Flat, filbert, round ... new brushes just waiting for paint.

These particular brushes are Raphael Mixacryl which have a mixture of synthetic and natural bristle hair. They've long wooden handles painted in a distinctive light green, covered with a smooth gloss varnish. The ferrule has a satin finish. Hold the handle at the tip and the balance is beautiful.

It's been love at first touch. Now it's time to get to know one another even better. Brush, meet Paint...

^{Photos © 2009 M Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

Painters are all too familiar with the joys of "happy accidents". One in a science lab has created a new blue pigment, reports The New York Times. It echoes the discovery of Prussian blue as it's a by-product of what was being investigated:

"The researchers were trying to make compounds with novel electronic properties, mixing manganese oxide, which is black, with other chemicals and heating them to high temperatures ... one of the samples ... taken out of the furnace was blue.

Read full report on The New York Times... but don't expect to see it in a tube of paint unless a cheaper option is found for indium.

"The artist's studio has been not just the cockpit of creation, but also can be the environment in which the artist locates and defines him or herself. It can be a detached sanctuary, or part of everyday life: an office, a shop, a retreat, or a home."

-- Dr Steven Parissien, Director of Compton Verney, in the foreword of The Artist's Studio
(Look inside the book...).

See Also:
• Exhibition Photos: The Artist's Studio
• Photos: What's on Your Easel?
• Photos: Inside Artist's Studios

^{Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

If I'd sketched it every time I had a mug of hot chocolate, by now I'd be able to get a perfect ellipse with my eyes closed. But as I haven't, I can't even with my eyes open. Maybe that could be one of my 2010 New Year's resolutions, because then I would have to keep drinking hot chocolate to keep practicing... plus a chocolate biscuit of some sort of course.

Okay, that's so not the idea behind The Doodles Diet (Buy Direct), which is a book of 40 paper placemats. Each of the pages features a specific food item, with a step-by-step outline of how you might doodle it in the blank area in the center instead of eating it.

It'll also make a great not-a-coloring-in-book for a little 'un, who'll be able to follow the how-to illustrations even if they can't read the words yet or just follow their own imagination.

• Gifts Ideas for Artists
• How Chocolate Can be Good For Your Painting

^{Photo © 2009 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}