art supplies

[egypturnash]

Left Spümcø a little earlyish today. An urge bubbled up in me on the way home: I would buy some black and white gouache. This weekend I would get something to paint upon - illo board, masonite, whatever. And be sloppy.

Unfortunately, Swain's was closed by the time I got there. I went to arts-n-crafts chain Michael's, and... I dunno. I could be wrong, but some instinct tells me that $6.50 for 14ml of W&N gouache is too much. A little research on the web suggests that perhaps it is not, so... we shall see.

I need to do a little research on what works well as a gouache substrate, preferably something cheaper per square foot than illo board...

It's an urge I've been having for a long while, on and off. Today something in the back of my head said I have to do it this weekend. Best to listen to the back of my skull when it tells me to do things like that, I think.

---

Last night, on a whim, I went out to the bookstore not too long before it closed and picked up 'The Scar', the semi-sequel to 'Perdido Street Station'. It's only vaguely related to that book; it's in the same world, and the main character has, in fact, fled New Crobuzon because of the events in the other book. It's an interesting and moderately dense read.

But a review of the book is not what I'm writing about it for: I idly did some web searching on Miéville and found a fan site that pointed to some interviews. Interesting are the things he says in them: setting-as-character and a distaste for the so-common notion of alien race as stereotypical destiny. Things I've been going on about with some degree of fervor, of late.

No deep thoughts from this. Just a smirk of recognition.

Comments

[inkthought.livejournal.com]

I picked up Perdido Street Station at two diffrent bookstores this week. I think I'm meant to read it somehow... is it /really/ good? Ultimatley I went with War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, because Neil Gaiman's quote on the cover insisted "Emma Bull is /really/ good." And he hasn't lead me wrong so far.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Perdido and Scar are both pretty good. They're also both pretty damn big and immersive; if you can, just start reading them on a Friday evening when you have nothing else scheduled for the weekend. The setting is a major character in each, and there's a lot of casually alien language that I found easier to contextualize in huge doses. Kephri? Crobuzon? Chymical? The Ribs? Hold a spot open in the mind, trust that the author will fill it in with meaning and context. I read each in about 4-6 hours, but I read fast fast fast.

I don't know how Miéville compares to Bull; I've never read any of her stuff.

Oh, and I should parenthetically say thanks to ursulav for telling me I should read PSS. *grin*

[martes.livejournal.com]

I'm on the last quarter of The Scar. His books are not light reading, but I certainly consider them worth the time.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

The ending is... oddly unsatisfying. In a satisfying way. There're a few levels of 'unreliable narrator' going on at once, I think.

[draca-serpens.livejournal.com]

Michaels sucks. I should know, I work there. :P Sometimes, though, they have some good discounts- look in your Sunday paper for their ad, and it'll most likely have a 50% off coupon for anything in the store on the back.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I only went because they were open late. Geez, they got no selection of gouache; it's hidden away at the bottom of the watercolor display. Come the weekend I'll get to see what Swain's wants for a couple tubes of gouache.

It's funny - I've tried all kinds of media and tools, but I mostly just stick to a Ticonderoga #2. Of course, that's not much good when I have an urge to paint sloppily and chaotically.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

W&N gouache is no joke. It's been expensive everywhere I've seen it, and it's incredibly potent stuff, from when I bought some and did some watercolor/gouache stuff in college.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I think that's what was lying around when I learnt to like gouache in the painting classes in animation school. The teacher used acryllic and gouache just about interchangably. I've found that acryllic dries too damn fast for me; there's all this secret lore for babying it and keeping it from turning into hard plastic on your palette, but I'd rather use something that'll remain workable.

If I'm gonna pay a lot for decent tools, that's okay on some levels. But not for a tube the size of my thumb. I want nice big fifteen-dollar toothpaste tubes of black and white to layer with abandon.

[pobig.livejournal.com]

Woo! Uh, wait a minute, I don't think I remember "Rusty D-con-STRUCK-tion" from any episode of Bebo-, oh wait. Woo! Ashley MacIsaac!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Bebowhat?

I got the CD for free a while back, but it's pretty intruiging.

[pobig.livejournal.com]

Oops, I meant that it looked like a name from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack to me at first.

[pobig.livejournal.com]

Anyway, if you like that one, Helter's Celtic is good too, if you can find it.