April Sketchbox - Watercolor Surprises!!! And a SKETCHBOOK!

 It's the beginning of April, which means it's time for a NEW Sketchbox!  

This was a mostly fun box - and right up my alley because of the water soluable mediums!!!  Here are the swatches and the thoughts on each item:  

Sketchbox Supplies:

- Ecoline Brush Pen - Chartreuse

I've never had an Ecoline Brush Pen before but I have heard amazing things about them - and they were ALL true!  This brush pen is amazing!  The tip is high quality and the pigment output is amazing.  The brush pen moved really well when having water added to it too - which is ideal for a water brush marker.  This was a great addition to my waterbrush marker collection!  

- Marabu Graphix Aqua Watercolor Ink in Pyrrole Red, Sunshine Yellow, and Quinacridone Gold

These are very nice watercolor inks! I always forget when working with watercolor inks that they stain WAY more than traditional watercolors, and so I definitely had to adjust to that during my artwork. But I really liked these inks! I would have liked having another color (a blue or green) instead of the sunshine yellow. The sunshine yellow was VERY close to the brush pen, and so I felt like I had 3 very close yellows and that wasn't as useful as another color would have been.

- Daniel Smith Watercolor Stick - Genuine Sodalite

This is my favorite thing in the box! I LOVE this gray color and this is basically a stick of Daniel Smith watercolor! I will cut this up and use it in a palette - using it dry doesn't work as well but I know these sticks are basically the same as the pan paints! This is going to be a great addition to my watercolor collection! - Staedtler 0.6 Dark Brown Pigment Fineliner

I liked this fineliner! I always enjoy having some brown and colored fineliners to go with my arsenal of black ones! I enjoyed the challenge of a non-black marker this time! I even used some of the liner ink in the dark parts of my artwork!

- Stoneground Watercolor Half Pan - Hudson Bay Blue

This is a BEAUTIFUL shimmery watercolor! I really love this paint and will use it in tons of pieces going forward. It would have been nice to have a non-metallic cool blue in this box for mixing with the inks, but it did mix nicely to create some beautiful greens and neutrals!

- Silver Brush Crystal Series 02 Filbert

This was a quality brush and I don't have a filbert in this size! The brush had nice control and worked really well for me to even make trees! I used a larger brush to lay down my background just for convenience, but this is a wonderful brush!

- Magnani 300 GSM Accordion Watercolor Sketchbook

The biggest disappointment in the box. I cannot figure out this company and their paper. I loved the idea of this sketchbook, but the ink bled through the paper when I made a washed background. 300gsm cotton paper shouldn't do that. I thought the first time I got this paper from sketchbox that it might be a problem with my personal book of paper, but it seems that this just isn't the paper for me. Arches, Bee Creative, and Arteza (Expert) all have more quality 300gsm paper that I prefer to work on. I also use EtchrLab's 230gsm cold press 100% cotton paper is DOUBLE SIDED and I never have bleedthrough. So this book was a huge disappointment. I also found it hard to get the book to lay flat.

Here is a video of my full process with my artwork. You can see in the video where I discover that I need to put something under my paper to stop bleeding, and how staining the inks are right away. You can also watch me make trees and mountains! Enjoy the video here:

And here's the picture of the final artwork:

Overall, this box has a lot of great stuff that I will use over and over again because I use watercolors as my primary medium. My main complaints here were the 3 yellows in the box, and the pretty disappointing sketchbook/paper. I still think this box was worth it to me, but I'm hoping the next sketchbox will have a more consistent color palette and better paper.

Did you get this sketchbox?  What did you think of it?  Did you have better success with the paper?  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!  

Easy Watercolor Christmas Cards

Christmas cards, already?  I know, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet in the states!  But if you know me, you know that I make Christmas cards pretty much all year so that I have enough to send out to our very wonderful and large list of family and friends!  By the time we reach November, I'm pretty much looking for a quick and easy type of card with maximum wow factor but minimum effort.  Honestly, that's pretty much ALWAYS the goal!  

This year, I really wanted to get more use out of my metallic watercolor set.  I love this set of paints from Paul Rubens:  

This is the second most expensive watercolor set I own (behind my artist-grade watercolors), and while I love it, I rarely get it out and play with it!  I made it a point last weekend to just get it out and use it, and I ended up with some really great designs!  

1. First, I cut black paper down to 4.25 by 5.5" squares.  I ended up trimming a few of them down and leaving the others the size of the card front.  I used Strathmore black mixed media paper for some of them and Astrobrights black 65lb cardstock for others.  I did NOT buy expensive black watercolor paper for this project - so use what you have!  

2. I painted!  My first picture was a fir tree that I let dry and then spattered on lots of different colors.  The second was a bunch of holly.  The third was a round ornament that I used as the O in Joy.  The fourth was a Christmas wreath that took me a little longer, but I just layered and played with leaf and pine shapes until I got it where I wanted it, and then added berries for a pop of color.  

3. Assemble!  For 3 of the 4 pictures, I added a sentiment (the JOY card didn't need one!).  To do this, I used Christmas sentiment strips that I bought at Simon Says Stamp, and I die cut some words from a Christmas die cut set that I have from Newton's Nook.  For this step, I'm using supplies I already have.  If you don't have Christmas word die cuts OR premade sentiment strips, you could use stamps, write a sentiment with a gel pen, or paint a sentiment with brush lettering!  The point of a handmade card is for it to look handmade, so don't fuss too much if it isn't perfect!  

It felt really good to spend some time using some supplies that I don't use normally.  I was really pleased with how all four of these cards turned out - and I can't wait until they spread some Christmas cheer to family and friends!  

I hope this post gives you some holiday inspiration to get out there and create!