"...and then the guy jumps out and yells, "Supplies!"

One of the places I've been meaning to take a trip to forever is Dick Blick, a "fine art" supplies store that happens to have a brick-and-mortar location not far from my neighborhood.  I budgeted a little bit of money and made a trip there the other day to get some things I've been meaning to pick up for quite some time:

Airbrush Medium:

Until now, I've been using rubbing alcohol to thin my hobby acrylics for airbrush use, which has good points and bad points.  I've been meaning to try dedicated airbrush medium for a while, but none of the Michael's / Hobby Lobby -type store carry it, so I finally made a trip to pick some up - details as I experiment with it.

Water-Mixable Oil Paints:

At Adepticon this year Les Bursley gave us a demonstration of how he uses oil washes . Needless to say, I immediately wanted to try it.  During the demo, Les actually used Winsor Newton water mixable oil paints & water, as opposed to traditional oil paints & mineral spirits - The trade off is it's slightly more work, but less cleanup & toxic nastiness.  I grabbed Lamp Black & Burnt Umber to experiment with.

Ceramic Palette:

I've seen painters use these at cons for years, but I was never able to bring myself to pay for one, instead opting for the $1.00 plastic versions.  I realized I've bought dozens of those over the years (I throw them out when they get too hard to clean), and I could have had several of these for the same price.  I find myself using a wet palette & airbrush more & more often nowadays, so I only got one for now.

Colour Shapers:

Colour Shapers are actually tools meant for blending & texturing oil paints on canvas, but they are perfect for something else, too: sculpting.  I've taken several classes from professional sculptors at conventions in the past few years, and always loved playing with these - they work a lot better with something like ProCreate putty rather than Green Stuff, but you can really accomplish some cool details with them.