I found out about a local secondhand art store earlier this year, and it's turned into my first stop when I want new art supplies. I've been able to try a lot of new mediums that I wouldn't have thought to buy otherwise. It's easier to find surprises when the inventory changes constantly (and you have to dig through bins to see all of it). Good quality supplies are also pretty cost-prohibitive, and I hate to spend so much money on stuff that might sit and gather dust.

I've seen a lot of end of year reviews of people's purchases of new stuff, but not a lot in the way of new used stuff. So this is a recap of notable secondhand purchases from this year (and, by extension, cool stuff I've gotten to try).

Holbein watercolor tubes, set of 11 ($15)

Price comparison: Holbein doesn't sell individual 5mL tubes, but you can get a set of 12 for $55-60 right now.

Artist's grade paints won't automatically make you a better artist, but they're a lot easier to work with than the shitty stuff. This is something I know on a logical level, but there was no way in hell I was going to spend $60 on artist's grade watercolor when I didn't even like watercolor as a medium. $15 for a set of 11 paints was a significantly easier purchase to justify, and I learned that watercolor isn't as hard to use when the paint doesn't suck!

Artist's Loft tracing paper pad ($3)

Price comparison: A new pad of Artist's Loft tracing paper costs $8.

I picked this up on a whim because I saw it and I decided that tracing paper would be nice to have on hand for transferring sketches. I had also seen an expensive onion skin (vellum) paper notebook online and thought I could make a reasonable facsimile with cheap tracing paper.

I found out at home that tracing paper is possibly the best surface ever for water-based ink and markers. It shows color well, doesn't bleed, and barely ripples under light ink or watercolor washes. It's a mundane purchase on its face, but I consider it notable because I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

Pelikan Brilliant Brown ink ($3)

Price comparison: A new bottle of Brilliant Brown costs $10.

I was holding out on buying this ink because I already keep another brown ink, Diamine Pick Me Up, in my rotation constantly, but I couldn't pass up $3 for an almost-full bottle. I'm happy to have it now because I've come into possession of a few vintage pens in the second half of the year, and I severely restrict the types of ink I put in older pens to keep their insides happy. I like having more safe color options than red and blue, and the color itself is a good rich shade of brown that isn't dark enough to be mistaken for black.

Osmiroid 65 with 6 italic nibs ($7)

Price comparison: These are vintage pens so price varies, but eBay shows listings for $40 or more.

The Osmiroid 65 is a mid-20th century lever filler pen. The rubber ink reservoirs in these pens degrade over time, and I figured I would open this one to find a mess of exploded rubber inside. That was fine — for 7 bucks, I was expecting a project. It took over a day of soaking and heating with an embossing gun to open the pen... and find that the ink sac is completely intact! Now that I've cleaned all the dried ink out of the feed, it works like new. I currently have it inked with Brilliant Brown.

The pen also comes in a set with 6 italic nibs. Osmiroid has a reputation for unremarkable pen bodies with fantastic nibs, and for good reason! These are true italic nibs that work well for both calligraphy and regular writing. The tines of the fine nib are bent out of shape, but I don't mind since I've been sticking to the medium and broad nibs anyway.

Daniel Smith luminescent watercolor in Pearlescent White ($8)

Price comparison: A fresh tube of this paint is $11.

Daniel Smith paints are amazing but expensive as fuck, so I'll take any discount I can get on them. There were a few other pearlescent and iridescent colors available, but I went with white because I can mix it with other colors or use it as a topper. It's interesting because you can see the individual shimmer particles inside the paint (as opposed to metallic paints, where the paint just forms a uniform shiny layer), but the particles are very fine and uniformly distributed, so it doesn't look like glitter inside of a clear base, either. I haven't used it yet, but I'm looking forward to finding a piece for it.

Staedtler Karat Aquarell watercolor crayons, set of 12 ($3.50)

Price comparison: A new set of 12 crayons costs $15.

I was vaguely familiar with watercolor crayons (or water-soluble pastels if you feel you're too good for crayons), but they're quickly turning into one of my favorite mediums, particularly for portable sketching. These are student-grade, so they have some shortcomings that are particularly evident when you try to layer them, but I really can't say anything bad when I barely paid any money for them.