Art supplies

[NoodlingAlong]

My DD is in Year 8 and is really enjoying art at school at the moment. It is likely to be one of her GCSE choices. I was thinking of getting her some nice art supplies for Christmas. But I am a hopeless artist and a bit clueless. Does anyone have any suggestions please? We aren’t too far from the big CASS art shop in Islington.

CassArt will be brilliant for a browse. I've bought from them online in the past. My dd is the same age and mad keen on art. Does your DD have a particular interest/style? My dd loves big tins of nice pencils (coloured, graphite or charcoal), fancy paper for drawing and painting, acrylic paints, fancy pens (promarkers or copic ciao for example), and canvasses. How much would you be looking to spend?

I might do similar for my Year 7 DS this year.

Pastels, acrylic paints, charcoal or watercolour pencils would be great.

Good quality paper, mixed media would be fine, is a must. Maybe some different sized pads? And good quality brushes.

That art shop is amazing. I could spend ages in there and I am not remotely arty! It’s just such a nice place to spend time.

Copic markers are also a good buy if your DD like to do illustration or fashion design

Hobby craft is brilliant for art/craft supplies.DD has always loved art & is now in her second year doing a degree in Fine art & History of art.

Thanks everyone, I will go and have a browse in the shop in Islington with your suggestions.

I would have a budget of about £100. Have only been in that shop once before when she needed some A3 paper in a hurry for some homework and I know how easy it will be to spend £100 there!

I thought, depending on what I get for that money, I could get some of those drawers from Hobbycraft to put things in.

She is quite into Manga and I bought her some how-to-draw-Manga type books for her birthday and some Japanese calligraphy pens. She has Japanese lessons so she does some calligraphy as part of those.

She has expressed an interest in studying to become an architect as a career aspiration.

For manga, Copic markers are the absolute best. For more generic art get a tin of pencils of varying softness, maybe some charcoal. Some fine liner pens are always useful. Gouache is good all round paint as can be used as watercolour and straight out the tube for more opaque and are more forgiving than acrylics but acrylic is probably cheaper. The works do cheaper sets and canvases which are good for beginners as cass is expensive (despite their apparent reduction stickers)

If she likes Manga, this type of thing is great
Blank Comic Book: 8 x 10, 50 pages comic panel for drawing your own comics idea and design sketchbook for artists of all levels https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1695610067/ref=cmswwrcpptai_JdxKDb3B6CSHV

It's worth spending most of the money on good paints/pencils/charcoals/brushes.

if you buy charcoal, get something to fix it. At this level she could use a light spray of cheap hairspray to do this.

If you buy nice pencils, smudgers and a good putty rubber are good things to have. As are drawing board/s (just use MDF-get it cut in B&Q to a few inches bigger than A3) with a couple of clips.

If you go for acrylic paints maybe get some palette knives and some masking fluid +/tape. A few larger tubes of thick paints (like system 3) are more useful than packs of 20 tiny ones. They can be used thick to sculpt or thin to paint.

Thanks so much everyone - I am looking forward to having a browse armed with all of your info!

If you're going to spend that much money you'd be better to let DD choose her own stuff, or at least some of it.

Word of warning about Cass vouchers: they don't give change (even in vouchers) for purchases less than the face value of the voucher, so it's wiser to buy several smaller denominations rather than one large value voucher.

If she likes manga and doesn't have any copic ciao pens or promarkers, get her some of those. Pricey, though! If you don't want to dive in with both feet copic do little doodle packs with a couple of colours, a fineliner and a glitter pen which all co-ordinate (eg shades of green). Could be a good stocking filler.

Wish have alcohol pens for not much money, If you didn’t want to commit to copics They are just as good as copics or pro markers (use professionally)

If you think the things in Cass are on the expensive side, then you could buy just a few things and have a look online to see how prices compare with somewhere like Amazon on the other things. I know that physical shops will need physical and not just online sales to keep in business, but I take the view that as long as you buy a few things, then that is ok.

WHSmith had half price mixed media pads over the summer, own brand, that made them by far the cheapest that I'd seen. So it isn't always the case that online is necessarily cheaper.

DS doesn't seem as skilled or focussed as your DD, so I am considering getting him a book or two about painting rocks/stones, some good quality acrylic fine pens and some setting spray/varnish type thing. Hoping to get all of that for £25. Just an idea.

There's another good (better?) shop called GreatArt, in Kingsland Road in Shoreditch.

www.greatart.co.uk/london-shoreditch/

More stock than Cass Islington (which isn't as good as it used to be).

I had this site saved after seeing it mentioned on here scrawlrbox.uk/ a subscription art box.

Thanks very much everyone - I have a voucher for WH Smith so will definitely check there & can call in at Shoreditch shop on my way to work.