ART SUPPLIES: HOLY CRAP

So, on Friday of last week, I finished a sketch for a gift, for some friends who are getting married. Soon I realized that I didn't have the proper pens to do any inking for watercoloring after. All my pro-watercolorist buddies really recommended Microns, and since I had worked with Microns before, I knew they were good quality, and they were really what I wanted. 

Husband and I set off on an adventure throughout town to find these elusive Microns. We went to to 3 different stores in town, that I knew sold different kinds of art supplies. Luckily these stores weren't completely fruitless! I had found a couple of supplies that I could use, and really wanted! 

Eraser pencil, white gel pen, clicky eraser, and skinny tiny brush. Bought at Müller for $10.34

A pretty large, 24x32cm (a bit bigger than 9x12in) water color pad. Purchased for $9.08 at Fechter, a toy store that happens to sell some art supplies downstairs, in like, a basement area, all shady like. lol.

But, I still couldn't find these elusive Micron pens! I knew I could go with them, or Pitt pens, but I didn't really know of any others that would be suitable for the work I was planning on doing.

So I heard of a craft store (Idee) in Nuremberg (about 45 minutes away), so I made husband go with me. We traveled up to Nuremberg, found the craft store, hidden among all the stores on the shopping street in downtown Nuremberg. It was fairly large, we went inside. I couldn't spot any pens that would be suitable for inking, and then watercoloring. I was so disappointed, I almsot wanted to cry. I thought that this meaningless 45 minute trip, and kind of stressful downtown streets was going to be pointless. 

I asked one of the people who worked there, if they spoke English (and Germans will always say "a little bit" or "no" whether or not they speak it fluently or not. lol). She said "a little bit" so I showed her a photo, and asked about pens that would work with watercolors, she pointed out copics, but all they had there was the brush pens, that really wasn't going to work for me. She began to get a bit frustrated and then just pointed me to another store.

At this new store (Kaut-Bullinger), which just had paper, pens, and other random school supplies. I finally found these Copics (first photo above). But I really wasn't sure if they would work out. I needed to try them out on some watercolor paper. Because you never really know how a pen is going to react to certain paper without trying it first. That and a lot of the products were in German so I didn't understand what a lot of the pens were "meant" for. 

Husband and I found this small pad of Watercolor paper (Which cost me 5euro, sigh) to try out the pens on. The copics were a go, but I knew they were going to be expensive, so we kept looking a little bit to find out if there were other pens available that would work for me. No luck. 

Like I said, I knew that the Copics were going to be expensive, but I had no idea that they were going to cost me nearly $50!! ($47.27). I had to purchase the pad too, I was thinking about not buying it, but, I am too honest. LOL. And that shit is expensive. Anyway, I about had a damn heart attach at the $47.27 that I had no idea I was going to be spending at that register! They were nearly $10 a piece! SIGH. 

I don't know how anyone can be artists over here in Germany, I mean, really, art supplies are EXPENSIVE!! 

Are you surprised at the prices of things lately? What has knocked your socks off (in a bad way, because it was more than you thought it was going to be) recently? How do you support your hobby financially?