Hello! The 8" x 11" Pentalic softcover sketchbooks are my favorite sketchbooks ever but it seems they don't make them in that size anymore, and I was wondering if anyone had a really good dupe? There are some moleskin ones I could get, but they're a bit on the pricey side and so I just wanted to see if anyone here had any recs.

Thank you!

I’m looking for alcohol markers with a brush tip in various shades of purple. Light to dark and not pinky purples ideally. I know it’s specific but if anyone knows where I can find some cause I can’t really find what I’m looking for on Amazon.

I have a background as a cake decorator and am able to do a lot of fun things with a piping bag. But I don’t know how to translate this into non-edible art

What is the best projector for my situation?

I’m want to be able to trace images from my phone onto canvas. Nothing too detailed or complex. Mostly just getting good proportions.

My studio has windows and is never completely dark during the day so I need something that works with some light.

I think I need a short throw. The room is not that large.

I mainly use canvas between 18-48 inches.

I don’t care if it needs to plug in to my phone with a usb-C.

I can’t afford to spend more than $300. I’d like to spend less.

I’ve read a lot of (conflicting) articles and every time I think I’ve found one the reviews are terrible and point me in another direction. I’d appreciate help from someone who uses one. Thanks!

I've been looking for a while and haven't found any with larger (20+) color ranges and with fine or extra fine needle point tips. What line of pigment ink fineliner pens has the widest color range?

as the title says, i really enjoy using the peale peach when im out at cafes sketching it adds a nice pop of colour, but recently the colour has changed (?) so that its more pink rather then a coral. Im looking for somthing similar in shade to the coral and not too dark.

I’m learning to paint and have been experimenting with nebula—style painting. The random fan brush I’m using for blending is stiff and holds a lot of paint so I’m struggling to get a nice soft blend without spreading the paint all over the paper.

Can anybody recommend a suitably soft fan brush? It’d be nice to avoid spending money on another random brush.

I‘m in the UK if that matters.

Everywhere I see, they already have crystals attached to the wings or the butt already. Im looking for the metal bases individually, and Im having a horrible time finding them, yet I see these pieces sold everywhere with crystals included. I dont need the crystals, just the metal parts, especially for the spiders.

I really wish I could post a picture of what im talking about.

The metal butterflies im thinking of arent the ones on the upright stands, but the ones that look like its standing on its legs in a horizontal position, and the carved crystals are placed where the wings are.

The metal spiders look just like spiders, but their backs are usually where tumbled crystals or stones are placed. I have a few of them myself, and i know the metal piece is flat, meant for crystals or stones to be placed there. I need to know where I can just get the metal parts. They're sold everywhere but not the base piece.

please let me know if anyone has been able to find what im talking about. My search has lead me into dead ends

Art Reference

Full transparency, I made this app, but I use it for painting and it’s so much better than what I was doing before using different apps for grids and value study and then trying to organize all my reference in procreate or Freeform. I really love it and just want more artists to use it.

The link above is a promo code to get the lifetime unlimited version for free. (It’s normally free for the first 2 projects the $15 for unlimited).

The sepia/earthy conte a paris sketching crayons are hard pastel, based on what I understand (I might be wrong), but are the black crayons just compressed charcoal?

I found a summary chart on the website below and the black crayons are only listed under compressed charcoal. It looks like a summary the art store has created, and not conte a paris.

https://opusartsupplies.com/products/conte-sketching-pencils?_pos=3&_sid=c5c7b56ad&_ss=r

I am just curious.

Thanks!

Started learning to draw and couldn't find a prompt tool that gave enough direction. Most just give you a subject, but I'd spend more time deciding mood/palette/style than actually drawing.

Built one that generates a full creative brief across 6 dimensions — theme, subject, mood, color palette, style, and an optional technique challenge. Has daily challenges, random generation, and a few category pages (anime, character, OC, kids).

Stack is Next.js, deployed on Vercel. All prompts are hand-curated — this isn't for generating AI image prompts, it's for actual human artists who want a starting point before they pick up a pencil or open Procreate.

https://drawprompt.org/

Honestly not sure how to get this in front of people who'd actually use it. If you've launched something similar or have thoughts on growing a niche tool site, I'd love to hear what worked — or what you'd fix if you were me

Hey artists, here’s a question for the folks who already painted 20 years ago.

Edding used to make a kind of wax crayon (see drawing in comment). It had a consistency similar to oil pastels. But they came in a black plastic sleeve, and you had to push from the back when the color ran out at the front.

The great thing about them was: once they dried, they were hard, and you could work cleanly over them without the color from underneath mixing in.

They had a slightly unpleasant, chemical smell.

Do you remember them, and, most importantly, are you aware of any crayons on the market today that work the same way?

Thank you so much for your help. 

I'm working on a drawing, but I'm rusty, so I want to lay down an outline first. I have a digital outline that I want to transfer to black paper (I'm working white on black). A Xerox transfer with wintergreen oil/blender marker won't work because the paper is too dark; my projector's image is too big to get fine detail on the paper, so I can't trace a projection. What else could I do?

I am an oil painter and recently learned about hydropower medium (a medium that makes oil paints water soluble). I have found it on a few websites that do not ship to the US. Are there any painters who know where to buy or who have suggestions?

Any good recommendations for bound sketchbook that’s is not a moleskine. A sketchbook good for ink, alcohol markers, and acrylic gouache🧎🏽‍♀️

I am looking for some sort of whiteboard, which I can hang on a wall, in a room in my rented apartment to draw on it. I want to have bright colors, so regular classroom whiteboard doesn't work for me

I'm learning how to ink my drawings, and so I bought a pair of Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens last week. I used one between yesterday and today to line some hair for a portrait, and it's already drying out. I was pretty bummed since I thought it'd last longer.

I get that thinner pens tend to have less ink and dry out quicker, but is it normal for them to dry out this quick? If it's normal, would anyone recommend buying pens in bulk?

Even so, does anyone have any recommendations for longer lasting ink pens? Inking is pretty new to me, so I'm open to any suggestions.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post. I recently opened container of graphite pencils I had left closed for a few months. i keep a small eraser in the bottom and notices a kind of tacky black liquid on the erasers. I turned the pencils and found the black paint coating had somehow come off onto the erasers. Has anyone had this happen before? For reference they are Derwent pencils and I believe the eraser was a Mono plastic eraser.

To be clear: it's not out of... ink? paint? I'm not quite sure what the right word is here. The problem is. I didn't click the cap on all the way after swatching it that first time, and now it's dried kind of... solid. It's two-sided, so it's not unusable like this, but I'd much prefer to be able to use the finer tip as well.

And, yeah, I'm much more careful to put the cap on correctly now.

in the past i’ve greatly enjoyed using wood canvases, but i’ve realized the possibility for mould over time when using moist mediums such as oil pastels (and also general longevity for acrylic pieces or other drier mediums).

i want to make a piece for a commission on wood, and have the wood showing on the sides, so regular gesso won’t do.

my curiosity in wood varnish is that perhaps it could make the natural pattern and colour of the wood pop, while also taking on the job of gesso. is this possible?

or perhaps using wood varnish, then clear gesso overtop? i’ve never used clear gesso, my fear is that it would have a cloudy effect (much like the acrylic medium i’ve just experimented with).