Learn How to Set Up Your Studio and Care For Materials

If you are an artist who wants to be serious about a career in painting you are going to have to learn how to set up your studio and care for materials.

This is a huge subject because it is nothing less than learning how to build a business empire. Even though we are talking about an artistic discipline your artist studio and all of its components must have some element of organization or you will never accomplish any of your artistic goals.

This means that you should have a desk somewhere in your studio that is exclusively devoted to managing the business end of your artistic career.

Setting up an artistic studio can be quite simple if you already have space where you live to create a room that is devoted exclusively to your creativity. This could be a garage in the back of your home or a light filled room somewhere in your home. Sometimes just an extra bedroom in your house will do nicely for a makeshift artist studio.

However the ideal artist’s studio is often found in a warehouse or building that has lots of windows and light. Artist lofts or studios with a southwest exposure are ideal for painters because you will enjoy a great deal of soft natural light for the majority of the day.

While setting up an artist studio keep in mind that you have to keep a place in the studio to store big canvases and stretchers. Many artists build their own storage racks for canvases because each artist is different when it comes to producing differently sized works.

Depending on what type of paintings you are creating you may have different approaches as to how you organize your artist supplies and other materials. Most artists supplies can be stored in tool chests. Plastic tool chests work well because you can see the contents through the clear sides of the drawers.

No painter’s studio would be complete without an artist’s easel. It is important to have the canvas you are working on tilted upright or else you will not be able to achieve the proper perspective in your painterly works. If you work flat your landscapes and figures will look too distorted.

Before settling into any studio you should also make sure that it is equipped with all the basics including a sink that works (for washing out paint brushes), heating (for the cold months in the winter) and a ventilation system that works (so you are not smothered by oil paint fumes.)