An Easy Way to Save Money on Materials with Sarah Sedwick

If money is an issue, don’t worry. Sarah Sedwick (Ep.37) has a great piece of advice that’s going to save you a ton of money. Bonus: It’ll help you become a master of color mixing too.

When it comes to materials, Sedwick recommends buying the best art materials you can afford.

But when it comes to colors it’s definitely an issue of quality over quantity. And this is where you can save money too.

Instead of buying a dozen colors, buy 3 primaries (a red, yellow and blue) and a big tube of white and then mix your secondaries (orange, purple and green) and everything beyond.

Put it to Practice:

This setup is less expensive for two reasons:

First, there will be less wasted color. You’ll learn how your colors mix so even if you have paint left over, odds are you can use it in the next painting. Because you’ll know how to adjust it as needed.

Second, you’ll be less inclined to buy things you won’t end up using. Often we think of “wasting paint” as colors left out on the palette. But really most of us waste much more paint by buying colors we don’t end up using. Colors that live on our shelves unopened or barely touched.

By working with just three colors, you will have workhorse colors. Which means, you can wait to buy big bottles or tubes when they are on sale and you’ll be confident you’ll use them.