New art supplies makes for a happy painter

Art supplies are sometimes tricky to come by when youre only an apprentice with a larger sized family. But over the past few weeks I was lucky enough to gather and acquire some bits and bobs for my stash here at home - which was such a relief with the big art showing coming up in April!

New paint tub and wow look at those library books!

Richard was so sweet and went to the huge library in Malmö and got me tons of art books in english from their collection ^^ New acrylic practices, lots of wild life and nature books AND some anatomy books which I know Marianne would appreciate!! ;)
All of these should help me create some nicer paintings in the future, and the best part theyre free. Gotta love libraries!
Also a new tub for my paints as my old shoe box was breaking apart lol :P

2 masonite boards, 40 x 60 cm

 The cost of materials is very high in Sweden. I took advice from people I follow in the art community and looked into masonite boards instead of canvases. We were able to get 12 of those bad boys up there for the price of one large cotton canvas!

so many painting opportunities...so little time ^^

These can be cut up as I please, and are so much cheaper, as well as making my paintings nice and smooth which I like as canvas ridges can drive me crazy now and again.

a Canon Pixma printer with a *drum roll*...scanner!

Those of you who have taken part of Sketchfest or any other paper based drawing event know not having a scanner has affected alot of the stuff that I do.
Richard actually won a gift certificate to a electronics store through his gaming community - and used it to buy me a printer/scanner :O How incredibly sweet!!
Now I can function normally through these events and print my own letterheads etc...such a relief!! Thank you Richard!!

Golden Artist Open Acrylic paint in Yellow Ochre, Flow Release, and a new synthetic brush

Here was possibly the splurge event of the past few weeks. I have used standard acrylics without any extra mediums for all my paintings, with the exception of 4 Liquitex soft body colors I got last spring, but they are a bit unusual colors so they arent used as frequently. I know this is affecting my blending, and I was always raging about how other acrylic artists could blend just so easily!
So I paid attention to what paint was sitting next to them in their pictures and videos and found a common theme: Golden Artist Open Acrylic Paint....
Richard and I did alot of research into these paints and into the company. They are very hard to find in Sweden, with only around 4 locations in the entire country who sell them. We found one in Malmö and went there to have a chat about their products, their benefits and downfalls and what sortve difference it could make in my painting.
Turns out the benefits could be huge with slower drying times and more flexibility with blending.
At the moment I could only get one color (of which I didnt have and did truly want), with a Flow Release liquid to help with blending with my other colors, and a new brush. You can find a whole load of information about their products on their website btw check it out!: http://www.goldenpaints.com/
This brush replaces the watercolor brush I accidently got over a year ago and use ALL the time and have subsequently destroyed ^^

All of these things should help make my show a great one!
Now to finish Swan Girl and finally move onto something else hopefully by the end of this weekend, and all will be perfect :P
Hope you have a great weekend!!