A week so or so ago Dawn Sokol of  d’blogala wrote a post about materials and
how you don’t need name brand materials to create a great art journal. She was
afraid it would offend. Artists are like Coke VS Pepsi drinkers in their rabid
love of their particular brand of materials. Let’s face it, it takes a long
time to find #1 a brand you like #2 a brand you trust and finally #3 a brand
you love to use. Once you get past that search you become devoted to your
brand.

For instance, I’m not a fan of Golden brand acrylics. I’ve
tried them a few times and I found no real discernable difference between them
and Liquatex. I’ve been using Liquatex since college. I know them, know how
they will respond to my brushes and how I can get the effects I’m seeking. This
doesn’t stop me from buying other brands if they are on sale and testing them
out.  I have a tool box full of various
brands of acrylics that I’ve purchased over time. I like to buy those sample
sets of small tubes when I find them on sale. They always have a color I’m
looking for and I get to test out how they mix, colors I can get and see how
they respond in my art journal.*

You’ve read/heard me harp on here many times about buying
those sample sets, about 6 to 8 tubes of paint that retail anywhere from $12 to
$40. These sets are worth it. You get 6 to 8 tubes of paint that tend to mix
colors well and you can try out a range of colors in a brand’s range. You also
don’t need to commit to large tubes of color, so if you don’t like a color, you
only have a small tube to worry about.

You’ve also heard/read me suggest that if you’ve never tried
acrylics to buy a cheap box of student acrylics. There are many brands and
places like Michael’s have a store brand but also carry a brand like Reeves, which
is manufactured by Grumbacher. These student grade acrylics do have a lot of
filler and the pigment is thin. These can be a great way to learn if you like
acrylics or not. The price tag for a set of 12 colors is always under $20.

While we’re at this discussion, I’m going to reiterate what
I’ve always said. Buy what you can afford. If you can’t afford anything but a
set of Crayola watercolors and a black ink pen; go ahead and journal with that.
Art journaling shouldn’t break the bank it should be fun and you shouldn’t
stress over the materials that you are using to journal. Art journaling is about thinking and working out ideas so you should use what you like. I met paper maker Richard Lee** back in 1998 (subsequently I saw him again in 2002) all of his journaling and sketchbooks are done with an ultra fine point sharpie, color added with watercolor. He has traveled the world learning about paper but all his journals and sketchbooks are done in Sharpie. I asked him if he worried about the migration of the ink and the color fading. He shrugged and said "no. It's about the moment. I like them becuase they are cheap and I can find them anywhere. They are immediate and I can use watercolor on them immediately after I draw."

I’ll also reiterate my hate for craft acrylics here. Craft
acrylics tend to change colors over time, stick together and will peel off the
page over time.

*Okay so a little side note here, as well as a pet peeve. Fluid Acrylics. WTF? Why would you want to pay more for acrylic paint that has more binder added? Seriously go buy yourself a bottle of "extender" or "glazing medium" and add it to your heavy body acrylics. Holy crap right? Why would I want to pay more for a squeeze bottle of fluid acrylic when I can mix my own… Or for that matter, here's a major pet peeve of mine, buying pre-made glaze. You know how to mix glaze? buy some gel medium, some glazing medium or matte medium and mix 50/50 with heavy body acrylic paints. Decrease or increase depending on how much translucency you want. Why spend extra $$$ on added filler when you can buy the concentrate (heavy/regular acrylics) and add the filler you wish? It just doesn't make much fiscal sense to me. And you know I'm cheap.  Liquatex has just come out with a line of mediums for their basics line in squeeze tubes. I bought a large squeeze tube of their gloss gel medium for $4.99. That's pretty cheap for a large tube (200ml) of gel medium. I've used it and I can report that its got a great consistency and the brush strokes stay put, but it'll smooth out easily if needed.

** richard came to my classroom to teach a paper making and bookbinding workshop with my students. We had him there for 2 days. We beat abaca pulp by hand and made hundreds of sheets of crinkly lovely paper. He was in his 70s at the time and an inspiration. So much so that in 2002 I happened to be in the Art Museum in Portland Maine waiting for a friend when I happened upon a large exhibit of his work. He happened to be there. In a brief out of character moment, I walked up to him, introduced myself and told him what an inspiration he'd been to me. He did not remember me but that was fine, it was amazing to run into him again after 3+ years. I notice that his web page is severely out of date but if you are in Maine and have a chance to see any of his work I suggest you do it. Additionally if you have a chance to meet him, it's well worth it. I count meeting him as one of the great moments of my teaching career.