Gifts for Stockings & Budgets of All Sizes

Looking to fill a stocking? On a budget for your friends and family? Caryn and Kate do a great job every year finding quality items to fit stockings and budgets of all sizes.

We are open until 7:30pm Monday through Friday 

and we'll be open Saturday from 12 - 5pm. 

Plenty of FREE customer parking!

 

Hahnemühle Sketch & Note Set

Starting at only $1.93

Kuretake Fude Brush Pens

$2.50

All Weather Waterproof Notebook

$12.50

Felt Mushrooms

$6.00

Retro Click Pens

$6.00

Joshua Tree 3 Notebook Set

$8.00

Hardworking Erasers Set

$10.95

Monolith Woodless Graphite Set

$12.95

 

Great Holiday Gifts and ARCH Exclusive Sets

Support Your Local Art Supply Store This Holiday Season!

We have put together some great sets for artists of all types. From the beginner, to the professional, you can find what you are looking for at ARCH.  In addition we have a number of great gift sets, stocking stuffers, wraps, ribbons and cards.

You can purchase these sets online, but we encourage you to visit our store at 10 Carolina Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. We are open late during the week and from 12 to 5pm on Saturdays. We have plenty of off-street parking for our customers.

David's Mix-Media Illustration Kit
David's Kit features a variety of tools to facilitate the aspiring illustration or comic artist.
ON SALE - $29.00
Buy Now

 

 

Mac's Oil Painting Kit
Explore the wonders of oil painting with this all-inclusive kit! Great for the beginner to intermediate artist.
ON SALE - $69.00
Buy Now

Caryn's Travel Watercolor Kit
Everything needed for the nomadic watercolor artist on the go!
ON SALE - $45.00
Buy Now

Armando's Watercolor Enthusiast Kit
Top of the line supplies for watercolor enthusiasts. Features a handmade swatch card from Armando himself!
ON SALE - $79.00
Buy Now

Request for Donations: Help Artists Affected by the Wine Country Fires

Do you have gently used art supplies you’d like to donate to fire victims in the North Bay?

Knowing that the tragic firestorm that engulfed Sonoma and Napa Counties must have taken a huge toll on artists and art students of that area, we reached out to some of our connections in the Fine Arts Department at Santa Rosa Junior College to find out how we might be of assistance. We heard stories ranging from students who lost their homes and supplies, to others about those whose places of work were destroyed or who ran through their savings while caring for friends and families who had to evacuate.

When asked if there was a need for donated art supplies to help those affected by the fires, the answer was a resounding: YES!

Along with Gamblin Colors, Princeton Brush Company and Art Alternatives Canvas, we have been working on a donation of materials that the faculty at SRJC would get into the hands of the students most in need.

Additionally, we want to open this up to you. If you have gently used materials that you are no longer using, we would gladly include them in the boxes of materials we’re compiling.

What is most needed:

• Un-drawn on paper (full or partial pads okay)
• Willow Charcoal
• Unused Paper Palette Pads (full or partial pads okay)
• Graphite or Color Pencils
• Used or New Watercolor tubes or Palettes
• Used or New Acrylic tubes
• Used or New cans of Krylon or Blair Fixative

What is not needed:

• Turpentine
• Varnishes and/or solvents
• Used Canvas

You can drop off your donation of gently used art materials at ARCH through the end of Saturday, November 4th.

Finally, if you are traveling through the Santa Rosa area, we encourage you to visit stores such as Village Art Supply and Riley Street Art Supply. Natural disasters like this have a deep impact on nearby small businesses. These locally owned shops play an important roll in the community and need your support. Retail can be a tough business. Ask any of us the reason we do this work and we’ll all say it’s because of the people and the community which surround us.

Show your support and shop local!

Draw More this October!

Artist Jake Parker created the Inktober drawing challenge back in 2009. Began as way to encourage the practice of his inking and drawing skills, the annual event now draws thousands of submissions each year on Instagram by artists of all ages and skill levels.

How do you participate in Inktober? 

1) Make a drawing in ink.

2) Post it online

3) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2017

4) Repeat

We love this drawing challenge and many of us on staff will be participating. If you’re planning to take part in Inktober you have the chance to win a $50 ARCH gift card! As you post your Inktober art on Instagram, tag @archsupplies and make sure to use the official Inktober hashtags. We’ll announce the prize winner after October 31.

Want to check out some of our favorite pen and ink supplies? We have put together a curated kit with some of our top recommended tools at a sweet deal to help get you going!
 

Check out the ARCH Pen and Ink Set

New To Stock: M. Graham Oil Paints (plus, New Wave Glass Posh Palettes)

We have been looking to add options in our oil colors category. Recently, we brought in M. Graham Watercolors and Gouache and in reviewing and receiving feedback we are please to announce we have added M. Graham Oil paints to our stock.

M. Graham Oils offer great value with high quality. Using walnut oil as it's binder, in lieu of linseed oil, M. Graham Oils are created in a tradition that dates back to old masters from the Renaissance. The paints have an incredibly high pigment load, offer vibrant colors and a super smooth consistency.

Lets talk more about the binder they use; Walnut oil does not have the same strong odor that comes with most other linseed oil based paints. You can also clean your brushes with walnut oil. It provides a peace of mind to painting in tight studio spaces, as many of us do in the Bay Area.

New to Stock: New Wave Posh Palettes

A nice addition to any oil painters studio is a glass palette.

New Wave Posh palettes are made in the USA with 1/8" tempered glass. These are strong enough to mull paints on and are available with a gray, white or clear background. One of the more ingenious elements to the design is they are sized perfectly to fit into Masterson palette boxes. This allows you to seal your paints overnight and still get the ease of clean up a glass palette provides.

We are currently stocking these in 9x12 and 12x16 and we also have the matching Masterson boxes for purchase.

Review: David tries out De Atramentis Document Ink

We are excited to announce that we are now stocking select colors of the De Atramentis Document Inks from Germany. We handed a few off to illustrator, artist and ARCHie, David Tenorio to play with and review. He came away impressed. Check out his review and a short video he made working with these inks:

After hearing many requests from our customers, we’re really happy to bring in a new fountain pen ink: De Atramentis Document Ink. This hand-made ink is created from historical recipes using high quality European dyes. Coming all the way from Germany, De Atramentis Ink comes highly recommended from a number of urban sketchers and calligraphers.

I was immediately impressed with the rich quality of color as well as the amount of shading this ink produces. Across all brands, I have noticed only a select number of inks have a "shading" quality in which the ink color varies in mark depending on how much is deposited. The De Atramentis lays down nicely and produces a variety of values.

With a brush, the ink has a very rich hue when washed out. I think this ink would be amazing just to paint with in addition to how great it's been in fountain pen and loaded on a dip pen. 

One of the best features of this ink is that it is completely waterproof! Many inks claim to be waterproof only to smudge or run a bit. The De Atramentis has been successfully tested with watercolor and Copic marker and has had zero smearing. This makes De Atramentis a perfect ink for urban sketching and illustration.

If you're at all interested in calligraphy or working with ink in your art, I HIGHLY recommend adding De Atramentis to your collection. At ARCH we are currently stocking 37ml bottles in Black, Grey, Red and Brown, stop by and we’ll be happy to show you swatches of this exceptional ink.

 

New To Stock - Muslin, Pattern Paper & More for Fashion Design

Now at ARCH you can find staple needs for your fashion studio.

By popular demand we have sourced an unbleached, medium weight muslin, 48" length and sold by the yard. Featuring a "plain weave" crisscross pattern, this durable and affordable fabric is perfect for test fitting.

We are now stocking Pattern Paper, aka Oak Tag in 48" length and sold by the yard. Pattern Papers allow for easy cutting. It lays flat, has durable yet smooth edges, cut and folds perfectly, and are able to be written on with ease.

And check it out: Rolls of Pro Guide Marking Paper 48"x10yd. Pro Guide marking papers are used in cutting and design rooms throughout the world. This sturdy 35lb marking papers allow for multiple uses. Some of the features:

• Medium thickness with matte finish
• Ideal for Blueline Marker copying
• Alpha-Numeric design with + marks every two inches
• 1/4 yard edge marks

In addition, we carry pins, needles, cutters, Copic Sketch markers and much much more for fashion students and professionals.