From the shop

Most graphite pencils follow the same format — graphite core inside a cedar casing. The Caran d'Ache Grafstone does not. It is a stick of almost pure graphite, encased only in a thin plastic sleeve, and it produces marks that a conventional pencil simply cannot match in richness and depth. Available in HB, 3B, and 6B, it can be sharpened for precision, used blunt for broader work, tilted for tonal shading, or snapped to create irregular edges for textural marks. This post looks at what makes it different, how the three grades work, and where it fits in a drawing practice alongside conventional pencils. On sale at £5.60 at Craft and Canvas.

Willow charcoal is soft, erasable, and forgiving — ideal for the loose, exploratory stages of a drawing. Compressed charcoal is darker, harder to erase, and capable of the deep blacks that willow cannot reach — better suited to the later, more committed stages. Understanding how the two types work together, rather than treating them as alternatives, is the key insight that takes charcoal drawing from frustrating to fluent. This guide covers the differences clearly and tells you exactly where to start.

You can paint with oils straight from the tube — but mediums open up a much wider range of control over drying time, consistency, transparency, and surface quality. In this guide we explain the difference between solvents and mediums, then cover each of the main medium types in plain English: linseed oil and stand oil, alkyd mediums for faster drying, retarders for extended working time, impasto gels for texture, and varnish for finished paintings. We also cover the Wallace Seymour Fast Drying Oil Glaze Medium, which is the medium we most commonly recommend alongside Wallace Seymour oils at Craft and Canvas.

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing materials in existence and one of the best starting points for anyone learning to draw — it is expressive, immediate, forgiving, and capable of extraordinary tonal range. In this complete beginner's guide we cover the three main types (willow charcoal for soft, erasable marks; compressed charcoal for deep, rich darks; charcoal pencil for precise detail and highlights), the tools that make the biggest difference (putty rubber as a drawing tool rather than just a correction tool, blending stumps, toned paper, fixative), and six fundamental techniques including massing in tones, side-stroke shading, blending, lifting out highlights, hatching with charcoal pencil, and using white charcoal on toned paper. We also lay out a clear working method — from general to specific, loose to precise — that gives beginners a reliable framework for approaching any subject. Willow charcoals from £4.80, charcoal pencils and white charcoal pencils all stocked at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Oil painting has intimidated beginners for decades — the slow drying, the solvents, the additional mediums, the technical rules. Most of that intimidation is unnecessary. In this complete guide to starting oil painting we cut through everything that actually matters: what paint, brushes, surfaces, solvents, and mediums to buy and why; the one technical rule (fat over lean) that prevents cracking and keeps paintings stable for centuries; how to begin a painting with a simple earth colour underpainting that eliminates the blank canvas problem; and the four fundamental techniques — blocking in, wet into wet, scumbling, and glazing — that form the foundation of everything else. We also cover ventilation, workspace, drying times, brush care, and varnishing. We stock Wallace Seymour oils from £9.95 per 40ml tube alongside Seawhite canvas boards, Pro Arte Bristlene brushes, and Wallace Seymour oil mediums at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Graphite pencils are the most immediate and accessible drawing tool available — and also one of the most misunderstood. The grade system, the difference between cheap and quality pencils, which grades suit which drawing styles, how paper affects the result — these are things most beginners are never taught, and yet they make an enormous difference to what drawing with graphite actually feels like. In this guide we explain the full grading scale from hard to soft, which grades form the most useful working selection for different approaches, and what to look for in terms of core quality, break resistance, and eraseability. We also give a full overview of the Faber-Castell 9000 — one of the most celebrated graphite pencils in history, admired by Van Gogh and Goethe, made in Germany since 1905, and available at Craft and Canvas as individual pencils so you can select exactly the grades you need. Read on, then find the full range in store or at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

If you have heard about Wallace Seymour oils and want to try them but are not sure where to start, this is the guide for you. The colour names are sometimes unfamiliar, the pricing reflects the genuine rarity of the pigments rather than following conventional series logic, and the range — while exceptional — is more focused than the broad catalogues of mainstream brands. In this post we cut through the confusion with a practical starter plan built around Series 1 and 2 colours from £9.95 per 40ml tube: the eight colours that form the best foundation palette, why the earth colours are the best first introduction to the range, which Series 3 cadmiums and cobalts are worth prioritising as you develop further, and how to bring Wallace Seymour into an existing oil painting practice without rebuilding everything from scratch. Available at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Malabrigo is one of the most sought-after hand-dyed yarn brands in the world and one of the hardest to find in the North of England. We stock Rios, Arroyo, Ultimate Sock, and Susurro at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge — £14.95 per skein, available in store and online with UK delivery.

There are oil paints, and then there are Wallace Seymour oil paints. Founded in 2011 by two practising Yorkshire artists, Wallace Seymour prepares its oils by hand in small batches in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales, using pigments chosen for historical significance and purity rather than convenience — including native Yorkshire earth colours sourced from local quarries, rare mineral pigments not available in any mainstream range, and finite stocks of historic colours that have largely disappeared from commercial production. The oil is cold-pressed linseed from a single estate farm. No drying agents are added. Each colour follows its own individual recipe, prepared by the method — machine-ground, hand-milled, or glass muller — that best suits the nature of the pigment. In this post we tell the full brand story, explain exactly how the paints are made and why it matters, describe what they feel like on the brush, and answer the most common questions about using them. Series 1 and 2 from £9.95 per 40ml tube, Series 3 and above from £16.20. Available at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

One of the most persistent myths about painting is that you need to spend a lot of money before you can start. With acrylics, this simply is not true — and this guide proves it with two complete, accurately priced beginner kits built from our actual stock at Craft and Canvas, both coming in comfortably under £50. We cover the difference between Sennelier Abstract (£3.95 per tube — creamy, vibrant, and surprisingly affordable) and Daler-Rowney System 3 (£4.70 per tube — a reliable UK staple), which eight colours give you a complete working palette, why Seawhite canvas boards from £1.35 are the most practical starting surface, and how to choose between the Pro Arte brush sets we stock. We also cover what to completely ignore until you are much further along, and when the step up to Wallace Seymour artist grade acrylics starts to make sense. Read on, then come and find everything in store or at craftandcanvas.co.uk.

Happy Valley Pride is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year — and we wanted to mark it with something that could only be made by many hands. One Patch, Your Pride is a community quilt project open to crafters anywhere in the world, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and Pride through textile craft. Knit a rainbow. Crochet a Pride flag. Embroider a name. Felt a symbol. Sew something that means something. Your patch just needs to fit a 15cm grid — 15x15cm, 15x30cm, 30x30cm, or any multiple — and it needs to reach us at Craft and Canvas, 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge by 30th June 2025. Every single patch will be incorporated into the finished quilt, which will be displayed in our shop window through July and donated to Happy Valley Pride on 26th July. No experience needed, no charge, no theme imposed beyond celebrating Pride and the LGBTQ+ community. Just make something and be part of it.  https://happyvalleypride.co.uk/news/100/one-patch-your-pride

If there is one subject that draws beginners to watercolour more than any other, it is loose florals — those free, atmospheric paintings where flowers seem to bloom spontaneously from the paper with barely a brushstroke in sight. The secret is not talent or years of practice; it is understanding what loose painting actually means and deliberately working in a way that allows watercolour to do what it does naturally. In this beginner's walkthrough we cover the full process: how to think about composition before you start, why your brush size matters more than your drawing ability, how to work wet-on-wet to create the soft petal blooms that define the style, how to paint leaves and stems that anchor the composition, and — crucially — how to know when to stop before you overwork it. We include four colour palette suggestions for different moods from soft and romantic to bold and vibrant, a guide to painting roses loosely, and a straight-talking list of the mistakes that trip up almost every beginner at this subject. Read on, then find everything you need in store or at craftandcanvas.co.uk.