raw materials

Holbein Duo Aqua Oil Color is a versatile, water-soluble oil that is richly pigmented, lightfast and quick drying (in as little as 24 hours in some cases). It also has all the characteristics of traditional oil colors, but can also be mixed with water and other water-based media to produce varying effects. When mixed with oil colors and mediums, Duo Aqua Oil dries to a uniform sheen and will retain its water-solubility as long as the oil color or medium content does not exceed 30%. When mixed with water, Duo dries to a matte finish and should be used with a stainless steel or plastic painting knife. Ideal for artists who want to avoid using harsh solvents for diluting, painting and cleaning. All Holbein Duo Aqua oil colors and mediums are 30% off every day both online and in-store.

You know how we love our brushes from Princeton Art & Brush Co., and now we’re proud to carry the Princeton 6300 line. The unique synthetic hairs of these brushes provide the stiffness of a natural bristle and will maintain those qualities when used with water-based acrylics. They are professional quality brushes with excellent snap and hair shape retention for maximum control. Each features a seamless metal ferrule and a long varnished wood handle. They are 40% off every day like all of our Princeton brushes, both in-store and online.

For a limited time, buy any Princeton 6300 brush in-store and get a free ¼oz Masters Brush Cleaner to help keep the brush in top shape. (Limit one free brush cleaner per customer.)

Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colors was named as the best new product at the annual NAMTA art materials trade show earlier this year, and we now have it in stock in all colors. Here’s what Gamblin has to say about this new line:

Gamblin FastMatte alkyd oil colors are formulated to give oil painters a fast-drying oil color with excellent working properties and permanence. The balanced color palette allows for great color mixing potential in a variety of oil painting techniques and styles. When used for underpainting, the matte surface allows for maximum adhesion with subsequent layers.

FastMatte alkyd oil colors are formulated to:

• Give painters a fast-drying palette of colors.
• Give painters an artist-grade alkyd oil color with strong pigmentation and balanced color palette.
• Create a matte surface. When used as an underpainting layer, this ensures the adhesion performance of subsequent paint layers.

Dry Time: FastMatte alkyd oil colors will dry within 18 to 24 hours, in thinly painted layers. This drying rate allows painters to work throughout a painting session, while creating a dry surface for the painting session the following day.

Color Palette, General Oil Painting Techniques: The balanced color palette was chosen for its mixing capabilities in a variety of oil painting techniques and styles. The surface quality of dry paintings will be quite matte. For a gloss surface, apply a thin coat of Gamvar picture varnish.

FastMatte alkyd oil colors have a low to moderate oil content, so they are appropriate for underpainting when painting “fat over lean.” All colors (with the exception of titanium white) are transparent to semi-transparent in nature, as this quality will create the tonal range important to underpainting techniques.

The fast drying rate of the colors makes them well-suited for plein air painters, especially while traveling and transporting freshly painted work.

For illustrators working against deadlines, FastMatte colors offer them a fast-drying solution, and the matte surface makes their work easy to photograph.

The palette of FastMatte colors consists of: Titanium White, Hansa Yellow Medium, Napthol Scarlet, Transparent Earth Red, Quinacridone Red, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Green, and Chromatic Black.

Compatibility and Permanence: Alkyd resin in the polymerized oil of the 20th century. Alkyd resin has a great compatibility with the linseed oil binder of traditional oil colors and increases the flexibility of the resulting paint film. FastMatte alkyd oil colors are completely compatible with all artists’ grade oil colors. FastMatte alkyd oil colors are also compatible with Gamblin’s alkyd-based Galkyd painting mediums.

Unlike acrylic colors, which we are not generally recommended as an underpainting material for oil colors, Gamblin FastMatte colors make an excellent base color for an oil painting. The matte surface quality of these colors creates a receptive surface for subsequent layers of regular artists’ grade oil colors, ensuring that both physical and chemical bonds are made.

We’ll have a special offer related to FastMatte soon, but in the meantime they are all 25% off every day both in store and in our online store.

O’BON makes innovative pencils made using tightly-rolled recycled newspapers and high-quality graphite, as well as notebooks made from bagasse (sugarcane pulp). The sugarcane fibers are collected from the leftover sugarcane “waste” from the sugar industry and made into paper that offers a smooth, bright, quality white surface that a pen can glide effortlessly over. We now have sets of graphite and colored pencils plus the notebooks, available in the store or online.

The Pentel Hybrid Technica is perfect for sketching, drawing, manga and more, this pen offers smooth, pigmented, archival ink and a tungsten carbide roller tip that guarantees a consistent line from the first to the last drop of ink. The ink is lightfast, bleed-proof, waterproof and fade resistant. There are four line sizes available (0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm, and 0.6mm), and the pens are available in any color you want, as long as it is black.

For a limited time, buy any three Hybrid Technica pens and get a free 4 × 6" Pentalic Traveler’s Pocket Sketch book (a $4.95 value). Unlike the pens, the sketch books are available with a variety of different cover colors.

(This offer is available in-store only.)

Art Alternatives Artist Organizer boxes are a perfect way to store your art supplies. Both see-through boxes are easily customized with the included removable dividers, great for rearranging and storing your small and medium sized items. Light-weight, peggable and stackable, these durable boxes perfectly store brushes, pencils, pens, erasers, pen nibs, clips, blades, notions and embellishments. The 11 × 7.2 × 1.7" box features three rows of compartments and the 14 × 9 × 1.7" box features four rows of compartments.

Made of oiled beechwood, these pochade boxes from MABEF feature a sliding palette with holes to hold five brushes, have sliding supports that hold the canvas panel in place while painting and are equipped with a threaded fitting on the bottom that works with a photography tripod or the MABEF Wooden Tripod (MBMA-30). The MBM-104 measures 13¾ × 10 × 5" and has double compartments for storage of paint, brushes and accessories. It can accommodate canvas panels up to 8 × 10" on the painting panel. The MBM-105 measures 16 × 5 × 12½" and has three compartments for storage of paint, brushes and accessories. It can accommodate canvas panels up to 9 × 12" on the painting panel.

Get either pochade box, or the matching wooden tripod for 30% off through the end of June 2010.

Liquitex BASICS brushes are the perfect complement to Liquitex BASICS acrylic paints or other acrylic paints (or even water-mixable oil colors). These white nylon brushes hold ample amounts of color, a durable, and easy to clean. Their medium soft bristles provide the ideal responsiveness for soft to medium-bodied acrylics, and their economical price makes them perfect for students, amateurs, or professionals. The brushes come in five popular shapes with long handles and a range of sizes. And for the rest of May, these brushes are 50% off.

Canson Infinity is the brand name of a line of digital fine art and photographic papers crafted in the Canson and Arches mills, which have been making finest art and creative papers in the world since 1557. We have the full range of papers available in packs of 8.5 x 11″ sheets, and a selection of papers in packs of 13 x 19″ sheets.

The line includes a variety of textures (from ultra smooth surface to highly textured papers) and media aesthetics (from natural white to ultra white) that enable you to express your creativity and produce high-end prints.

Until the end of June, all of the Canson Infinity papers will be 20% off the list price, and you can get the nine-sheet Discovery Pack for 50% off (while supplies last, limit one per customer).

(And yes, once we have our printing services available, we will be offering prints on these Canson Infinity papers in addition to other brands.)

Liquitex free•style brushes are brand new to the market, and we now have them at the store. This line of brushes is made with the muralist in mind, but it perfect for any painters that like to work large. Check out the video below to see a project done using the brushes (and towards the end, the artists talk about how they liked them).

For a limited time, all Liquitex free•style brushes are 50% off.