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Happy Tuesday, folks; the “Paper Chase” Guy here again, with a few comments on tech.

When I was writing, I never really had to worry about equipment or, for the most part, expense. A notebook, pen or pencil, and access to a computer (and, if necessary, a printer), and I was set. For the longest time I didn’t have regular online access, and would often put my stories together at home and send or print them at the library (which has gone in the intervening years, strangely enough, from being the place where I went to access the Internet to the place where I go to avoid the Internet). Even when I started drawing again, I didn’t really need to change my habits much; I had a couple of spare sketchbooks from back in the day and plenty of scratch paper for studies and whatnot. The one major investment I made at first was a scanner/printer (in this case an Epson XP-420, which hasn’t yet led me false in two and a half years, maybe because I never use it to print anything; I’ve already got my old Brother model for that), and it pretty much stayed like that for a while.

Gradually, though, that started to change. A chance encounter in a bar with a professional illustrator (“that’s a kid’s pencil,” he growled at my Bic Papermate, giving me one of his Palomino Blackwings, a glorious instrument I remembered my late grandfather using for his work as a highway draftsman) started the ball rolling, and Nick Wanserski’s mothership recommendation of the Alvin Draft-Matic began something of a love affair. Archival ink pens, high-quality Canson sketchbooks… by the time I started painting almost a year ago, I’d come to accept, somehow, that a certain level of financial outlay was necessary to do what I increasingly wanted to do, something that would have astonished me back in my writing days (though I was something of a back-to-school junkie even then, and it’s likely I’ll never have to buy another pencil again in my life). So by the time I got around to painting, that was just as well.

I haven’t really splurged on high-quality tools as yet partly because I can’t really tell the difference (I understand natural brush hair is supposed to be better than synthetic, but that’s an academic variation to me at present). I picked up some introductory Artists’ Loft sets for watercolor and then acrylic (as well as gouache and oil, but I’ve really barely used those), and you can buy basic watercolor pans at dollar stores and the like. A Michaels gift card from my mom gave me a pretty solid foundation when it came to further paints and brushes, and I’ve had to put my foot down (on my other foot) to stop from going to Michaels too often; it’s great fun to shop there, and the deals are incredibly tempting, but I also have space (barely 150 sq. ft.) to think about as well as expense.

Fortunately, it looks like I’m pretty set for the winter so long as I stick to a production schedule that’s slowly starting to take shape. …Maybe a couple more canvas panels?

Today’s header image is a nineteenth-century Kashmiri watercolor illustrating traditional Islamic practices of paper-making, something one could classify as both a craft and a necessary precursor to further creative endeavors. Lifted from an interesting little post on Islamic papermaking from the British Library.

Tools of your trade? Tell us about ’em!