From the Ground Up: Becoming an Artist and Building My Own Tools
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For the past few years, I’ve poured everything into the work, live sessions, big portraits, drawings that feel more like prayer than performance. But behind every piece was a constant battle with my tools. Nothing out there really matched the way I wanted to work.
So I stopped waiting for someone else to fix it.
Mad Art Materials is my answer to that problem, a line of tools built by an artist, for artists. Raw, focused, and made to be pushed.
I didn’t start with a full shelf. I started with the two things I use most:
The Mad Pastel and a custom palette knife.
The Mad Pastel is soft, dark, and expressive. It’s the stick I reach for when I need full range, bold blocks of black, but still sharp enough to hit the details. It’s the backbone of most of the work you’ve seen online.
The palette knife? It’s not just for mixing. I use it in charcoal pieces to cut, scrape, and shape texture. It lets me keep my hands in the process without muddying the marks.
This isn’t about selling supplies. It’s about making the tools I wish I had from the start—and sharing them with artists who go just as hard.
If you’ve ever felt held back by the materials on your desk, this is for you.