The old saying is get the best Art supplies you can and that you could afford..
But what if you couldn't afford it what if you only had a couple dollars. well that couldn't cover the tax or shipping for sme art supplies out there. So I challenged myself.
Could I be a Dollar Store Artist?
Even though I am a self taught Cartoonist and Sculpture I dis go to school to paint and I have used some high end supplies, even watercolor paper hand made by monks hundreds of years old but was it necessary? Yes and no. No its not necessary you can scratch on a cave wall and it will give joy to people. But there is some chemical components that will degrade of destroy paper and paints over time but what if you don't care about the future. Then the answer is yes.
So I gave it a go.
Armed with two dollars in my hand and some coins for tax I went into my local Dollar Store and purchased a pad of watercolor paper and a tray of watercolor paint like the kind Crayola made when you were a child. Now this is a limited amount of colors and a limited grade of paper. there will be no tricks of lifting paint or scratching effects here. It will be pure water plus paint plus paper and a game plan.
The Inspection of the paper and paint.
The paint like the old Crayola type in its little case and its little brush has vibrant 8 colors and I like that and the brush was actually hair like because it will hold water. The paper textured and thick by far from fine watercolor paper but you could tell it would hold up to some light water on it. No wet on wet techniques where you saturate the paper for a smooth gradation this paper will do fine with a more fine art look to it. I'll concentrate on the colors and leave out the brown and black.
What subject to paint? I know the Fall and the Autumn leaves maybe a pumpkin or two.
painting in small sections at a time with a mix of basic colors I came up with the final result.
The final result is a warm Fall painting not too complex by any means but it give the viewer that fine art look without the fine art cost.
So happy with my results I gave it another try.
I liked how these came out so much I painted two Halloween Watercolors using these same limited pallet techniques and it came out to be a real popular piece of art of the mother and child bear setting out to trick or treat and a Rabbits Halloween.
So go hit the Dollar Store throw down your two bucks and try it out. It ended up to be a lot of fun.
