Product Review: Rosa Gallery Watercolors

Over the holidays, I got a bunch of new art goodies! My birthday is right around Christmas, so it’s usually my time of year to spend gift cards on art goodies and to ask for things I don’t want to buy myself! This year for my birthday, my sister bought me the set of Rosa Gallery Watercolors. I got the classic set that comes in the plastic palette. Generally, I prefer a plastic palette over a metal one, and I had been very intrigued by this set. 

This set comes with full pans, says to be artist quality, and has both pigment information and lightfastness ratings. You can find that information HERE. For a pricetag around $35-$40, I HAD to know if they were quality paints!

  

The first thing I noticed using these was how much I loved the size of the full pans and the amazing mixing space on this palette. The paint has wonderful flow, and certain colors do granulate. I used a salt technique with at least one piece and got even more beautiful granulation, but was also able to get flat, beautiful washes for the most part.

I did notice that it seems like certain colors (violet and indigo in particular) seem to flow a LOT more than the other colors. This might just be me, but they definitely seemed to move more than others. This isn’t a problem or anything, but it is something to note if you are going to use the set.

I also missed a few, specific colors in this set. I think the olive green is more earthy than a traditional “sap green,” and while it’s not a bad color I found myself mixing sap green all the time. I also missed having a pink and a cobalt turquoise in this set, which is completely personal preference. I ended up going on Etsy and purchasing those three full pans (sap green, opera pink, cobalt turquoise) from this store, and they were a great addition to the set. The “modern” version of this set (listed here on Amazon) includes a pink and a cobalt turquoise, but I love the plastic palette so much that I’m glad I ended up with it and extra colors!

The longer I used these paints, the more their strong, vibrant pigments impressed me. The colors are just beautiful and produce gorgeous mixes and color bleeds on the paper. Everytime I sat down to paint something just for fun, I felt myself reaching for this set. This is the reason they are the first product review from my big christmas/birthday haul, because I’ve already used them SO much! So I was finding joy in the paints, and they had listed lightfastness and pigment information, so how do they compare to similar (or lesser) sets?

So - I would categorize these paints as a wonderful “starter artist” set. I would not expect them to perform as well as my Daniel Smith or M Graham sets - though in my humble opinion, they DO hold up to these sets decently well! So I’d like to compare them to the MeiLiang Pretty Excellent watercolor set, distributed by the same parent company as Paul Rubens art supplies, and to the Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolors.

The Pretty Excellent watercolor set comes with 36 half pans, lightfast and pigment information, and usually is around $20 on Amazon. You cannot purchase the colors open stock, and it does come with a nice tin.

 

 Windsor and Newton Cotmans come in all shapes and forms - so I tried to find what I would consider to be the most comparable set. Their “studio” set comes with 24 full pans (similar colors) in a metal tin and costs about $60 at the major retailers (Amazon, Blick, Jerry’s Artarama.) You can purchase these full pans open stock, and there is lightfast and pigment information attached to the paints.

Considering both of the above options, I’d consider the Rosa the clear winner here. The Pretty Excellent paints are of similar quality and cheaper, but they do not offer an open stock replacement option if you like them. You can buy individual full pans of the Rosa paints, and you get a LOT more paint for the $35 (making the price comparable in my opinion!) The Cotmans are available open stock, but their pricetag is much higher and, to be honest, I don’t think they are nearly as vibrant or pigmented as the Rosa paints.

Overall, these paints are for just about everyone! If you are a serious watercolor artist, I think you will be impressed with these but also not find them so precious that you don’t use them. If you are a beginner, this set definitely encourages you to mix colors and offers a great mixing set for landscapes and florals. If you are somewhere in between but want to try something higher quality at a budget, these are your paints! Watch here for the video review: 

 

Do you have these paints? Is there another set out there that they remind you of? Let me know in the comments below!

December 2021 Scrawlrbox - Out of the Darkness

I wasn’t sure this box was EVER coming, but huzzah! It finally got here!

I was very excited to check out the contents of this Scrawlrbox - I’d seen others play with it and I knew it would be fun. But was the price worth it? Let’s discuss below:

Items, Swatches, and Thoughts:

Spectrum Noir Metallic Paint Marker Set: Liquid Gold (Chisel nib), Quicksilver (Fine Point Nib), and Molten Copper (Bullet Nib)

These are really nice paint markers! They are oil based and very metallic and opaque. I liked that they gave us 3 colors in 3 different nib sizes - that was definitely a fun challenge! I think overall I liked the silver fine line nib the best, though the gold chisel nib was really neat too! In my art piece I used gamsol to move the paint around more to create different depths and values within the piece, and it turned out really great! I’m really glad I got a chance to try out these markers and am looking forward to using them for my ultimate metallic challenge later on this year!

Gellyroll Moonlight Bold Pen, 10mm in Pink

This was definitely an interesting pen. These moonlight pens seem like the best of all the gellyroll features - bold, opaque and bright. I liked this one and it was a fun highlight to the red/copper details in my piece, but it did feel a bit out of place in this box. For the price, a metallic gellyroll in another color seems like it might have been a great option here.

Derwent Sketching Pencil, 2B

I love Derwent sketching pencils, and I’m always happy to have another spare one around! This wasn’t a huge value add to this box (I personally don’t ever want a pencil or a cheap, round brush in an art box at the expense of more supples) BUT this one was nice for shading since we were given black paper. It is a high quality pencil that I will use in the future.

UniPosca Black Pen, 3M:

This seemed like a real head scratcher to me. I love a good posca pen, but why black when we were given black paper? I think white or really ANY other color would have been better than black here. I did use it to clean up some edges, but for the amount of value it added to the box, it was probably the thing I used the least.

Art Gecko Black Art Tiles, 10 sheets, 210 GSM:

I loved this paper. It was very heavy duty and took the gamsol well. I’m going to test it wet as well, but it was definitely a decent surface to work on with the paint markers, and I think it would work great for colored pencils as well! This paper is not easily available to me here in the US - so I was super glad to get a chance to test it here in this Scrawlrbox.

The theme for this box was “Out of the Darkness,” and I immediately knew I wanted to do something from Zelda. I love the moment in Breath of the Wild when Zelda’s powers erupt for the first time, and so I drew that here:

I did end up using Gamsol to get the paint markers to move well - and it worked like a charm. This is easily one of my favorite pieces of Zelda art that I’ve done, and I think it’s really cool that I did it with my Scrawlrbox!

Overall, I really had SO much fun with these supplies! They were well curated and interesting! I think the boxes value was not great, and that’s so disappointing. If they had just even added a second white gellyroll pen or white medium of any kind to this box, I think it would have been a perfect addition that also added enough value to make the box feel complete. I will say that we are not able to get this exact combo of markers to try out anywhere online, and so that does add some “invisible value” for me as a consumer. I also can’t easily get my hands on ArtGecko paper, so that’s nice to get a chance to play with that as well! Watch the full review here: 

Did you get this box? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below

Product Review: EmJxCraftamo Brushes and Etchr Lab’s Signature Series Perfect Sketchbook

So this week I’m coming to you with two things that I bought myself for my birthday!  These are two items that I really wanted to have/try, and since they were both going to be limited releases I just spent some of my own birthday money on each one!  I feel extremely fortunate to have the ability to do this and I’m super glad that I did!  

I’m going to walk through the info about each of these two things and then tell you my thoughts and feeling after using each one.  

1.  EmJxCraftamo Brush Set

Let me start by saying that if you don’t watch Emma Lefevbre on YouTube you need to stop reading this RIGHT NOW and go subscribe to her.  She is absolutely one of my favorite artists online and I’ve learned so much from her!  I went into this purchase with a good vibe, because I know that if Emma put her name on these that they are going to be a great product (she does not endorse stuff often or lightly!)  

As a watercolor hobbyist, I’ve tried a TON of round brushes.  I usually tend to prefer something that is somewhere in between super stiff and super soft.  I can work with either thing, but that’s my preference.  I was very interested in this set of bamboo brushes because they looked to have amazing points, hold a lot of water, but still to be a little bit softer than your typical synthetic brush.  I was intrigued.  I also LOVED the size choices of the set - a Round 2, Round, 6, Round 12 and ¾ Mop.  

Right away, I noticed that these brushes DO hold a ton of water for their short bristles!  This was exciting, but they also provided me with great control.  The brushes are well made and felt great in my hands.  I’ve been using them for several weeks now and the pointed tips are still as good as new.  The mop brush will work for large pages, and holds a ton of water.  The box they came in was beautiful, and the extra piece of Emma artwork was a wonderful bonus!  All in all, these are a wonderful, versatile set of brushes that I will use for a long time!  They are almost sold out, but if you want a set you can snag them here: 

https://www.craftamo.com/products/emma-lefebvre-x-craftamo

2.  Etchr Lab Signature Series Perfect Sketchbook - B5

Etchr is another company that I absolutely trust to put out high quality items.  Their mixed media cold pressed sketchbooks are absolutely wonderful and work double sided more beautifully than any other watercolor sketchbook I have tried.  When Etchr said they were doing a limited release run of their Perfect Sketchbook I knew I wanted to grab one to use for my more flushed out art pieces.  

This sketchbook is 300 gsm cold pressed Fabriano Artistico paper.  It has 52 pages and has beautifully deckled edges.  It is a portrait sketchbook with a sewn in bookmark and a vegan leather cover.  It is absolutely beautiful and feels incredible in your hands.  

Working on this sketchbook was overall really great, but it did have a few learning curves.  I enjoy doing wet on wet watercolor pieces, and I found myself wishing I had clipped down the pages instead of just having taped off the edges.  The paper really bowed up when I was working on it, but returned to size and shape once dry.  In the future I think using a clip will work wonders.  I also find it interesting that the “fabriano artistico” stamp is visible in several pages of my sketchbook.  I painted on one of these pages to see if it would be visible in the final piece, and I think it’s still kind of obvious?  Can you still see it in the piece?  

These are TINY minor things though, and overall I really REALLY love this sketchbook.  I can’t wait to take my time and put some amazing artwork in here over the next several years!!!  These are still available on the EtchrLab website, and you can snag this one here:  

https://etchrlab.com/collections/sketchbooks/products/sigseriescp21

Full disclaimer: Both of these products are pricey.  These were luxury items I picked up for myself and probably won’t buy stuff like this again for awhile.  But I think that once in awhile it’s nice to treat yourself if you can, and even nicer to see that someone else that spent money on the product enjoys it.  I bought both of these with my own money and my opinions are mine alone.  If you’ve read the blog before, you know that I don’t sugar coat it if I think something isn’t great.  

Did you buy either of these items?  What was your favorite “Treat Yo Self” purchase you made in 2021?  Let me know in the comments below!!! 

2022 Bullet Journal Setup and January Theme

Happy 2022 everyone!  It’s a new year, and you know what that means - a new bullet journal!!!  Last year I bought a beautiful journal from Archer and Olive and while I enjoyed it a lot, there were a few things about it that I found myself wishing for it.  

1. I had 192 pages and that was barely enough.  I found myself trying to find ways to double up a few weeks in order to have enough room.  

2. I really wished I had a spot at the beginning of the journal to put things like important dates etc… but I hadn’t allotted for that because of the number of pages.  

Still, I really loved a LOT of things about this journal.  My favorite things about it were: 

1. The pages were super thick, and so I could do just about anything to them (except alcohol markers), and they wouldn’t ghost at all.  This included all of my water based pens, watercolors, fineliners, and gouache.  It was glorious and amazing.  

2. The size and layout of the dot grid was awesome and I knew I wanted the same again.  I keep my layouts pretty standard from month to month and my weekly layout never changes, so I knew I wanted that same size and grid pattern.  

3. I liked the built in bookmarks and back pocket and wanted those features again.  

So, I spent a LOT of time considering journals.  I wanted to keep my budget around $30-45, but I also wanted the similar quality and more pages.  I did a lot of looking and researching, and I came across Vivid Scribbles Company.  They had a 200 page journal that claimed an Archer and Olive level of no ghosting, and that also included extra pages like an index in the front and pen test spot in the back.  What’s even better is that this was all for $24.99!!!!  I figured it was too good to be true, but for the price figured I’d definitely buy one to try.  I got this journal a few months back, and this particular color seems to be discontinued but here it is:  

I tested several types of pens on the pen test page, along with 2 different kinds of watercolor.  The book has no ghosting for any of the tests I tried!  I’d even say that each type of pen took 4-5 passes on the pages well before I was concerned at all about tearing.  I rarely would do that many passes, if ever, so I’m super pleased with these tests.  The index and key etc… at the front is a great addition to the book, and this one has 3 ribbons instead of the 2 on the Archer and Olive notebook.  Theirs had a fancy metal weight at the end of each ribbon, and while that is a nice detail it’s not necessary and I don’t miss it!  

I got my journal at the Amazon link listed here, and I also am going to link the Vivid Scribbles main site too!  So far, this has been a wonderful bullet journal option and I’d recommend it to anyone that is looking for a solid, affordable bullet journal!  

This year, along with an index that I’m going to do by month, I also allotted a page for important dates, and have one more blank page to use as needed.  I also always make a page in the front for all of my friends and family birthdays and anniversaries, and a spot to categorize the books I’ve read.  I added a spot for movies and games too this year to that page!  

Finally, my monthly spreads are a little different this year.  I’m making my mood trackers smaller and adding other monthly habits to the same page.  Then, with my extra page I’m dedicating a page each month for planning for YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and this blog.  So far I’m super happy with how this is turning out!  This month I went with a cool colored striped sweater theme, and my mood tracker is a snowman’s scarf. 

Here’s a video that goes through the whole thing and shows off all of the details! 

Do you keep a bullet journal?  How do you lay yours out?  Let me know in the comments below!

January 2022 Sketchbox - the ACTUAL last one!

 So I thought my December Sketchbox was my final one, but it turns out that I still had one more coming to me!  This box was all about watercolor powders, and was quite something.  Here's what was in the box and my thoughts on each item below:  

1.  Sketchbox Signature Watercolor Powders in Orange, Navy, Turquoise and Grape

Ooooooo boy.  To start, I really dislike this trend of "Sketchbox Signature" supplies.  Scrawlrbox has pulled this too recently, and I feel like it's a very frustrating way to disguise value in a box.  It's very hard to "compare" a signature brand to price it out, AND if you end up liking a product you still can't replace it when it's done.  I have several TCW ColorSparx Powders and Ken Oliver Color Burst Powders and I love both of those companies.  These powders were not as quality as either of them and the bottles were absolute garbage.  The bottles actually don't sit flat on a desk, and will DEFINITELY fall and be insanely messy.  The grape color was a nasty shade of purple, and the navy and turquoise looked backwards to me.  Overall these were a total fail to me and because they were the main item in the box I'd advise that you buy one of the other companies I mentioned above instead. 

2. Sketchbox Signature Filbert #4 Brush

Again, this was a pretty normal brush, but it being labeled as Sketchbox Signature makes it really hard to price out and possibly buy again if I like the brush.  It was a decent brush but nothing terribly special.  

3.  Copic Multiliner 0.5 in Lavender

This was a nice liner!  I didn't feel it was a terribly good color considering the rest of this box, and so I could have done without it, BUT I will use the liner in other projects.  

4. TCW Color Sparx Exclusive for Sketchbox Powder, Bouganvilla

This was the best thing in the box.  It's a great powder and the color was really nice.  I'm excited to add this color to my other watercolor powders! 

5. Rembrandt Extra Fine Transparent Watercolor - Titanium White

I REALLY wish this had been a tube of white gouache.  It would have given us a LOT more options with this box if it had been a gouache.  It did dilute the very bright powders down to create differences, but I still think a gouache would have achieved the same thing and also have given us some more highlight capabilities.  

5. Sketchbox Signature Magnani 1404 Hot Press Watercolor Paper

This was really nice paper.  I do think that for the value it was given that there is better paper out there.  The Megnani paper always seems to feather on me badly if I use a lot of water on it, and that shouldn't happen with properly sized paper.  If you want solid 100% cotton hot press watercolor paper, grab a paul rubens hot press watercolor sketchbook on amazon.  

I was so irritated with these Sketchbox Signature powders that I didn't even try to make a piece of art with them because I didn't want to make a complete mess of my art space.  My personal opinion is that even though this box technically has a "good value" (but like 2/3 of the box was sketchbox signature stuff I couldn't price so take that for what you will...) I think you'd be better off to just purchase some Ken Oliver Color Burst Powders, a Paul Rubens Hot Press Sketchbook, and a small tube of white gouache and still be at around $40 for MUCH better products.  

Here's the full video if you wanna see the swatching powder fails: 

Did you get this box?  What did you think of these powders?  Let me know in the comments below! 

Arteza Holidays Challenge #1 - Holiday Traditions

So after opening the Arteza Advent calendar with my daughter, we decided to take on some of the #ArtezaHolidays challenges together!  We started with the first one, which was as follows: 

Challenge #1: Depict what the beginning of the holiday season looks like for you!  Tag us in your post or story and mention #artezaholidays to enter.  

We already opened the whole calendar, so we decided to use all of the products to make our pictures!  We decided to use some of my Clairefontaine Paint On Mixed Media paper to create our pieces so we could use any of the products that we got in the boxes.  

My favorite early holiday tradition is definitely decorating!  We both had fun with the supplies and discovered that some of the things we originally didn’t think we’d like turned out to be pretty great!  The iridescent paints were pretty fun, and I *really* loved the gouache paint!  So much so that I ended up picking up a set of the metallic gouache paints on cyber Monday!!!  

Check out our YouTube video here of our artwork and thoughts on the challenge!!!  

What are your favorite holiday traditions?  Let me know in the comments below!  

December Sketchbox

 December 2021 Sketchbox!  

Well everyone, this is a sad day because it is my final Sketchbox for awhile.  I think anyways?  I might get the January one, but I’m not sure when the subscription actually ends.  BUT - if this is the last one we are certainly going out with a bang!  

I also would like to say that I love Sketchbox and think they are one of the best art subscription boxes out there - I am just swimming in supplies.  I also think that I know what I like at this point, and so I want to try to do some different types of art challenges for the next few months, including some “No Box Art Box” challenges!  

But let’s get back to this Sketchbox!  Right after I got 3 amazing Copic Sketch markers from Scrawlrbox, I turn around and get 3 MORE COPIC SKETCH markers from Sketchbox!  And they were 3 new colors to me AGAIN - which is awesome!  Here’s the entire contents of the box:  

•  Copic Sketch Blending Set #4

What can I say, they are copic markers and they were put into this palette to blend!!!  These are a fabulous addition to the sketchbox.  The colors blend together nicely, and work beautifully.  They are refillable and the nibs are superior.  So yes, I’m super glad to get these copics in this box!  

• Tombox ABTPro Alcohol Marker - Poppy Red

I have quite a few of these alcohol markers, and while they aren’t as perfect as a Copic sketch I do really like them too!  I don’t have a red one, and it did well on the blend test with the darkest copic marker to make a nice orange color.  It will also work well with the red and white pencils in the box!  

• RendR Drawing Pad, 4”x7”, 24 pages (48 using both sides!)

I’ve wanted to try one of these for a good while, but hadn’t yet ordered it because I have a LOT of unused marker paper!  This. stuff. is. bananas.  I can’t believe there’s NO ghosting and beautiful blending.  I’m more than obsessed and definitely want a sketchbook like this to use with my markers exclusively.  I’ve tried several different paper pads for markers, and this one is definitely the best I’ve used at LEAST for the purpose of a sketchbook!  Thank you Sketchbox for giving me a chance to try this!  

• Derwent Chromaflow Pencils, Scarlet and White

I’m already a huge fan of the Derwent Chromaflow Pencils, and so I was excited to get two more in this box!  They are a wonderful addition to my set of desk pencils which is mainly prismacolors.  This white is a solid white that holds up overtop of the other colors, not as good as a prismacolor white BUT pretty darn well.  My only complaint here is that my red pencil had a broken core, and so I had to sharpen it down a bunch to get it to work.  This happens sometimes, but I’m sad to ever waste product.  The red pencil did lay nicely under the alcohol marker to melt together and change the look and tone of that marker as well. 

• Kuretake Fude Pen with a Black and Gray Tip

This is a really nice fude pen!  I wasn’t thrilled at first when I saw it in the box, but it did grow on me!  It does layer under the alcohol markers (it has to be COMPLETELY dry though) and it has a great brush nib for lots of line work options.  I’m looking forward to using this and seeing if I can use it for other applications as well!!!   

I had a blast drawing these bells!  I knew right away that I wanted to try and use these markers to make the metal bells.  I’m not an alcohol marker artist by any stretch, but I definitely wanted to try my hand at this!  I’m really happy with how it turned out!  

So, the value for this box was ok.  I couldn’t find the Kuretake pen anywhere, but I’d say the $5 pricetag seems comparable to similar items.  I also think the RendR pad is a bit over-valued, I can get a similar product at a much larger size for about the same price.  I LOVED this RendR pad - I’m only talking about the way it was valued from Skechbox.  I will say the box was very well curated, better than most other boxes I’ve gotten this year.  (November was well curated too, Sketchbox has been doing a much better job at the end of the year on this front!)  I’d say if you want to try alcohol markers, this is a great box to try and gives you an idea of how you might like the medium!  I’d argue that a colorless blender could have replaced the red pencil and would have been great if this is someone’s first experience with alcohol markers, but overall this was a solid box.  

If you wanna see the swatches and full video, feel free to check it out here!  

Did you get this box?  What art subscription box should I try next?  Let me know in the comments below!