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!
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