TIM BAKER

Took a little time out from washing day and the Laundrette to do this pen and ink and watercolour landscape of the Thames. Not bad when I’ve only been working with a dip pen for a few days, and I’ve not done a proper watercolour landscape piece for several decades.

I plan to do more, but next time not on my Skratchbook but slightly heavier paper, as you can see from the bench photo the Skratchbook buckles a bit, it’s only 100gsm. But I like to keep working in it, as my main sketch and ideas ‘pad’, to have some continuity there.

BTW the cheapest places to get watercolour paper, and indeed art materials in general are in ascending order of price:

• The Works – where I got the 230gsm pad I used for the life drawing pen and watercolour – cheap and very good. Acrylics are very cheap here, as are oil pastels and oils but not tried those.
  
• Then Wilko, ostensibly cheaper but only 180gsm for A4 but they do a cheaper A3 230-ish gsm which is about the same price as The Works but maybe a better deal. Clips are cheap there, if frustratingly in multi-packs of assorted sizes.
• Then Flying Tiger, the go-to for a lot of my stuff (although the watercolours here are old posh ones I’ve had for 20+ years – the solid type doesn’t go off) – their pads seem slightly expensive, but the Skratchbook is from there, and their books although lighter paper – 100gsm – are really good value. As are the watercolours, the oil pastels, stamps and pens.
• WHSmith are more, and Cass Arts is a LOT more…You don’t need Daler Rowney or W&N pads to do good work, and it’s better like my beloved wallpaper lining (£2 a roll – bargain! I think it’s acid free too) it’s best to have a lot of cheaper paper and fill it with work rather than be precious about it. 
  
  BTW Poundland does smaller lining rolls for a quid. Poundland are well worth checking out as the occasionally have acrylic and various craft materials, cheap PVA & glue sticks, spray paints, stencils, kids art stuff. I got my glue gun from there for £2!
  
  This is what my art-school training taught me. I still have that thrifty student mindset – in fact I’m still in the habit of looking in skips and seeing what people have thrown out…furnished previous flats doing that! It’s shocking what people throw out that is fine and still works – coffee machines, LCD TVs, stools, office chairs. I’ve got a whole crate-load of acrylic paint – Daler, W&N etc. which I am now using which someone threw out near my old flat. Seems fine, it is now starting to separate from the binder, and some of it is a bit mouldy smelling…I’d not paint the Mona Lisa with it – unless she is dressed in neon fluoro, silver and gold (oddly a lot of the paint is those colours) but it’s great to experiment with.
  

Of course if I was doing some archival special work or commission (chance would be a fine thing) I’d do it on nicer paper…but most things, you work with what you’ve got.

I tend to only use Cass Arts for things like Posca pens – cheaper online though from the likes of Cultpens and my dip pen and nibs  which were very reasonable compared to eBay et al – some things are cheaper there, and of course no waiting for the Slow Boat from China. But I must take a trip to Atlantis – the shop not the place – because they are a wonderland of cheaper art stuff.