October (yes, October) Scrawlrbox - COPICS!

I can’t believe it’s December and I’m just NOW getting around to talking about the October Scrawlrbox!  But I was sick for most of November, and the footage from that video was… not good!  So, let’s take a look at what was in the box AND if it was worth it: 

Box Contents and Swatches: 

• Copic Sketch Markers x3, Aqua, Canary Yellow and Strong Red

• UniPin 0.3mm fine liner

• Faber Castell Grip 2B Pencil

• Faber Castell Kneaded Eraser

• Scrawlrbox exclusive marker paper, A5, 10 sheets, 75 gsm

I’m going to talk about this box as a whole since I didn’t get around to doing a piece of art with only the contents of the box.  First of all, getting 3 Copic Sketch markers was SUCH a joy!  AND they were 3 colors I don’t already have BUT primaries that worked together beautifully - so WELL DONE Scrawlrbox!  That alone basically pays for the box itself!  The marker paper is also excellent and I’m a bit sad that we don’t know what company made the paper.  It is the type of marker paper I prefer (it ghosts badly but doesn’t bleed at all, and blends beautifully.)  It reminds me of a Layout Bloc I got from Hahnemuhle in a Sketchbox, BUT I’m definitely not sure.  I do really like the paper and it will most definitely get used with my alcohol marker projects!  

The pencil and eraser were just that, a pencil and an eraser.  I never need a pencil in a non-graphite box, and I only need an eraser if the whole box is pencil oriented.  These items felt like throw-aways, and I think a white highlight OR a cheaper brand gray marker/blender would have been a much better value add here.  BUT this box was well worth the price so I’m only nit-picking at this point.  

The fineliner is also pretty great - I’ve never had a UniPin liner before and so getting this one was great to try!  The next time I need to purchase a fine liner, I’m definitely going with UniPin over Micron at this point.  I liked the UniPin nib better for some reason.  

Here’s the value breakdown for the box.  If you are in the UK, this box was a SMASH of a deal.  We have access to Copics here a little easier, and so it wasn’t quite as big of a value BUT I still think it was a solid valued box that was well curated.  

I’m hoping to get my November Scrawlrbox soon here so that I can have a quick turn around on that video and blog post for you!  

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

March Sketchbox - Holy Markers Batman!!!!

I was so excited for this Sketchbox to get here, and my heart just about burst when I opened it!  

Late last year, we got a box that had a combination of water-based and alcohol-based markers and I had commented at that time on how much better it would have been if it was all alcohol markers.  

WELL IT'S HERE!  

This box is full of alcohol markers and MAN was I excited!  But of course, not all alcohol markers are created equal, and so I tabled my excitement and got to swatching!  Here's my swatches and my thoughts on each product.  

Contents, Prices, and Swatches: 

1. Marabu Marker Set (Sketchbox Exclusive) - $17.50

This set came with a blender, pink, purple, and red alcohol markers with chisel and bullet nibs.  I honestly loved these markers.  They are pigmented, blendable, and a fabulous standard alcohol marker! They performed fabulous on their own and with the other markers as well,  These colors were a fabulous foundation for the rest of what was to come.  It also came with two "permanent" markers in brown and green with bullet and fineliner nibs. These permanent markers are alcohol-based and worked beautifully as fineliners and as regular alcohol markers as well.  Other than the barrel/nibs, I saw no difference between these and the other alcohol markers.  

2.  Copic Sketch, V12 Pale Lilac - $7.99

What can I say, it's a Copic Sketch.  It's the king of all alcohol markers.  It worked like a dream, and the other markers worked wonderfully with it!   Copic Sketch has a brush and chisel nib, which is my preferred nib combo for an alcohol marker BUT I'm not too picky - I've worked with all types!  

3. Copic Classic, V15 Mallow - $7.99

This was a lovely medium purple which allowed for a LOVELY purple gradient!  Purples are generally VERY hard to blend with alcohol markers, but these three purples (Copic Classic, Copic Sketch, and the Marabu Purple) actually achieved a great blend on the paper!  This marker has a bullet and chisel nib and will get lots of use in my collection because of it's color! 

4. AD Spectra Marker, 047 Walnut and 012 Wine - $6.55 each

These were also a fabulous addition to the box!! The wine color was a beautiful dark red that worked wonderfully with the Marabu red marker!  The walnut made a nice blend with the brown Marabu marker too!  These markers have a brush and pointed chisel nib.  I LOVE the pointed chisel nib, it gets fine details AND can cover large areas - it's a really unique tip!  I have had Spectra markers before and I am always impressed by their quality. 

5.  AD Marker Paper, 4x6in Pad, 24 Sheets - $8.49

So at first glance I LOVED this paper.  The swatches worked so well on there, the blender marker did it's job with everything and the gradients were lovely.  It also bled through but not to the next page, so it can clearly take a lot of marker before ruining further pages would be a problem.  When I started blending on the paper, the paper was not my favorite type of marker paper.  I worked with it for awhile, and the pigment sat on top of the paper and blended so easily that it mixed up on the tips of my markers and blender.  I have used marker paper like this before, and it is not my preference BUT I know loads of people that love it.  I think I need to learn how to use it, and so after doing two practice pieces on it I decided not to use it for my large art piece for this box.  HOWEVER, I do think this paper is worth the money if you like this type of paper!  

My first practice piece was of some floral doodles that I used to check out the gradients.  I do like how this piece turned out, but the lightest colors got totally erased by the way I tried to blend on the paper.  I still like where I ended up with this one, but I knew for my second idea I wanted to get smooth blends, so I used my marker sketchbook.  

It's no secret at this point that I love the Legend of Zelda.  When I saw these colors, I KNEW I wanted to draw Vaati.  Vaati is the villian of the Minish Cap.  If you are a Zelda fan and you haven't played the Minish Cap, I *HIGHLY* recommend it!  It's such a great game, and is $8 on the Wii or WiiU shop if you own one of those consoles.  Vaati does have some gold on him, but I just swapped out the brown for the gold.  I also used the lightest purple and the blender to make the skin as "purple gray" as possible, and I think it worked out quite well!  Full disclosure, I did use a black fineliner and a while gel pen to do line work and add details to this piece, but he was so beautiful that I couldn't resist adding those details!  Overall, this is my second Vaati piece in the last year, and I love drawing him.  I love his cape too!  

In addition, my lovely 7 year old daughter always does the Sketchbox with me!  She LOVES them and is often even better with random supplies than me. I love her creative spirit so much!  When she swatched this box, she immediately knew what she wanted to draw - the Truffula Trees from the Lorax!  I love how her picture turned out: 

 

So overall, was this box worth it?  ABSOLUTELY!  The color palette was absolutely beautiful, and worked together SO well to make artwork.  The alcohol markers are all good quality and will be added to my collection proudly! The nibs on the Spectra markers make me want to look out for them on sales to see if I can grab some more because they were so useful and unique!  And, even though I didn't love that marker paper I now KNOW how it works/behaves and so I can practice on it and decide if I'd like to buy more of i.!  This box was SO much fun to play with! 

Did you get this month's Sketchbox?  What did you think of it?  Are you a fan of alcohol markers?  What would you make with this box?  Let me know in the comments below!

The Sketchbook Project Flipthrough - Level Up!

 Wow guys - I can't believe I did it!  

When I signed up for The Sketchbook Project, I was excited and nervous.  I loved the concept, and I wanted to be a part of it, BUT putting myself out there in that way felt terrifying.  If you've never heard about the project, you can read more about it here.  The Sketchbook Project was created by the Brooklyn Art Library. Taken from their website, here's a little info about them:  

Brooklyn Art Library is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that has been completely funded by participation since 2006. We work to ensure that we are fulfilling our mission of encouraging creative storytelling within a global community by keeping our physical library space free and open to the public, our digital library accessible worldwide, and making our collection as accessible as possible to people of all ages and skill levels through robust education programming.

I love the inclusive nature of their mission statement, and I know I had to be a part of it!  When I got my Sketchbook, it was in October of 2020, and I was deep into Linktober.  Linktober was huge for me this year, and it really has given me a lot more confident in my skills, even as a hobbyist.  But Linktober gave the shape to the sketchbook, because I knew I wanted to draw video game characters.  

I named the project "Level Up."  The idea was that through the drawing of specific characters and ideas I would be leveling up my own art, so I leaned into the video game pun.  I had a lot of fun drawing each individual piece, and I tried to challenge myself in different ways.  I used alcohol markers, watercolors, gouache and posca pens, metallic watercolors, graphite and water soluble graphite during the course of this book.  I also tried many different types of characters and even a few landscapes and full screen scenes.  

I've highlighted a few of my favorite pieces here, but click below for a full, explained flip through!  I also will have a faster flipthrough on my instagram highlights/story as well.  

Once the sketchbook is digitized, I'll have a link here and as a tab on my page!  

What are your thoughts on The Sketchbook Project?  Would you ever fill one out?  What would your sketchbook be about? Let me know in the comments below!  

Quick and Easy Valentines Part 2!

This past weekend, my lovely daughter and I sat down in our craft room to get inky and make some Valentines!  

I know a lot of people dislike Valentine's Day, but truthfully I've always looked at it as a day share the love with everyone in my life!  I usually make about 20 valentines to send to friends and family. Because of the proximity of Valentine's Day to Christmas, I never want to make anything that is TOO complicated when it comes to these cards!  So these cards are all very similar, small, and clean in design.  

Another note about these projects - everything I'm using here is at least 5 years old!  I love my Valentine's stash and I've been using the same one I stocked YEARS ago - so please feel free to use what you have!!!  I'm really trying to not spend much money this year on paper crafting and to focus on finding love in the products that I have!  

These cards are 4-bar size.  I used two Lawn Fawn sets that I enjoy: My Silly Valentine and Whale You Be Mine?  I stamped the images directly on the card front in Memento black ink, and then colored in the images with my alcohol markers.  I cut simple strips of patterned paper and glitter paper from my stash and glued them to the front and trimmed them to fit.   

Next, I cropped the bottom edges of each card with my Corner Chomper.  I like the look of that on a smaller card, it feels like a nice little finished detail with very little effort.  I stamped a sentiment on the inside of each card and also glued a piece of patterned paper on the top to hide the bleed through from the alcohol markers.  

In about 90 minutes I was able to finish 8 cards!  I already have a few others in my stash from other card making days, so I'm about halfway through making my Valentine cards now!  

Are you guys making Valentines this year?  What are your favorite Valentine stamps?  Leave me your favorites in the comments below!  

Holiday Sketchbox 2020 Review and Artwork

Sketchbox has done it again!  I ordered the special holiday box from them, and was SO surprised when it shipped immediately and was here within days!  My daughter and I had a blast swatching everything out and creating initial pieces with the supplies: 

Initial Artwork - A Shimmery Wreath

I LOVED the metallic elements of this box!  

Below I go through each supply and my detailed impressions of that supply!  This box was so fun!  

Holiday Box Contents and Impressions:

2020 Holiday Sketchbox Contents

Swatch Card

Kuretake Custom Irodori Kobako Kit - Watercolors, Water Brush, and Brush Pen/Liner:

Watercolors: These seem very similar to the Gansai Tambi Kuretake watercolors.  The colors were vibrant and worked nicely.  They do not move the same way as traditional watercolors do on watercolor paper, but I knew that before I started and so I was prepared for that challenge.  These paints did mix to a decent variety of colors, and I found the color selection to be a fun challenge!  

Water Brush: This was a standard water brush.  I'm not a huge fan of water brushes in general and would rather have a regular round brush.  It worked well though for the artwork that I made.  

Mangaka Brush Liner: I like this pen and will use it in the future, BUT it is not waterproof!  Considering that the description of the watercolor palette is that it is "great for watercolor illustration," I was surprised that the liner included wasn't waterproof.  This is totally fine, but it definitely made me rethink how I used the supplies for an initial art piece!  

Silver Brush Chisel Blender Size 4: I really liked this brush!  It did a really nice job laying a lot of color in the middle of my piece and was able to get details by using the edge.  If this box had come with a round 6  and this brush I would have felt that an upgrade from the water brush.  

Sketchbox Signature Watercolor Pad: This is GREAT watercolor paper, though I think this box would have done better with a hot press paper.  I love 100% cotton cold press paper usually, but in my opinion the Kuretake watercolors would have worked better on a hot press paper and the other pens and markers would definitely not get as damaged on smoother paper.  So, while I LOVE this paper and will use it quickly, it won't be with these supplies.  

Copic Ciao - Copper, E18:  Fabulous copic.  It blended BEAUTIFULLY with the other alcohol marker in the box.  I want to go back and do another piece with these supples that focuses on these two markers!  Maybe a reindeer!  =)  But again, I'd likely do that on smoother paper.  

Sketchbox Signature Brush Pen - Praline: Also a fabulous alcohol marker.  I'm all about alcohol markers and this one did not disappoint!  

Marabu Graphix Aqua Brush Pen - Aqua: This was a nice pen that reacted well with water!  I really REALLY wish this color had been an olive or sap green.  One of the colors in the watercolor palette was very close to this, and I think a warmer green would have been a lovely addition to the box.  But the performance of the marker itself was great and I will definitely use it in the future! 

Koh-i-Noor Technigraphic Lead Holder: This was a cool supply to have!  I don't have a technical pencil like this and I really enjoyed using it!  I would never have paid retail price for this item, but having gotten it in a box I really am glad to have it - which I think is the exact thing you want to happen with something like sketchbox.  

Molotow Liquid Chrome Pen, 2mm: I have one of these in a smaller size and I was SO EXCITED to see this one in this box!  These pens are amazing.  There really is no other paint pen on the market (that I have seen or used) that shines like this one!  

Koh-i-Noor Polycolor Pencils, White and Black: These pencils were ok.  They were not water based, which is fine but it's hard to live up to the prismacolor white standard.  I wanted to use this for highlights on my piece and I found it difficult to get small details highlighted with this white pencil.  The black pencil worked well.  

Higgins Acrylic Ink, Metallic Copper: This is another gem of the box.  I absolutely love this ink!  The dropper that is inside of the container doesn't work very well, but that's an easy problem for me to fix.  A little goes a long way with this product and it layered over the markers and watercolors like a dream.  It really moved well with water also and I loved using it to add shiny details!  

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen, Gold and Silver: These were also great!  While not as shiny or vibrant as the liquid chrome pen, these were a fabulous way to add sparkly details to my piece.  They layer well with paints and other markers and I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of them!  

Total Retail Value: $101.71

Cost of the Box: $69.99

**Overall, I think this box was a great value!  I will use most of the supplies in this box regularly, with the exception of the white pencil and the water brush pen.  I think the best upgrade to this box could have been a smoother paper medium like a hot press paper or a mixed media paper.  I also think even a gray toned paper could have been really neat to highlight the metallic elements of the box (which were all amazing!)  I also think a smoother paper might have made the white pencil work better, or maybe having a better white highlight medium and no black/white pencils would have been good for me.  But again, I LOVE the elements of this box and can't wait to play with them more on other surfaces! **

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!  If you also bought this box OR have used any of these supplies, please let me know what you think!  

November SketchBox 2020 - Review

Hi everyone!  I *finally* decided to try Sketchbox because I’ve heard such great things about it, and the November box is here and I’ve been playing with it for a few weeks! 

The muted colors plus the bright pink immediately made me think of Princess Peach, so I was excited to draw her with these supplies!!!  

Princess Peach Using Box Supplies

I wanted to give a full review, so below I broke down how I felt about each item and my overall impression!  Here is my impressions, along with my swatches and doodle sketch:

Swatches - Explained Below

Initial Doodle Sketch - Just to get a feel for supplies

Copic Sketch Marker - What can I say, it’s a Copic Sketch.  It was perfection!  

Tombow ABT Pro - A surprisingly lovely alcohol marker!  This one was GREAT and blended perfectly with the Copic.  I will definitely buy more of these markers to go with my alcohol marker collection!

Kuretake Zig Brown Brush Menso Pen - this was a great alternative to a typical, black fineliner.  I really loved working with this pen and look forward to using it in the future.  It worked lovely with the paper too!  

Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Pen - this was the most disappointing item in the box for me.  It was labeled as “alcohol based” but didn’t behave like an alcohol marker at all.  It was streaky and did not perform well on the paper either.  Also, the tip began to fray after only a few uses.  

Monami Color Twin Brush Pens - these were ok but also disappointing.  The colors were muted, and that was fine, but they really didn’t perform well on the paper.  They were streaky and did NOT blend very well - I’ve used other water based brush pens that performed much more nicely and were more affordable.  Layering them also frayed the paper, so that wasn’t too much of an option. 

Spectra Colorless Blender - this blender was fine, but I’m super confused at it being in the box.  It worked perfectly with the Tombow and the Copic, but they were the lightest colors in the box AND they blended together beautifully already.  This blender didn’t do ANYTHING with the Faber Castell Pen, which is the color I would have liked to have had it work with.  It will work well with my own alcohol marker collection but didn’t serve much purpose in this box.  

Hahnemuhle Layout Marker Paper Pad - at FIRST I thought this paper was junk, BUT after I realized that the Copic and Tombow were working perfectly with it, I tried the paper with my own personal set of alcohol markers and I FELL IN LOVE.  This paper is excellent for alcohol markers and I’ve almost used half of the pad.  The markers do NOT bleed through, and blend beautifully.  I included a picture of what I was able to do on the paper with my Ohuhu markers and a white gel pen for highlights:

Overall - I really enjoyed this box for the most part BUT I feel that the Pitt Artist Pen and the Water Brush Pens were 4 markers that were not worth their cost.  I would have MUCH preferred 3 more alcohol markers in similar colors and a white medium of some kind for highlighting.  That would have made the box more cohesive for me and really made that marker paper shine like the star that it is!  

I’m really looking forward to next month’s box - thanks Sketchbox!  I overall really enjoyed the challenge and can’t wait to see what we get next!