November 2021 Sketchbox!

Hi there everyone! It’s November Sketchbox time again, and I’m SO very excited to go ahead and talk about this box!

This box was all about watercolors, and the watercolors in the box were some of my favorites! They sent us a palette of travel Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors in SUCH a nice assortment of colors and the cutest little case that definitely reminded me of CD’s in the 90’s! Here’s the swatches, items, and what I thought of each item in the box:

1. Kuretake Gansai Tambi Travel Watercolor Palette

This little palette is really amazing. I loved the colors chosen, and it’s a GREAT

way for people to try the GT paints for the first time! I already know I love these paints, so I’m very excited to use them on the road until the palette is gone! The color selection is great, and the addition of the pearl color is perfect for the holiday season.

2. Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth Pencil in 2B

This is, a pencil. It’s not any better or worse than any other pencil in any other art

box. Koh-i-noor always puts out a good product, but I really feel like adding a sketching pencil to an art box is unnecessary. We all have a pencil somewhere to sketch with (I think that’s a fair assumption anyway), and so this just feels like a waste of value. I would have much preferred the addition of another kind of art supply that worked with the rest of them. I DO appreciate a set of graphite pencils if that’s the art challenge - this just wasn’t that.

3. TCW Stencils Color Sparx Powder in Wisteria

These powders are so neat and fun! I didn’t use it as a powder on this piece, but

I really enjoy playing with these with my color burst powders from Ken Oliver. It’s a messy time, but a fun time when I get them out! This was a beautiful, rich purple and I’m always happy to see this type of medium in an art box!

4. Hahnemuhle Toned Watercolor Paper in Gray

This is a solid surface for this box. I enjoyed the toned gray paper, and how it

worked with the white highlight of the pen. This paper isn’t 100% cotton, but it’s very quality cellulose paper. The size is also perfect to create cards or postcards, which I really like to do with my artwork.

5. LePetit Water BrusH20 from Kuretake

This was probably the most disappointing item in the box for me. Maybe I’m just

not meant to use a water brush, because I haven’t found a single one I actually enjoy. This is interesting to me, because I DO enjoy using brush pens filled with in the same manner. I just find them to work much more consistently than any water brush I’ve ever used. This one was small and even though it comes apart for travel it doesn’t fit into the palette given. I ended up using my own brushes on my piece, which I often do and don’t find that to be a violation of the integrity of any art box IMO. But I’d have much preferred a travel size round brush without water for this box, since I know they always try to include a brush with paints.

6. Archer and Olive Acrylograph 0.7mm paint pens in White and Navy

I was SO excited to try these, because I have an Archer and Olive bullet journal

and I’ve been wanting to try them for awhile. These are great paint pens! They seem to be about comparable to a Posca of the same tip, but priced just a little bit higher. I will say that the nib on these seems a little more solid than a posca, and that might be why they are pricier. But I really enjoyed these pens and will definitely use them in mixed media pieces AND in my bullet journal.

My piece turned out really fun and festive: 

Overall, I really liked this box! It was easily one of the better boxes I’ve gotten from Sketchbox in the past 6 months, BUT it was still barely a value. I’m not sure what’s going in with Sketchbox right now, but I do feel like I haven’t been getting my money’s worth lately. I’m going to get the December box from them and then take a break for a bit, and maybe try doing some different types of challenges with the supplies that I already have! 

Here’s the full video for anyone that wants to see the full process of the art and swatches: 

Do you get Sketchbox? What did you think of this box? Let me know in the comments below!

Holiday Sketchbox 2021

It’s here it’s HERE! The Sketchbox Holiday Box for 2021 is HERE!!! Oh MAN I’m excited for this box and to play with it! Let’s go through what we got inside the box, what I think of the supplies, and how I see myself using them all! At the end we will talk about value and if this box was worth it:  

Box Price is $89.00 USD and was $10 shipping, for a total of $99 USD. 

To see the unboxing, check out my video here below: 

Contents: 

1. Hahnemuhle Watercolor Postcards, set of 30

I’m VERY excited to get these in a box! They are a high quality for a cellulose paper, and even though they are thin, I think they work really well. I’m planning to use inks with them because if you are going to mail postcards, you definitely want to make sure they aren’t going to be ruined if they get wet! THAT is probably my biggest complaint with the items in this box, but we shall get there later on. I was absolutely pleased with the addition of these watercolor postcards to this box!

2. Kuretake Gold Mica Ink

This stuff is LIQUID GOLD. Honestly, this was the best thing in the box. I liked a LOT of this box, but this was my favorite thing. If you can’t get this box, just go online and get this ink. It was beautiful on black and white paper! And it’s ink, so it won’t get ruined or lift! I’m really looking forward to using this in the future and in my metallic gold/silver roundup!

3. Sketchbox Round 6 Brush

I was surprised that I enjoyed this brush so much! This brush is softer than the brushes I’m used to getting in an artbox, much more like a traditional watercolor brush. It reminds me of a creative mark Mimik brush - and I’m in love with it. It’s definitely going to be in my brush rotation going forward!

4. Dynasty Black Gold Brush - Whale Tail 1⁄2”

This brush is... interesting! It’s fun for the novelty of it, but I never would have spent money on something like this. I’m going to play with it over time and see if I think it was a worthwhile addition or not. It says it’s to make ribbons, but like is painting the end of a ribbon really that difficult? I’m not sure the $12.50 pricetag for this was worth it though, but I’m going to play with it and see.

5. Stonehenge Co Metallic Watercolors - Gold, Pearl and Red

 Oh MAN these are wonderful! I have a stonehenge metallic blue paint already, and so I already knew this was great paint. My biggest thing here would be that I think it would have been nice to get a red AND a green instead of a gold since we already had gotten the gold ink, but they are all wonderful. I’ve definitely already purchased a green to make a set here because I like these so much! This is great paint and definitely worth the value! They did perform WAY better on black paper than on the white paper though, so I’m much more likely to use them on my black watercolor and mixed media papers.

6. Cretacolor 24 set of Artist Studio Watercolor Pencils

I really feel like calling these “Artist Studio” pencils was so misleading. These are very VERY student grade pencils in my opinion. The color payout is weak, and they lift like crazy. I was super excited when I originally got these, but they are not a good product for this box. Also, because we were given watercolor postcards, I feel like the fact that these pencils lifted so badly was even worse! If these postcards were to get wet in the mail, they would DEFINITELY get ruined! I think with the postcards it would have been better to include a set with fewer colors that was going to be harder to lift like that cretacolor aqua monolith woodless watercolors, OR something that is more permanent altogether like the Derwent Inktense blocks or pencils. A smaller selection of these would definitely have been better in my opinion!

7. Nicholson’s Peerless watercolor Sheets - Portrait Set

These are right in line with the pencils above. They are pretty much the same

thing as the Viviva colorsheets, and they lift just as much as Viviva. Again, this seems like a bad medium if you are using postcards. If we had been given a regular watercolor paper pad I wouldn’t be complaining near as much, but these will definitely need sealed somehow if they are to be used on these postcards. I’d have traded these and the pencils for a decent set of watercolor pencils or inktense pencils/blocks/pan paints. That would have been a pretty incredible deal actually!

8. Daniel Smith Masking Fluid

This is solid masking fluid! I love good masking fluid, and this stuff is really high quality. I’m not sure how much I will use it on these postcards, BUT this will be a great addition to my overall collection of watercolor supplies!

My overall initial impressions are that this box fell a bit flat. The supplies feel disjointed. The metallic supplies are REALLY high quality, but they shine most when used on black paper. The box didn’t come with black paper, so that’s kind of a bummer. The postcards are really nice, but they need to be used with a media that is going to either be sealed OR be more permanent from the beginning. The only permanent item in the box is the gold ink, and so I would have much preferred some type of permanent/inky medium with the watercolor postcards. OR give us regular watercolor paper, but I still think the pencils were a huge let down. I never value quantity over quality in boxes like these. Ultimately I would have traded both the watercolor sheets and the pencils for one set of 12 half pans of inktense OR another similar watercolor brand and something to seal the final postcards. And I would have traded the strange brush for a quality flat or mop brush and maybe a permanent brush ink pen for line work or something like that! 

But separately, some of these products are going to be great! Have you tried any of these products before? What is your favorite type of holiday picture to do? Let me know in the comments below!