So far we have done the full Winsor & Newton Artists’ Watercolour range and are currently working our way through Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolours. Eventually, we hope to upload videos of all our colour ranges.

As well as the videos, we have also put a lot more detailed information for each colour on the website. Just hover your mouse over the colour and you will see the RRP and stock level, as well as the colour properties such as lightfastness and permanence. We hope that all this extra information will make using our website an even better experience for you.

Hover your mouse over the colour to see the additional information. If there is a video, there will be a link at the bottom.

When you click on the video link, you will be able to see the colour being painted out.

We hope you all enjoy this new feature. If there are any other suggestions you would like to make as to how we could improve our site we would love to hear from you. Email us here.

Derwent Artbar is all about mark making and texture. These highly pigmented water-soluble bars are extremely versatile and are perfect for expressive pieces showing off different marks and textures. They are suitable for large dramatic pieces with lively marks and shapes, but additionally and perhaps a little unexpecitdly, due to their triangular shape are also adaptable to adding in finer detail.

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How to use Artbar

With all new products you need to experiment to get the feel of them. Try the following techniques to familiarise yourself with the qualities of Artbar and how it can be used.

1. Try making as many different marks as you can with Artbar. Use different edges and sides and move the bars in different directions.
2. Try blending and layering different colours. See how you can build up dense pigment and blend colours together. If you warm the layers of colour with warm air (breath) you can gently blend the colours with your finger.
3. Explore the reaction when you add water, the difference in washes over light colour and dense colour. You can create some beautiful thick paint effects.
4. See that marks you can make over the wet areas with a bar. You can use the bar to push the wet colour around and a wet bar to print texture from the side of a bar.
5. Try building up surface texture by layering small scraps of Artbar on top of your drawing. Work into the surface with warm fingers and a little moisture.

Have a really good play around with the bars. Try layering over painted and dry areas and find out all the different textures you can make.

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Accessories

To enhance your creative work with Artbar Derwent have developed three handy accessories:

Spritzer

As an alternative water applicator try the Spritzer to spray water over the Artbar marks. Spray from a relatively long distance to mist over large areas to dampen your work instead of dipping your brush in water. Or get in close and spray into colour lines to make the pigment disperse.

Scaper

A really useful tool for scratching into the surface of your drawing, the Scaper can be used to reveal underlying layers of colour when used upon dry Artbar marks. There are a variety of different scarping edges to choose from, including thin points, fat edges and a zigzag area.

Shave ‘n’ Save

If you want to shape your Artbar, the Shave ‘n’ Save allows you to both sharpen the bar and also collect the shavings for further use. You can sprinkle the shavings over your drawings and work them over the top of your image with your fingers and a bit of moisture to create an interesting textured surface.

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Artbar Colour Range

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Drawing a Landscape Using Derwent Artbars

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If you can’t wait for your catalogue to arrive, or you live outside the UK you can download a copy of the catalogue here.

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Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Colour is unmatched for its purity, quality and reliability – a success which is reflected in its world-wide reputation amongst professional artists. It has 120 colours in the range, offering the widest spectrum of all the Winsor & Newton oil ranges.

Every Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Colour is individually formulated to enhance each pigment’s natural characteristics and ensure stability of colour. By exercising maximum quality control throughout all stages of manufacture, selecting the most suitable drying oils and method of pigment dispersion, the unique individual properties of each colour are preserved.

Combined with over 170 years of manufacturing and quality control expertise, the formulation of Artist’s Oil Colour ensures the best raw materials are made into the World’s Finest Colours.

Artists’ Oil Colour uses the highest level of pigmentation consistent with the broadest handling properties. The quantity of pigment used provides covering power and tinting strength; leading to the saying “artists’ quality goes further”.

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Christmas Opening Times

We are open between Christmas and New Year as normal, and you can order online at any time. Parcels will be sent out on the 28th, 29th and 30th December. We then reopen after New Year on the 3rd January 2012.

If you are still looking for a last minute gift but have left it a bit late, try an eVoucher. Send it anywhere at any time day or night, instantly, or send it to yourself and print it out to give to someone!

When I wrote the last blog post, we were in the process of planning the big move to our new premises. We planned for months and got a lot of preparation done but we only had one weekend to make the final move. It went very smoothly indeed and with the help of our team we managed to make the move over one (very busy) weekend with very minimal disruption. We have now been her for a month and a half and love our new home!

Interactive Showroom!

As well as having a much bigger warehouse meaning that it is much easier to pick and pack parcels with maximum efficiency, we also have a brand new show room. As well as just coming in to browse art materials on the shelves, we also have a great testing table where you can come in and have a go of the materials before you buy! We have a selection of paints, brushes and drawing equipment so you can see the difference between different brushes, shapes and hair type, and try out the paint – see what colours look like on paper. We are adding new things to the testing table all the time so why not come down and have a go! Besides being able to test a selection of art materials, we also have an Interactive Station where you can watch all our videos – from helpful tips and techniques, to DVD trailers. We are trying to create a more hands on experience to buying your art materials which we hope you will all enjoy.

At the moment the showroom is open Monday – Friday 9am-5pm, and we have been opening some Saturdays, although we don’t have any set hours yet, so make sure you give us a call to make sure we are here before you come down on a Saturday.

New Catalogue

Two weeks after we moved, there was more excitement as our new catalogue was sent out to all our customers in the UK. The catalogue cover featured our competition winner Tim Gustard’s painting ‘Whisky and Water’ and we think it looks brilliant! We have had a lot of positive feedback from our customers about the cover and Tim was delighted with it. For more information on Tim and our other competition winners please see here…

New Arrivals

It is getting to that time of year where you might just be starting to think about Christmas :-/ ! Well, even if you haven’t, we have and have been busy adding lots of goodies to the website which would make great Christmas presents for your arty friends and family – or even just something for you to treat yourself!

Check out our New Arrivals pages and our Gift pages to see what we have on offer.

For those of you who have visited us here in Bolton you will have noticed that we have been outgrowing our little building for some time. Over the years we have managed to cram more and more product ranges in but now we are just too full and the staff are getting sick of bumping into each other!

In two weeks we will be moving to a brand spanking new premesis in Horwich – not too far from where we are now. The new building will be much bigger and easier to get to (just off the M61) and will enable us to not only operate more efficiently, but to stock a much wider product range.

There shouldn’t be any disruption to our service as we are very organised and have been getting things ready over there for the past month so we can move the last few things (ie. us) over a weekend.

Our new address will be:

Unit 13 Lodge Bank Estate
Crown Lane
Horwich
BL6 5HY

Our new building from the outside. Offices and shop on the left, warehouse on the right.

New sign!

New shelves ready to hold all the lovely art materials!

We have already moved over some of our Christmas stock!

Brand new packing tables for maximum packing efficiency

Join Our Team!

Ken Bromley Art Supplies is happy to announce an opportunity for someone to join our team!

We are looking for a person to join our busy Customer Services department. The role involves processing internet orders, answering email enquiries and live chats as well as taking telephone orders and enquiries.

You will work with the rest of the team to provide a professional and high level of customer care.

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Thank you to everyone who took part in this year’s Cover Competition, to all the entrants and everyone who took the time to vote.

Now the votes have been counted and we are happy to announce the winner of this years Cover Competition…..

Visit our website to see who won!