{"id":3790,"date":"2016-08-12T00:23:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T05:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2016-08-13T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T20:29:08","slug":"this-a-hole-wants-how-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arseniclullabies.com\/wordpress\/?p=3790","title":{"rendered":"This a-hole wants how much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since, it would be legally impertinent, to rant about what I’d like to rant about right now, I’m going to complain about something else I have been putting off complaining about.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the great screws of being an Illustrator or an artist is how much good supplies cost.\u00a0 Even in the age of online stores it’s still expensive.\u00a0 For example a 3 ounce bottle of quality ink will run you from $3 to $5.\u00a0 Let me put that\u00a0 in perspective for you.\u00a0 Ink has two ingredients water and dye.\u00a0 Soda has about 49 ingredients and you can get 20 ounces of it for 1.00. People who use oil based paints are laughing at me for complaining about ink, because a set of quality oil pant is close to a monthly car payment.\u00a0 Brushes, pens, canvas….the good stuff is way over priced compared to tools people in other professions use.\u00a0 Even when I was a mechanic and looking through the Snap-On catalogue (the gold standard for tools) tools were cheaper…and you could use the same one for the rest of your life.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is there are not enough of us for the supplies to be mass produced to the point the cost is reasonable.\u00a0 You see a painting for sale, it probably cost 200.00 just in supplies.\u00a0 It’s ridiculous, and a little sick.\u00a0 Sick, because the sellers know we’ll buy it.\u00a0 They know it’s over priced and they know we have no where else to turn and they know that the side of our brain that scoffs at the cost will be overruled by the side of our brain that is in charge…the “creative side”.\u00a0 It’s like shopping\/sharing expenses with a complete moron…and the moron has the final say.\u00a0 The moron takes you to the store, picks up a jar of ink the size of a D battery,\u00a0 and tells you to pay the clerk 5.00.\u00a0 On the way to the clerk you had passed by gallon jugs of other liquids that are only 1.00 and far more useful than ink.\u00a0 The 5.00 may not seem like a big sting, but remember the perspective and that it is one example out of many. Every single thing you buy…brushes, paper, decent pencil lead is over priced.\u00a0 A Snap-On ratchet, which lasts forever, costs less than a quality no.2 brush which will last a year if you are good to it.\u00a0 The sellers KNOW the moron is in charge, and you know the moron is in charge, and that’s what is sick about it all.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what’s worse, more and more of this stuff is just being discontinued.\u00a0 which leaves you and the moron searching for used items.\u00a0 In theory, used stuff should be cheaper.\u00a0 it is used, and usually owned by someone who inherited it and has no actual idea of the value, or what the hell it even is.\u00a0 “In theory”.\u00a0 When someone has no actual idea of the value it, can go one of two ways- You can get it for far less than it is worth, or they can expect far more than it is actually worth.\u00a0 You can guess where this is going…but first…<\/span><\/p>\n

For about a year now I have been searching for a drafting tool called a centrolinead.\u00a0 It is basically three straight edges that come together and can be adjusted.\u00a0 It’s for making an illustration where the vanishing points would come out far beyond the edges of your table.
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Here’s a video some guy ( not me) did that gives you the basic idea of how it works.\u00a0 (btw, for reasons I cannot fathom…many of you want me to do more how to videos…so I guess I will starting next month)<\/span><\/p>\n