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Contact Shirley

P: +61 (0)7 3378 9914
M: 0424 237 537
E: shirley@shirleycharlton.com

Material Lists

The following are lists of the art materials needed for Shirley's classes.

WATERCOLOURS

PAINT TUBES

Preferably Cotman – student quality paints are okay, but not Rowney, or the cheap Aquarelle. (Any paints cheaper than Cotman are generally only suitable for children’s watercolours.)

  1. Cadmium Red
  2. Alizarin Crimson
  3. Lemon Yellow
  4. Cadmium Yellow
  5. Cobalt Blue
  6. Ultramarine
  7. Cerulean Blue
  8. Burnt Sienna
  9. Dioxazine Violet
  10. Rose Madder        

PAPER

  • About 10 pieces of watercolour paper size A4. Cheap Montville or Cotman paper or you can use the back of old paintings.
  • 4 pieces of 300gms cold press full sheets Arches paper. (I insist on this paper, which is medium surface.)

BRUSHES 

  • 2 Watercolour brushes, sizes12, and 8. The cheapest are Roymac or Taklon
  • 1 flat 50mm Mont Marte Taklon brush
  • One good brush (Neef size 8 brush 4600)

ONE BOARD

Either a Gator board (which is light weight but expensive), or a Marine ply, or a quarter inch plywood (which needs to be lightly sealed with vanish). The board can be home made. It needs to be large enough to fit a half sheet of watercolour paper (22 x 15 inches or 56 x 38cm). So the board needs to be slightly bigger (about 61 x 43cm).

OTHER

  • B pencil
  • An eraser
  • Small sea sponge
  • 2 white plates to mix on, or a good palette with wells in
  • A rag to wipe your brushes
  • A roll of brown gum paper tape or a staple gun with 5/16” 8mm staples (Make sure the staples will bite into the board you chose - I use a staple gun.)
  • One-bottle of yellow masking fluid art spectrum (students can share)

These products are available from Eckersley’s (12 Douglas St Milton, or 91 Edward Street Brisbane CBD), or the Art Shed (274 Montague Rd West End).

 

DRAWING

  • Sheets of good quality cartridge paper or a sketch pad (42x34cm)
  • Pencils from 2b up to 8b (There are some beautiful sets available.)
  • A board to lean on
  • Clips to hold your paper
  • Eraser
  • Ruler

 

PASTELS

  • 8 Mi-Teintes Tex quarter size pastel paper in colours black and dark blue.
  • Board to lean on
  • Clips to hold your paper
  • Pastel fixative spray
  • Soft pastels, round -or square (The more colours you have the better. Rembrandt is a good make. If you cannot afford them then Mungo is also good.)
  • Pastel Pencils (I like Pitt Faber Castell, but there are again plenty available, such as Swan, Carb-Othello. Start off with just getting the white or grey or box, if you can afford it. It’s better to have more soft pastel sticks than the pencils.)

These products are available from the following shops (ordered from cheap to expensive): Newsagents, Riot Art (does not stock pastel paper) in Indooroopilly Shopping Town, Eckersley’s in Milton or the CBD, The Art Shed in West End (They sell fantastic Schmincke soft pastels). 

 

ACRYLICS

PAINTS

  1. Cadmium Red
  2. Cadmium Yellow
  3. Cerulean Blue
  4. Alizarin Crimson
  5. Lemon Yellow
  6. Cobalt Blue
  7. Black
  8. White (large)

In Derivan (about $3.50 a tube), or Jo, Sonya (student paints), or Matisse, or Atalier, or Schmincke (which are Artist quality- Series 4 expensive, series 1 cheaper).

  • A pad of sketching acrylic paper (sometimes available in newsagents)
  • 3-4 acrylic painting boards
  • Nylon or hogs hair brushes in sizes 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
  • Palettes (plenty on the market, or a piece of glass will do)
  • A rag
  • A water container

 

OILS

PAINTS

  1. Cadmium Red
  2. Alizarin Crimson
  3. Cadmium Yellow
  4. Lemon Yellow
  5. Cobalt Blue
  6. Cerulean Blue
  7. Large Titanium White
  8. Black

There are many different oil paints on the market from student to artist quality. Student paints cost less because they contain less pure pigment. It comes down to what you can afford and how much you wish to spend. The top brand is Schmincke, I also recommend Winton, or Winsor & Newton (student). I would avoid Georgian (Daler – Rowney) as from my experience their colours are not consistent, also the cheap Reeves (They are more for School Children).

  • Bristle brushes (The best ones are made of stiff, white hog hair.), or Synthetic brushes in sizes 4, 6, 8, 10 and 2.
  • Palettes (The best are made from mahogany ply, but cheaper palettes are perfectly adequate. A piece of glass is also suitable if you wish.
  • A rag
  • Linseed oil
  • Turpentine.

These products are available from Riot Art in Indooroopilly Shopping Town, Eckersley’s in Milton or the CBD, The Art Shed in West End.