes use a full length robe and wear it backwards like a snuggy to protect your normal clothes.

Soft pastels? Same tips as charcoal, just with colors.

Oil pastels

You can use paint thinner to blend. I REPEAT you can use paint thinner to blend. Rest those weary, greasy hands.

Color theory

Want a less vibrant version of your color? Only have the basic RGB spectrum? I got you bb

For paints, the basic necessities: Black. White. And a warm and cool toned version of red, green and blue. This makes the difference in your mixed colors later.

If you don't want stark black, mix equal part of RGB. It makes a natural black that you can tone with just a touch more or less of a certain color.

When mixing you can actually use Pantone and paint mixing pages to see what types of colors and amounts of each to get the color at the end.

Need a less vivid version of a color? Mix the color opposite of it on the color wheel. With paints just mix a bit in at a time and test, with pencil use a trial sheet to test the balance.

Canvases/Paper/Frames

Literally any canvas will work. If you are in the phase where you're just practicing, I suggest canvas board, it's cheaper and less storage. Stretched canvas need to have a solid support and not be sagging when you buy it.

Canvas might say "preprimed" or whatever. Just slap a coat or few of acrylic on it anyway. The less paint your canvas absorbs = less material costs. And acrylic is far cheaper than oils.

Paint. The. Side. Of. Your. Canvas. Even if you didn't paint the subject on the side, at least paint it a color that goes with the actual painting on the front. It prevents the front of the painting from damage.

Paper is not all made the same, but don't be fooled by price alone. Check to see if there are issues with the paper, like fuzzies or oddities in texture, as those just compound to look worse when working on it. Heavy paper is a good choice as it's sturdier and has a better longevity.

Frames ARE FUCKING EXPENSIVE. Don't be afraid to look at a second hand store and buy an old/no longer in style/ugly piece and jack that frame for your art. You can clean it with a dry paint brush, a vacuum to suck of the nasties, and some TLC. If you're stressed that your painting might not fit then you can use the painting that came in it. For pieces that are on paper or canvas board you can use matting and other edge pieces to conceal edges.

People will flex their expensive shit at you, because art supplies can get costly. FAST. Don't be scared to search for coupons and get any deals you can. At the end of the semester/year there will be a grace period to anyone that left materials for like a month, typically. After that most places allow people to claim it or it goes into the class collection.

Use something air tight to carry paints in. Oils smell bad, but any paint could leak. I used an old tackle box my parents had. Ugly as fuck but works great.

In all my art classes, I was never taught HOW to use the various tools of art.

Like yes, form, and shape and space and color theory and figure drawing is important, but so is KNOWING what different tools do.

I’m 29 and I JUST learned this past month that India Ink is fucking waterproof when it dries. Why is this important? Because I can line something in India Ink and then go over it with watercolors. And that has CHANGED the ENTIRE way I art and the ease I can create with.

-Yo painters, use pencil if u must underdraw beneath an oil painting, the lead is archival but ideally you should be doing underdrawings in a muted earth tones (siennas, umbers, ochres or earth green) with some titanium white added to it. (The white nearly matches the canvas and earth tones naturally blend with all colors on top unless u do super thin glaze washes).

-Trying to make a natural looking warm black? Don’t use black straight from tube, Mix alizarin crimson and viridan. add raw umber to adjust for light depth.

-If your into mixed media ALWAYS use acrylic first and oil on top (the gesso on primed canvas is acrylic based and oil sits on top of it great). NEVER put acrylic paint on top of oil, the acrylic will crackle/decompose and fall apart/off the canvas.

-India ink is permanent and if your using ink from a jar it should say it’s permanence. professional art grade pens usually have there permanace listed either on the pen or the companies website.

-Red cinnabar is poisonous, DO NOT EAT IT, no matter how much like fruit loops it smells.

-Translucent and transparent are NOT the same. translucent is *shiny* and a cloudier color, ideal for mixing usually ordor making vibrant colors like for eyes, cars, etc. Transparent is matte and usually a 50% transparency from an opaque color.

-ALWAYS DO A TEST SWATCH OF ANY NEW MATERIAL.

-any paint made with “true alizarin crimson” “red lake” and “chrome yellow” pigment is a fugitive paint. Fugitive means the pigment fades dramatically and disappears over time, (usually 5 to 15 years) lots of van goghs paintings have this problem. be very careful with these pigments. Alizarin crimson especially smells extremely sweet and like fruit loops or fruit loops, don’t eat it.

-gauche is a mix of watercolor and ink, proceed with caution as this material can be an asshole.

-Watercolor can be made darker/thicker by letting it dry slightly in cake form or in liquid form and can be dry brushed if u get the timing down.

-Paint liquid rubber or lay down thin pieces of painters tape on edges in watercolor paintings to Prevent bleeding between lines if u need super sharp edges.

-always tape down the entire paper edges when u paint with watercolor to a board to prevent the paper from curling as it dries.

-add salt directly into wet watercolor paintings to absorb pigment and make shit look like space.

-Always paint in well ventilated areas and avoid getting lots of paint on your hands. lots of paint is made with heavy metals and can cause cancer.

-natural materials aren’t always safe, especially

-Ones u collect yourself, do your research before grinding, burning, sanding these things especially indoors.

-natural sable is good for watercolor if you can afford it, i have two smaller brushes i shelled out for to try it, and while i probably didn’t treat the finer point one right, the other one is a miracle i’ve had for nearly 20 years.

The first episode of Clarice hit me like a train, but in a good way.

The entire time, I kept thinking “That’s her. That’s Clarice,” because she felt like the Clarice from the books. The way she interacted with others and her surroundings, the connections she was able to make, the things she said, all of it felt like the Clarice I know. 

The official FBI account sharing a Clarice Starling Silence of the Lambs prop the day after her show premiered???

Them making said prop artifact of the month?

What CBS Clarice is actually doing:

IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS

THE SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR FIVE YEARS

LET NEW MEDIA FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL EXIST!!!!

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON (2017)

History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities. — Marsha P. Johnson

Queens started being filed out and being put into police cars, and guns had been drawn. Molotov cocktails were flying. And I’m like, “Oh my God, the revolution is here. Thank God. You’ve been treating us like shit all these years? Uh uh. Now it’s our turn.” — Sylvia Rivera

Re-posting this because I finally got to scan it in high-res.

Betty Bates is a goddamn hero.

…and may have been played by a time travelling Drew Barrymore.

I like how she is willing to use the law AND her fists to stand her ground and make her point.