Monday, March 14, 2016

Free Art Resources

As a poor college student and artist, I know what it's like to have no money to spend on luxuries like Photoshop, expensive paints, and fancy drinks from the local coffee shop. Luckily, there are a lot of cheap options out there.

General Art and Craft Supplies
This website has a ton of different art supplies for reasonable prices. Especially canvases.


Craft supplies!

Great for project supplies and fun beads.

For all your candle, soap and beauty, and potpourri needs!

Digital Drawing
GIMP
A free program with almost as much functionality as Photoshop (and it supports .psd files, too!)

Alchemy
A free sketching program

Inkscape
A free vector program

Krita
A free program with comic illustrators in mind

DeviantART
Dig through the resources for free digital brushes, stock images, reference images, and more. Sometimes the artists have limits on how you can use their resources, so always read their terms and respect their work.

Painting
A little labor intensive and needs some tools, but much cheaper than the $90+ canvases you find at the craft store.

DIY Crackle Paint
Beacuse crackle paint is expensive.

Oops!
Check the paint counter at your local hardware store. They typically have a shelf of marked down paints that weren't mixed to the right color or that the customer decided they didn't want. I grabbed a full gallon of raspberry pink paint for only $10; the original price would have been $31!

Cheap Brushes
I've been using cheap $4 packs of paint brushes for years. I love the variety of textures and sizes they give me! Expensive brushes are great, of course, but don't be afraid to go for some super cheap ones.

Jewelry
I have thrown so much money at this website for my jewelry. You get discounts that get bigger as you buy more things, and shipping is a flat $5. I have yet to find a site consistently cheaper than Fire Mountain!

Another reasonable option for gemstone beads.

Found Objects
I once found some neat pieces of green floor tile that were broken. I took them home and made pendents. They got so much attention and sold within two craft shows! I have since collected all sorts of things to use for jewelry, including broken plate shards, river glass, shells, and bones. They're my most popular pieces whenever I do shows, and I think they're the most fun to work with.


Upcycled Objects
Ask your friends if they have any old jewelry (costume or otherwise) that you can have for cheap or free. Especially broken stuff; people love to give away broken stuff. I have more old costume jewelry than I have time to take apart! Thrift stores and yard sales are also great for old jewelry.