My response was, as should anyones, was "Use whatever you have!" The caveat, of course, being to be able to say what was used in our time period and why you used what you had. The wrong answer would have been to say something like, "Oh good grief no! You must only use such-and-such or you are not allowed to enter the competition! You must spend huge amounts of money you don't have in order to get started in our hobby, silly girl!"
How many times do we give this message, either overtly or subtextually? Recently, I posted news about a sale on a $7 set of Reeves gouache - not the best, but by far not the worst. A 12 or 24 tube set of gouache for $7 is a steal, especially for beginners. It is what Calontir uses to stock the preprint/Royal Scribe traveling boxes throughout the Kingdom. It is fine for general use. Add a decent gold and silver, and you are good. I purposely bought one for myself to use (at that price, why not?) and I am using it. It works fine, it mixes well, and I have no problems with it.
That post, however, brought a rain of criticism from other scribes, telling about how difficult it is to get the "right" color matches for period colors, that it is difficult to mix, this that and the other thing. They told about how other, much more expensive brands are better, and how ground, period pigments are even better. They are not wrong, in a sense. Yes, ground period pigments will obviously give you a truer medieval color match because - well, because they ARE the medieval color match. They are also the much more advanced and far more expensive option. Not everyone is to that place yet. Not everyone will GET to that place. First we need to mentor them, encourage them, more importantly start working with them WHERE they are AT RIGHT NOW!
Most or many of us started when we were young, dirt poor and did not know what art or science, if any, we wanted to pursue. This does not just go for scribal work. Almost all arts and sciences in our hobby come at a price - usually a steep price. The good fabric is far from cheap. Leather, metal, precious stones, ingredients and materials for brewing and cooking - the list goes on - are all expensive, and for a reason. Cheap is cheap. Add in the cost of simply getting to and from an event, site fees, the need for a way to stay on site out of the weather, eat, and clothe oneself, and ours is simply not a cheap hobby. Yet we congregate because we love what we do and who we do it with, so we make those sacrifices.
So, I enable beginners when I can. I post sales on decent but inexpensive starter supplies that I know are decent. I haunt art suppliers online for sales, and have a bunch of discount retailers - Jerry's Artarama, Dick Blick, etc. in addition to the higher end favorites like Paper and Ink, John Neal, and Guild of Limners. I do the same with books. I always watch the Amazon sales and especially the used books. I have found needful and practically indispensable books (Ceninni! Drogin! Mehan!) for pennies there. There are dozens of great used books sites - I could make an entire post just as a list of used book places, but I'll leave that task to others.
My overlong point is this. We start where people are. If they do not have great supplies, that's OK. First, we teach them to use what they have, and what they would use in periodAt the same time, we give of ourselves to the best of our ability. We may not be able to set them up with a full ground pigment kit ($160 or so from Guild of Limners, and very cool), but we might be able to set them up with a little bit better grade of gouache, a better grade of paper, some better brushes, and a much better technique so they are not having to spend as much out of pocket right away. We might be able to point them towards sales. We might be able to give them a portable, sealable palette with dabs of OUR better gouache to use - like the palettes in the Royal Scribe box, but filled with the gouache we think they should be using.
We might teach them to mix colors to better match the medieval colors - show them a dab of "the real thing" then show them what colors of modern gouache, and in what proportions, to mix to approximate that color. We might encourage their efforts and praise their wishes to join the scribal (or whatever other art or science) community and welcome them, rather than give the message that without the "right" aka "really expensive" materials, they cannot play.
Your assignment for the week is to think about what you can do to encourage artisans in your specialty to start, to progress, and to feel welcome in the artisan community. How can you help them get started? How can you be welcoming? Can you contribute anything from your "stash" to get them started with a better artist tool kit? Most of us are terrible art stuff hoarders. Can you bring them IN rather than push them OUT? I'm betting you can, with very little effort. Be a lazy Laurel by expending your effort unloading extra stuff (I hear decluttering is all the rage these days) and giving words of encouragement, rather than trying to find ways to couch words of discouragement "nicely."
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