Table of Contents
How to Save Money on Picture Framing
9 Avoid Framing Altogether
Consider displaying your paintings without a frame. Obviously, this wouldn’t work for a delicate painting medium such as watercolor because the paint is water soluble and needs to be protected by glass. But oil paintings and acrylic paintings are often displayed without frames.
“Gallery Wrapped” canvases are thicker along the edges and are often displayed without framing. This is a more contemporary way to display a painting.
If you find the stark white edges of the painting distracting, you can paint the edges of the canvas so that it matches the image on the front. Some artists only gesso the face of the canvas and leave the raw canvas showing on the edges. It’s a matter of preference.
In a related post, I discuss 6 options for painting the edges of a canvas.
I prefer to display paintings without frames because I don’t like how most of them hide the edges of the painting.
10 Create Work That Fits into Standard Frame Sizes
Framing is usually expensive, but custom framing is the most expensive. If you think ahead and create work that fits into the most common frame sizes, you can save a fortune.
You can buy a frame from a big box craft store, art supply store, or online. Many picture frames even come with precut mat boards.
If your painting is on paper, it’s easy to slip the art into the back of the frame and have it ready to hang on the wall. I’ve used these types of frames to display 8″x10″ watercolors.
You can find precut mat boards with openings that are made to display the common print sizes such as 8×10 or 11×14 and sometimes larger.
I bought these precut matboards from Amazon and they work great for framing 8″x10″ prints.
Canvas panels are easy to frame as I demonstrate in my YouTube video below. Here’s the link to my blog post that demonstrates 3 ways to frame canvas panels.
11 Try Floater Frames for Paintings on Wood Panels
Floater frames have become more popular since more artists are working on wood panels. There are floater frame kits that you can buy for specific sizes of wood panels. The painting is held in place by screws.
Instructions are included with the kits and it usually only requires a drill and a screwdriver to put together. Here’s a link to the Ampersand Floater Frames on Blick, which is what I used in the photo above.
Saving Money on Studio Space
Renting studio space is expensive but fortunately there are more affordable alternatives.
One way to save money on studio space is to find a shared workspace. There are cooperative artist spaces where a group of artists will share rent and utilities and each artist pays a fee. This is probably more economical than renting a space for yourself because you’re sharing the expenses.
The most affordable studio space is the home studio as I discuss below.
12 Create a Studio at Home
The cheapest solution is to create a studio at home.Perhaps you have a spare bedroom, or some extra room in the basement that you can use as a studio.
This is the most affordable solution because you’re already paying the rent and utilities so it’s basically free.
It doesn’t take much to set up a studio at home. You just need an easel, some lights, and your painting equipment. Many artists spend a lot of time creating the perfect studio and it turns into a renovation project that lasts for months.
It might be worth it, but it’s often a form of procrastination. I’d love to have skylights in my studio with hardwood floors but it’s not a necessity. It’s been said that Kandinsky painted in the living room of his apartment.
Don’t Use Toxic Art Materials at Home
The home studio isn’t an option if your art requires the use of toxic materials. In that case it’s best to have a separate space with proper ventilation and use the required safety equipment.
Acrylics, and watercolors are usually safe to use at home. They clean up with soap and water and don’t require any solvents. They’re also nonflammable. I believe acrylics are best for beginners.
Many artists are tempted to use the kitchen table or dining room table as an art studio but I don’t recommend it. Acrylics and watercolors are generally safe to use but ingestion is a potential route for the pigments to enter your body.
If you set up your easel in the kitchen, it would be too tempting to snack on something while you paint. If you have paint on your hands you could ingest tiny amounts of pigment while you’re snacking. That’s a bad habit to get into because some pigments are toxic.
Another benefit of the home studio is that you’ll paint more often. You can wake up and be in the studio in less than a minute.
Compare that to having to drive 20 minutes just to get to your studio, park your car, open it up, turn the lights on etc. Then another 20 minutes to reverse the process for the trip home.
If you worked at home you could spend an extra 40 minutes per day painting instead of commuting.
Canvases
13 Is It Cheaper to Stretch Your Own Canvas?
No, it’s often less expensive to buy a stretched canvas than it is to buy the separate components and stretch it yourself. The quality of stretched canvases have improved and you can have canvases shipped to your home for less money than stretching the canvas yourself.
When I was an art student, I often stretched my own canvases. I thought it was less expensive than buying a stretched canvas in the store.
Then I crunched the numbers. I was shocked to learn that the cost of the supplies could cost more than what I would pay for having a stretched canvas shipped to my home.
I’ve been using the studio canvases from Blick. They’re very affordable and the quality is good. They’re stapled on the back and the ones that I’ve received have square corners.
You can check the current pricing for the Blick studio canvases here.
The stretcher bars of the same size would cost at least $7 which is almost as much as the stretched canvas (at least when I wrote this).
You also have to add the costs of the canvas, gesso, and staples which usually exceeds the cost of buying a canvas.
Additionally, you can get lower prices on canvases from Blick if you purchase them in bulk as I wrote about in the section about buying in bulk.
When you buy 10 or 20 of the same size, the price is often lower than the cost of the stretcher bars.
Outsource the Boring Parts
The unique part of your painting is the image creation and that’s what you should focus on. It doesn’t take a lot of skill to stretch and prime a canvas so you should buy them instead. It’s difficult to find time to paint so you should look for strategies like this to free up as much time for painting as possible.
If you don’t like the quality of the gesso on the store bought canvases, you can add a coat of your favorite gesso without much effort or costs. I often tone mine with gray gesso or with a warm earth color anyways.
Another advantage is that you don’t have to pay for your mistakes. If you stretch a canvas and you realized afterwards the corners aren’t square, you have to live with it.
When you buy a canvas and it’s not square or it’s warped, the store will usually refund your money. Sometimes the canvas will arrive with some slack in it, but that’s easy to fix.
Usually misting the back of the canvas with water will cause the canvas to tighten up as it dries.
Brushes
Brushes can be expensive, but some of the cheaper brushes work well. For acrylic painting I use the inexpensive nylon brushes the most. They hold a sharp edge and they last a long time.
The hog bristle brushes that are often used for oil painting tend to splay as they age because of being exposed to water from the acrylic paint.
Taking care of your brushes is one way to save money. Artists often don’t know that they’re destroying their brushes by the way they use them.
Below are some quick tips for prolonging the life of your brushes, and therefore saving you money. If you want the in-depth version you can read my post 12 tips to make your paintbrushes last longer.
14 Don’t Leave Your Brushes Sitting in Bucket of Water
If you leave your brushes in water for an extended period, the wood handles will absorb water. Over time, the water will soak into the wood handle and the paint will crack and peel off. Check your brushes, the paint shouldn’t be peeling off of them.
Only add enough water in the bucket so that it doesn’t go past the ferrule, which is the metal part of the paint brush. This way your handles will stay dry.
The other problem with letting your brush sit in water for too long is that all of the weight is on the bristles. If the bristles are soft they may develop a permanent bend in them. When I use multiple brushes during a painting session, I rest the unused ones on a rag next to my paint bucket.
Don’t let them sit long enough to dry out though. I usually rinse them and leave the bristles wet. When I’m done painting I wash them thoroughly with soap and water.
15 Don’t Store Wet Brushes Bristles Up
When you’ve finished cleaning your brushes don’t store them bristles up in a jar or any other container. That encourages the water to drain into the ferrule. The ferrule could rust or the glue inside of it could weaken. I lay them flat on my table, usually on an old rag. Once they’re dry I store them in a container with the bristles facing up.
16 Use a Brush Cleaner to Rejuvenate Old Brushes
Most of the time I use regular soap and water to clean my paintbrushes. But once in a while I will give them a thorough cleaning with a brush cleaner.
I recommend EZ Air acrylic brush cleaner. It’s nontoxic and doesn’t have any obnoxious odors. You can watch me use it to remove dry acrylic paint in my YouTube video below.
It works great though, it can dissolve dried acrylic paint and remove some of the staining from the bristles. It won’t restore a brush to the original condition but it can extend the life of your brushes. Test it on some of the paint brushes that you don’t care about before using it on your more expensive brushes.
17 Use Common Sense Shopping Tips
All of the regular shopping tips apply to art supplies. You’re probably aware of most of them but below are some of the ways I’ve saved money over the years.
Look for Discontinued Product Lines
The small art sections within department stores often fail and then sell the inventory off at a discount. Other times they just want to liquidate a line of paints or brushes that don’t sell well and you can buy them at a steep discount.
The stock may be older but since most stores are climate controlled, they’ll probably still be good to use.
Look for Free Shipping
If you’re shopping online, look for companies that offer free shipping. Blick usually offers free shipping when your shopping cart reaches a certain amount.
You can also join Amazon Prime so you can get free 2 day shipping. Click here to try Amazon Prime free for 30 days. This is an affiliate link so I earn a commission if you click on the link and sign up (at no cost to you).
Be Patient
Make a list of supplies and wait for a sale. However, make sure it’s not a faux sale where the discount is off the inflated manufacturers list price.
Comparison Shop
Check the prices online and make sure you factor in the cost of shipping before you buy. Sometimes the shipping can ruin a good bargain. Even if you shop locally, most stores have websites and you can use them to compare prices between the stores in your area.
Look for Bulk Discounts
Some online stores give you a discount when your total reaches a specified amount. You can organize a group order to reach that amount. When shopping in person, ask for a discount on a large purchase.
Conclusion
That completes my 17 tips for saving money on art supplies. I understand that not all of them will apply to your situation but I hope you found something new that will save you time and money. If you have any other tips that you want to share, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.
