September 2021 Scrawlrbox - Dramatic Landscapes, Charcoal and Graphite!

 It’s that time of the month again!  Time for another Scrawlrbox!  

I guess I should update you here on the blog - since I quit Paletteful Packs (that last box with the markers was just too undervalued) - I went back to Scrawlrbox!  And truthfully, I’m so glad I did.  They take a little longer to get to me, but they are absolutely so well curated and always a great value.  Here’s what came inside the September 2021 box and my thoughts on each item: 

1. Derwent Charcoal and Graphite Sticks

As soon as I saw these, I got excited.  I have a set of Inktense blocks that I got from Scrawlrbox some time ago, and my IMMEDIATE thought was… can I wet these down?  I love it when I can add water to something to play with it, and so I was SO excited when they reactivated with water!  The different sizes and shades have different values too!  I’m excited to be able to use these blocks two different ways to get different effects on my piece.  

2. ArtGraf Water Soluable White Tailor’s Chalk

ArtGraf is one of those companies I’m always excited to see in an artbox!  Their products are always high quality and unique, at least to me!  This tailor’s chalk didn’t disappoint!  It’s very opaque and is so easy to use with a paintbrush.  If I was one for messy fingers, I’d probably break this guy up to try using it to get different textures on my piece (I still might try this if I’m brave, haha!)  But this is exactly the kind of fun and interesting product I would never have purchased myself but will use often!  

3. Faber Castell GoldFaber White Pencil

I’m always interested to see if a white pencil will hold up to my gold standard for white pencils - prismacolor.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this Goldfaber pencil!  It definitely performed WAY better than expected and much better than a lot of other white pencils I’ve gotten in boxes.  The paper is also really great to work on dry, so this was a great addition to the box!  

4. Faber Castell Pitt Matt Graphite Pencils in 6b and 14b

These were probably my least favorite item in the box, but that’s kind of unfair because they are very quality pencils!  I just think the 6b was a bit repetitive with the derwent graphite sticks, but the 14b was really useful.  I imagine if you used this box with less wet media techniques that you would have found more use for these pencils - so I’m still thinking they were worth it.  

5. Clairefontaine Paint-On Mixed Media Paper Pad, 5x7 in Denim, 12 sheets

Clairefontaine continues to produce quality, versatile, and affordable paper.  I love their Paint-On mixed media paper. It was super fun to get some more toned paper of this type!  The blue tone added another color and dimension to this box, and the paper took wet media QUITE well. It also isn’t totally smooth so it does pick up pencils and the sticks well too! Again, a solid surface that really makes it feel like I’m getting my money’s worth!  

6. Derwent Blending Stump

Not much to say about this except that it did the job well!  I don’t have a blending stump, so I’m definitely glad to have one to try out with my colored pencils!  Derwent is tried and true and always puts out quality products! 

I decided, since the Scrawlrbox Prompt this month was “Dramatic Landscapes.”  I knew immediately after swatching this box that I wanted to try a big moon with mountains!  I had a lot of fun making this piece!  The moon didn’t granulate and move in the same way that it would with granulating paints/watercolor paper/salt and salt water, BUT it still did a pretty good job overall! I also had a blast trying to shade the mountains!  

So, was it worth it?  Overall, Scrawlrbox values this box at $35.79 USD.  I paid $33.10 for this box, and the value was $38.44.  This is a little over $5 more than I paid for the box, but I have to say I think it was a pretty good value.  I’d have loved one less of the Faber Castell Pitt Matt pencils (the 6b probably) and to add a Derwent Graphitint blue pencil to give us one more blue/indigo value within the set!  BUT this is really splitting hairs!  Once again, Scrawlrbox continues to give us great art boxes with super cool supplies!  If you'd like to watch the whole unboxing and process, it's below on YouTube:

Did you get this box, what did you think of it? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! 

Product Review: Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Magnus Watercolor Pencils

 Last April I got a Scrawlrbox with some Faber Castell Albrecht Durer products, both watercolor brush pens and some of these Magnus pencils.  I remember swatching the pencils and LOVING them.  

Before this time, the only watercolor pencils I owned was a very inexpensive student grade set from Arteza.  I'm NOT knocking those pencils and I still use them all the time!  But I knew I wanted something that I could use more regularly and that had lightfastness ratings.  I also wanted to invest in something that I could replace open stock, so I started watching TONS of reviews and trying to decide what I wanted to do.  Here's what I learned:  

1. I think the Derwent Inktense products would be amazing to own, but they are not traditional watercolors.  Because of this I decided against this investment for the time being.... BUT Derwent just came out with a beautiful 24 half pan of Inktense pans... so that might be in the future!  

2. There are several brands that I think are worth the money, but only one of them was something I had tested (FC Albrecht Durer).  Because of this, I was much more interested in buying these pencils if I could get them.  

3. These pencils look massive, but they actually work really well for my hands.  I have had issues with carpal tunnel for years, and so the bigger pencils work really well for me.  This pencil size was my ultimate reason for deciding to buy these over other brands.  

4. The Magnus pencils are the same as the regular Albrecht Durer line, just larger.  This means that if the Magnus line, which is only 30 colors right now, is missing a color, I can always just buy a regular size AD pencil open stock to supplement the set.  

So, these were all of the things that I took into consideration before purchasing this set.  I looked at Caran D'Ache Supracolor, Faber Castell AD, Derwent Inktense, and Prismacolor Premier as my potential purchases. Once I decided on the AD Magnus pencils, I got a fabulous deal on this set of 24 pencils:  

Swatching and Initial Thoughts: 

1. The colors are beautiful and intense!  

2. The pencils are smooth and easy to use!  They are large but definitely can still get fine details if they are sharpened. 

3. The color range was, mostly good.  I was initially frustrated because there wasn't a good cool red/pink option, or a color akin to a dioxazine purple.  Both of those are kind of important if I'm going to use them for florals, so my goal was to find ways to mix those colors.  I was able to get close, BUT I went searching the open stock AD Magnus pencils and found out that they had two pencils that matched those needs exactly!  I bought the open stock colors and replaced them with a warm red and "ultramarine light," which honestly just seems like ultramarine with filler added.  NOW I feel like my set is well balanced and will allow me to do anything I want for my personal style of artwork.  

Artwork and Testing: 

I have been using these for about 2 months now, and so I've tried these pencils on several different types of situations in order to give a full and robust review.  Here are several of the artworks that I used these pencils on and my thoughts. 

• They work really well in a mixed media setting.  Once set with water, they don't lift when posca pens, fine liners or bleed proof white/white gouache were used overtop of them.  The resistance to the white mediums was particularly fabulous!  
• The pencils dissolved completely with water BUT they also kept texture and didn't let colors run together.  This especially made my monstera leaf picture really beautiful.  
• The pencils can both cover a large area and be used for fine details.  
• The pencils had the ability to blend and mix an entire background beautifully.  I was extremely impressed with their ultra pigmentation in that situation.  
• Using my Caran D'Ache pencil palette, they mix into extra colors beautifully.  I cannot stress enough how great the palette is, and that it is easily the best $12 I have ever spent on a mixing palette.  (I got mine on Amazon)

Final Thoughts: 

These pencils are absolutely fabulous.  I'm really glad that I took the leap and invested in them!  There's a reason that Faber Castell is a tried and true brand and the larger pencils are a perfect fit for my needs!  I love that I can buy them open stock, and I hope they expand this line so that I can buy more Albrecht Durer pencils in this size!  

Have you ever tried these pencils?  What did you think of them?  Let me know in the comments below!