Product Review: Rosa Gallery Watercolors

Over the holidays, I got a bunch of new art goodies! My birthday is right around Christmas, so it’s usually my time of year to spend gift cards on art goodies and to ask for things I don’t want to buy myself! This year for my birthday, my sister bought me the set of Rosa Gallery Watercolors. I got the classic set that comes in the plastic palette. Generally, I prefer a plastic palette over a metal one, and I had been very intrigued by this set. 

This set comes with full pans, says to be artist quality, and has both pigment information and lightfastness ratings. You can find that information HERE. For a pricetag around $35-$40, I HAD to know if they were quality paints!

  

The first thing I noticed using these was how much I loved the size of the full pans and the amazing mixing space on this palette. The paint has wonderful flow, and certain colors do granulate. I used a salt technique with at least one piece and got even more beautiful granulation, but was also able to get flat, beautiful washes for the most part.

I did notice that it seems like certain colors (violet and indigo in particular) seem to flow a LOT more than the other colors. This might just be me, but they definitely seemed to move more than others. This isn’t a problem or anything, but it is something to note if you are going to use the set.

I also missed a few, specific colors in this set. I think the olive green is more earthy than a traditional “sap green,” and while it’s not a bad color I found myself mixing sap green all the time. I also missed having a pink and a cobalt turquoise in this set, which is completely personal preference. I ended up going on Etsy and purchasing those three full pans (sap green, opera pink, cobalt turquoise) from this store, and they were a great addition to the set. The “modern” version of this set (listed here on Amazon) includes a pink and a cobalt turquoise, but I love the plastic palette so much that I’m glad I ended up with it and extra colors!

The longer I used these paints, the more their strong, vibrant pigments impressed me. The colors are just beautiful and produce gorgeous mixes and color bleeds on the paper. Everytime I sat down to paint something just for fun, I felt myself reaching for this set. This is the reason they are the first product review from my big christmas/birthday haul, because I’ve already used them SO much! So I was finding joy in the paints, and they had listed lightfastness and pigment information, so how do they compare to similar (or lesser) sets?

So - I would categorize these paints as a wonderful “starter artist” set. I would not expect them to perform as well as my Daniel Smith or M Graham sets - though in my humble opinion, they DO hold up to these sets decently well! So I’d like to compare them to the MeiLiang Pretty Excellent watercolor set, distributed by the same parent company as Paul Rubens art supplies, and to the Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolors.

The Pretty Excellent watercolor set comes with 36 half pans, lightfast and pigment information, and usually is around $20 on Amazon. You cannot purchase the colors open stock, and it does come with a nice tin.

 

 Windsor and Newton Cotmans come in all shapes and forms - so I tried to find what I would consider to be the most comparable set. Their “studio” set comes with 24 full pans (similar colors) in a metal tin and costs about $60 at the major retailers (Amazon, Blick, Jerry’s Artarama.) You can purchase these full pans open stock, and there is lightfast and pigment information attached to the paints.

Considering both of the above options, I’d consider the Rosa the clear winner here. The Pretty Excellent paints are of similar quality and cheaper, but they do not offer an open stock replacement option if you like them. You can buy individual full pans of the Rosa paints, and you get a LOT more paint for the $35 (making the price comparable in my opinion!) The Cotmans are available open stock, but their pricetag is much higher and, to be honest, I don’t think they are nearly as vibrant or pigmented as the Rosa paints.

Overall, these paints are for just about everyone! If you are a serious watercolor artist, I think you will be impressed with these but also not find them so precious that you don’t use them. If you are a beginner, this set definitely encourages you to mix colors and offers a great mixing set for landscapes and florals. If you are somewhere in between but want to try something higher quality at a budget, these are your paints! Watch here for the video review: 

 

Do you have these paints? Is there another set out there that they remind you of? Let me know in the comments below!

Product Review: EmJxCraftamo Brushes and Etchr Lab’s Signature Series Perfect Sketchbook

So this week I’m coming to you with two things that I bought myself for my birthday!  These are two items that I really wanted to have/try, and since they were both going to be limited releases I just spent some of my own birthday money on each one!  I feel extremely fortunate to have the ability to do this and I’m super glad that I did!  

I’m going to walk through the info about each of these two things and then tell you my thoughts and feeling after using each one.  

1.  EmJxCraftamo Brush Set

Let me start by saying that if you don’t watch Emma Lefevbre on YouTube you need to stop reading this RIGHT NOW and go subscribe to her.  She is absolutely one of my favorite artists online and I’ve learned so much from her!  I went into this purchase with a good vibe, because I know that if Emma put her name on these that they are going to be a great product (she does not endorse stuff often or lightly!)  

As a watercolor hobbyist, I’ve tried a TON of round brushes.  I usually tend to prefer something that is somewhere in between super stiff and super soft.  I can work with either thing, but that’s my preference.  I was very interested in this set of bamboo brushes because they looked to have amazing points, hold a lot of water, but still to be a little bit softer than your typical synthetic brush.  I was intrigued.  I also LOVED the size choices of the set - a Round 2, Round, 6, Round 12 and ¾ Mop.  

Right away, I noticed that these brushes DO hold a ton of water for their short bristles!  This was exciting, but they also provided me with great control.  The brushes are well made and felt great in my hands.  I’ve been using them for several weeks now and the pointed tips are still as good as new.  The mop brush will work for large pages, and holds a ton of water.  The box they came in was beautiful, and the extra piece of Emma artwork was a wonderful bonus!  All in all, these are a wonderful, versatile set of brushes that I will use for a long time!  They are almost sold out, but if you want a set you can snag them here: 

https://www.craftamo.com/products/emma-lefebvre-x-craftamo

2.  Etchr Lab Signature Series Perfect Sketchbook - B5

Etchr is another company that I absolutely trust to put out high quality items.  Their mixed media cold pressed sketchbooks are absolutely wonderful and work double sided more beautifully than any other watercolor sketchbook I have tried.  When Etchr said they were doing a limited release run of their Perfect Sketchbook I knew I wanted to grab one to use for my more flushed out art pieces.  

This sketchbook is 300 gsm cold pressed Fabriano Artistico paper.  It has 52 pages and has beautifully deckled edges.  It is a portrait sketchbook with a sewn in bookmark and a vegan leather cover.  It is absolutely beautiful and feels incredible in your hands.  

Working on this sketchbook was overall really great, but it did have a few learning curves.  I enjoy doing wet on wet watercolor pieces, and I found myself wishing I had clipped down the pages instead of just having taped off the edges.  The paper really bowed up when I was working on it, but returned to size and shape once dry.  In the future I think using a clip will work wonders.  I also find it interesting that the “fabriano artistico” stamp is visible in several pages of my sketchbook.  I painted on one of these pages to see if it would be visible in the final piece, and I think it’s still kind of obvious?  Can you still see it in the piece?  

These are TINY minor things though, and overall I really REALLY love this sketchbook.  I can’t wait to take my time and put some amazing artwork in here over the next several years!!!  These are still available on the EtchrLab website, and you can snag this one here:  

https://etchrlab.com/collections/sketchbooks/products/sigseriescp21

Full disclaimer: Both of these products are pricey.  These were luxury items I picked up for myself and probably won’t buy stuff like this again for awhile.  But I think that once in awhile it’s nice to treat yourself if you can, and even nicer to see that someone else that spent money on the product enjoys it.  I bought both of these with my own money and my opinions are mine alone.  If you’ve read the blog before, you know that I don’t sugar coat it if I think something isn’t great.  

Did you buy either of these items?  What was your favorite “Treat Yo Self” purchase you made in 2021?  Let me know in the comments below!!! 

January 2022 Sketchbox - the ACTUAL last one!

 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! 

April Paletteful Packs - What an absolute cluster...

 Well.  

The April Paletteful Packs box is here.  I was really hoping since we got very common pens the last two months, that we would get something unique, or in tubes or palettes, you know, something different.  

And then we got this: 

I'm not even going to go through everything or write it out here in much detail.  I made a video of my thoughts and a time-lapse of my artwork here: 

But in case you want the cliffs notes version, here it is: 

• The pens are a great office supply, but not art markers.  
• The copic was upcharged because it's an exclusive "special black," which feels like a big old swindle to me.  It's a BLACK COPIC.  If you own copics, you HAVE a black one.  Honestly.  
• The Signo Gold pen was great - honestly the best thing we got.  
• The brush was nice but unnecessary because the pens are NOT really meant to be used in that way.  But it's a solid brush and I will use it.  
• The bristol paper was excellent when I used it with my alcohol markers, but was awful when using it with the markers they gave us.  The markers tore it to shreds.  But I will use the bristol board for my alcohol markers.  
• The sticker was cute. 

The bottom line, I'm probably cancelling Paletteful Packs.  I might give them one more month, but for the value I feel like Scrawlrbox was 100 times better.   I only canceled Scrawlrbox because the pandemic made getting the boxes difficult for awhile and they were really, REALLY late each month.  But honestly I'm at a point where I'd rather wait and get different things than keep overpaying for boring boxes.  

I'm sorry if that seems harsh, but I feel like even the worst Sketchbox is 4 times better than the best PP box I have gotten to this point.  It seems to be time to move on for now from them.  

At any rate, I made donuts for PP Prompt #3.  It turned out ok, but the piece had a lot of limitations because of the markers.  

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

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!!! 

Metallic Pen Roundup and Review

Hello hello!  Over the winter, I randomly acquired several different brands of metallic pens.  I started with some metallic pens in the 2020 Holiday Sketchbox, and in a set of acrylic paint pens I bought for my daughter.  Then, I picked up a cheap set on Ali Express and Zulily.  Finally, in preparation for this blog I purchased two more budget brands, one on Amazon and one at Dollar Tree.  This ALL started because I noticed that my expensive set of metallic pens seemed to look a lot less shiny than my other, cheaper sets.  Therefore, I set out to see which ones were worth the money! 

I did a full test on black paper, which is the main place I would use metallic pens.  

I did NOT consider the following things: 

• Ability to work on non-paper mediums
• Longevity of use - I didn't consider this because most of the time, metallic pens don't last a long time.  I'm lucky if I can get 1-2 years of use out of them, regardless of their price.  Because of this, I didn't buy copies to try to run them dry.  
• Nib size - A lot of these pens had nibs that were similar in size but not exactly the same.  I did not feel it necessary to buy new ones in matching nib sizes, and also did not count that for or against any of the pens.  I *did* note if you could only get the pen in one nib size because that does seem important!  

Here are the things that I DID judge each one on:  

• Price, both total price and per pen price.  I also considered if you could buy the metallics separately from larger sets of markers as that can also not be cost effective. 
• Pigmentation
• Shininess once dried
• For the gold specifically, the ability to look gold and not "silver gold."  Some metallic pens have a lot more silver in them than their actual pigment color. 
• Accessibility for me.  This won't be the same for everyone, but should be pretty similar for most in the United States at least.  

Ok so without further ado, here's my swatch AND my thoughts on each pen set.  The list is in the swatch order, I will discuss favorites/least favorites at the end of the blog.  

1. Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Pros: 

• Accessible.  Amazon and Blick have them.  
• They come in packs of 3 or 4, so you don't have to buy a bunch of things you don't need to get the metallic pens. 
• Nibs are high quality

Cons: 

• Expensive.  These were at the high end of our prices, which would be ok except... 
• Poor pigment payout.  This set was by FAR the worst pigment payout of all the pens tested.  It was really disappointing! 

2. Baoke Metallic Craftwork Pens

Pros:

• Accessible!  I got these on Ali Express, which takes awhile to get, but I also found them for a little more money on Amazon.  The Amazon listing, depending on how many you bought cost anywhere between $1.74 per pen (4 pack) to the same $0.83 per pen (12 pack).  
• Pigment!!!!  Holy moley these pigments were beautiful!  I didn't think I would get pigments this good from a non-paint pen.  
• They come in packs of gold and silver only, so you don't have to buy other colors to get the metallics. 

Cons: 

• These only seem to have one size of nib, and while I'm not holding the nib quality against it, you would not be able to get fine details easily with these pens.  

3.  Crafter's Square Metallic Marker

Pros: 

• Affordable!  Price is $1 per marker and you buy them separately.  
• Markers are smooth and pigmented.  

Cons: 

• I know on the swatch I said these are accessible, but that's because I have a Dollar Tree right near my house!  These are only available at the Dollar Tree, and so if you don't have a Dollar Tree locally, they might be hard to find.  
• This is one of two gold pens that has that "silver gold" sheen that I was talking about.  But the pigment payout is STILL better than the Faber Castell Pens in my opinion. 

4.  Sargent Art Metallic Markers

Pros: 

• Accessible.  I bought these from Zulily with other art supplies, but Amazon also sells them for the same price.  
• Affordable!  
• The nibs on these markers are really nice and flexible and felt very high quality.  These were my favorite nibs!  
• Pigment payout on these markers was good and they were shiny!  

Cons: 

• The markers come in a pack of 6, which has other colors.  This is a con for me, because I will definitely use the gold and silver faster than the other colors and won't be able to easily replace the gold and silver.  
• This was the other set of pens with the "silver gold" sheen on the pens, and it was probably the worst of the two.  

5.  Miaosun Acrylic Paint Pens

Pros: 

• Accessible. I got these on Amazon.  
• Reasonably affordable.  These were actually on the higher end of our price point at $1.25 a pen.  
• Excellent pigment payout.  Being a paint pen, this one was immediately superior to everything that came before it.  
• Pack of 8 had 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 black and 1 white in it.  This is good for replacing the pens.  

Cons: 

• These *were* on the upper end of the price point at $1.25 a pen, but I'm really just stretching there to find a con.  

6. AROIC Acrylic Paint Pens

Pros: 

• Super affordable!  This was the most affordable pen I tried!  
• Accessible!  This one was an Amazon buy.  
• Excellent pigment payout, very similar to the other paint pen above.  

Cons: 

• These two metallic pens came in a set of 24, and I couldn't see a way to just buy the gold and silver on their own.  I've already used both the gold and silver quite a bit from this set, and so I wish they would sell the metallics separately.  
• The gold had some glitter in it, which helped with the shine but was definitely a surprise. 

Specialty Pen: Molotow Liquid Chrome Pen

Pros: 

• Best silver color that I own.  Pigment payout is incredible, and shine is beautiful!  
• Accessible!  These can be purchased on Amazon or Blick.  
• Comes in several different nib sizes.

Cons: 

• Each pen runs about $10-12 depending on nib size etc.  These are SUPER pricey pens!  I got one in an art box after I bought one myself, otherwise I wouldn't have two of them!  

Ok, so who wins the battle?  

Top 3 picks (one for large coverage, one for details, one special consideration): 

• Baoke Metallic Craftwork Pen
• This pen was affordable and had excellent pigment payout!  It comes in metallics only sets, and has a nice sized nib for coverage!  
• Miaosun Acrylic Paint Pens
• These pens are affordable and also had excellent pigment payout!  This comes in a metallics plus black and white paint pen set, which is very reasonable for the price.  These pens also had the best pigment payout AND have a nice, fine nib to get into the details!  
• Molotow Liquid Chrome Pen - Special Consideration
• This pen is amazing but it was EXPENSIVE.  I've only had both of mine for about 5-6 months, but so far they both still work great.  This is definitely not a budget brand, and doesn't have a gold counterpart that I have discovered to date.  But this one does work really well!  

Bottom 2 picks: 

• Sargent Art Metallic Markers
• These weren't expensive, but they were the same price as other budget pens that performed better.  They also only come in a set of 6 colors as far as I could find, and so you cannot buy the gold and silver separately.  
• Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens
• Easily, these were my biggest disappointment! I got these in an art box, BUT they are expensive pens and they had a really disappointing pigment payout!  I would definitely pay for any of the other brands before I'd buy these again.  

I know I didn't test every type of metallic pen or marker out there, but I figured I had a pretty large cross section here to consider!  Which brands would you like to see me test in the future?  Sharpie? Posca?  Let me know in the comments below!  

Product Review - Greenleaf and Blueberry Paints

This year for Christmas, my husband bought me some lovely handmade watercolor paints!  I was so excited by this, because I really wanted to try handmade paints but they are a bit pricey.  It was a wonderful gift idea and I was so excited!  He purchased me 4 starter half-pans from Greenleaf and Blueberry, a small US company specializing in art supplies for the traveling artist.  I was SO excited to get these paints!  

He started me out with a very earthy set of colors, and I was very glad for that because I love landscapes!  The four colors I'm reviewing are: 

• Red Ochre
• Green Earth
• Pthalocyanine Green
• Vivanite

Per the website, here's what the seller has to say about each of their paints: 

The Paint:

-Artist Grade

-Single Pigment

-Lightfast

-No Fillers, brighteners, or dispersants

-Pure, Genuine, Natural Pigments

-Made Traditionally By Hand With Muller & Slab

-Artist & Chemist Formulated

I have done several projects with these paints, both on their own and in conjunction with other watercolors to see how they would do in several arenas.  Here are some things I thought were notable: 

• Red Ochre and Pthalo Green were beautifully pigmented.  I actually gasped when I swatched them I was so happy.  They also mix beautifully with other artist grade paints.  The Red Ochre is a bit more opaque than the Pthalo Green, which is exactly as it should be.  I was very impressed with these paints in the upfront tests.  
• Green Earth is a beautiful color but it is a weaker shade.  It takes a lot of work to get a big pigment payout, and it is weaker in mixes than the first two.  I still really like this color, but I have come to use it as a stand-alone and not as a mixable color.  
• Vivanite.  Holy cow guys.  This color is probably one of the coolest paints I've ever owned!  It's very pigmented but the GRANULATION is out of control amazing!  It is similar in color to Payne's Gray, but it adds so much richness and complexity to a piece because of the granulation!  It works beautifully as a background or in landscape painting.  I'm just in love with it!  

Here are some paintings I've done with these paints (some standalone, some mixed), and my thoughts on each:  

This was my first painting done with these paints.  I really enjoyed how beautifully they worked to make an easy landscape painting.  The Vivanite as a background is just so lovely here, and you can really see how beautifully contrasting the two green shades are.  

This was a fun sketchbook "rocks" activity I did, mainly to see pigmentation, granulation, etc.  I had to work much harder to get the Green Earth to stand up in this piece to the other colors, but it does stand up to them with a little extra work!  Once again, you see how BEAUTIFUL the granulation is on the Vivanite here.  The gray is really what makes this piece look like rocks instead of blobs in my opinion!  I love that paint!  

Here I used the paints to do a little teacup.  I don't love this piece but I do love how these paints laid down as full background washes!  The Vivanite mixed very well into the other paints here to create shadows on objects, which was really great too.  

This little painting was done with some G&B paints and other handmade watercolors mixed together.  I mixed the Vivanite with Ultramarine Blue in order to get the background gradient, and I mixed the Pthalo Green with the same Ultramarine Blue to get the water.  The sand is the Red Ochre, mixed with a smidge of Lemon Yellow.  These paints mixed beautifully and created a really lovely little beach scene here.  

Finally, I used all four paints, along with several other colors, to create this Spring wreath.  Here you can see that the paints do a nice job of layering and glazing, something I hadn't really done with them in the other paintings.  

These paints have been a fabulous foundation to my handmade watercolor collection.  Would I buy more of them?  Absolutely!  I am definitely going to look into more of their granulating colors, and I would love to have a few more of their earth tones to enrich my palette further.  If you are in the market for handmade watercolors, I would *highly* recommend Greenleaf and Blueberry!  

Have you tried handmade watercolors before?  What do you think of these paints?  Let me know 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!  

Etchr Sketchbook Review - The Paper of my Dreams!

I have wanted to try these sketchbooks from Etchr for awhile, and I was so excited to get them for Christmas from my lovely husband!  These are the Etchr Cold Press Mixed Media Sketchbooks in A4, A5 and A6. 

2 of the 3 Sketchbooks

These sketchbooks are thinner than traditional watercolor paper at 230gsm, BUT they are 100% cotton watercolor paper and claim to be double-sided!  This all seemed too good to be true, 100% thin cotton paper that lays flat and was ALSO double sided?  Could it be true?  

So, my first test was to see how flat the book lays.  I must say, for a hard-bound sketchbook that the paper does lay *very* flat.  It's not as flat as a wire-bound sketchbook, but with binder clips or washi tape I don't have any problem working in these sketchbooks.

My second test was to see how well the 100% cotton paper performed with wet on wet techniques and blending.  Succulents are my comfort zone when it comes to watercolor painting, and so I used this succulent picture as my test.  I was IMMEDIATELY in LOVE. This paper stays wet a long time for beautiful blending, and doesn't unexpectedly lift or pill under multiple layers.  I had two more tests to check the paper's abilities, but so far I was SUPER impressed!  

My third test was to see how well this paper did with a full background wash.  I did not hold back to wet the background.  I also had the edges taped like I would for any wet technique in a sketchbook, but the warping was minimal considering the thinness of the paper.   The washes went on beautifully and create beautiful gradients.  The second picture took 5 layers, all washes and there was no pilling or unexpected lifting.  The more I use this paper, the more I LOVE it!!!  

My final test of the paper was to use both sides.  I specifically wanted to use two pages with serious washes on both of them to see what would happen. As you can see in this video below, there was absolutely NO ghosting, bleeding, anything!!!  IT IS MAGIC. I mean, HOW they managed to make this paper has to be sorcery!  Also - this video shows a small sneak peak of a few other pieces I haven't shared yet!  

So the question becomes, is it worth the price?  In my opinion, they are ABSOLUTELY worth the price!  Per book, they aren't much more than the Bee Creative books that I buy, AND they are hard bound and the paper is double-sided!  Also, Etchr now sells individual books on Amazon so you don't have to buy 3 at a time!  For a long time, having to buy 3 books deterred me from buying them for myself, but now being able to buy 1 to try I wouldn't hesitate AND I feel they are definitely worth the money!  

Needless to say, this paper has 10/10 stars from me.  It will most likely be my primary watercolor sketchbook going forward.  I love working on paper that works like Arches or Bee in a beautiful, bound, easy to carry sketchbook.  I *have* seen that Etchr has paper blocks, but to my knowledge those blocks are only 50% cotton. I'm really hoping they will make 100% cotton cold press blocks in the future - I would DEFINITELY trust this company to make quality 100% cotton blocks!!!  

I hope this review was helpful to anyone that is thinking about trying this product!  Have you tried any Etchr products?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments!  

December 2020 Sketchbox - WOW!

 Guys - I was excited about this Sketchbox because I knew it was water-soluble products and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT!  

Here is my swatch card and my thoughts on each product in the box:  

1. Sketchbox Signature Watercolor Pencils

These were beautiful!!!  I really loved the color palette this month - the earthy and muted tones were beautiful and screaming for a landscape. These pencils colored beautifully and dissolved into a fabulous lighter version of their scribbled color.  I really enjoyed using them - they are as good or better than my mid-range watercolor pencils. I loved using them!  

2.  Marabu Art Crayons - Terracotta and Caramel

These were a huge surprise - and I LOVED them!  I didn't expect to like them, they didn't seem like something I would enjoy but they were lovely!  They added a great texture to both of my pieces, especially for woodgrain and terrain.  They dissolved really nicely but with pressure the texture was awesome too.  I might pick up a set of these in the future I liked them so much!  

3. TCW Watercolor Sparx Powder

I have worked with Ken Oliver's watercolor powders before and I love them - but this powder was super quality and vibrant.  I loved that it had several colors in the bottle - that added so much dimension!  I can't wait to have more fun with this powder in future projects.  This was easily the star of the box for me!

4.  Holbein Artist Gouache - White

This is a fabulous white gouache. I love all of the Holbein gouaches and this was a perfect highlight on the toned paper. I have complained for two boxes about not having a perfect white highlight medium - so I was so glad to see this in the box.  Great addition to the box!  

5. Custom Hahnemuhle Toned Watercolor Pad

I thought at first that this paper was going to be too thin to hold up - but it was surprisingly great!  I have never bought toned watercolor paper and was super excited to try it - and I totally understand why people like it.  After my first landscape picture I knew I wanted to do a dancer because I wanted to try a person with the toned paper and I really loved how that turned out too!  

6.  Marabu Fluid Arts Brush - 3pc Set

These are water brushes - and they were decent brushes!  I'm not a huge fan of water brushes.  I'd always rather have a regular brush than a water brush, especially because we always seem to get water brushes in these boxes.  I'd argue that most people have water and a container available, so I'd always rather have a regular brush. 

7.  Derwent Line Maker - 0.8 Black

This is a great fineliner but THIS IS NOT A WATERPROOF PEN!  It was the one thing in the box that was a disappointment because I wish the box had clearly indicated that this pen was not waterproof.  The card simply says - "try layering it over your watercolors!"  which to me did not indicate that it wasn't waterproof.  I just about ruined my dancer picture because of this - though I pivoted and I think my idea was a good one!  This is a great marker but I would have really liked a waterproof addition to the box for line work.  

So these projects turned out really nice!  I had a lot of fun trying different techniques on both pictures.  

Tree Landscape

Ballet in the time of Covid

Did any of you get this sketchbox?  What did you think about the products! Leave me a comment with your thoughts!  

Watercolor Paper Roundup and Review

 This week on an Instagram post about progress, I talked about what a major difference your watercolor paper can make! There are a LOT of factors to consider when choosing paper, and so I’m going to talk about some of my favorite papers here and why I like them!  

I first want to lay out some criteria that I use when looking at paper.  

• Cold Press vs. Hot Press

Cold press is generally my type of paper UNLESS I’m doing an illustration.  If I’m doing an illustration I will use hot press paper OR mixed media paper.  Otherwise, if you are planning to do bleeding and wet on wet techniques of any kind, cold press is the way to go.  

• Cotton vs Cellulose

The #1 thing I look for in watercolor paper is that it is 100% cotton.  This definitely makes the paper more expensive, but there are some more affordable options out there to achieve this.  The 100% cotton paper keeps wet longer and tends to lift less.  

• Affordability

Obviously, price matters.  While I LOVE some papers, they are not always affordable and I try to get them on sale when I can.  I’ll discuss this as a pro/con with each of my options

• Accessibility

Being able to get the paper or sketchbooks is of course important.  I can only talk about accessibility from my point of view, in the Eastern US.  

•  Binding

I really *really* like papers that come in a sketchbook.  I tend to find myself working out of sketchbooks most often, at least when I first try something.  It’s a bonus if the sketchbook allows me to remove the pages!  

Ok, so what are my go-to brands of paper?  

1.  Bee Creative Watercolor Paper

Pros: 

 

• 100% Cotton and Cold Press
• Comes both in a sketchbook and as loose pages
• This is the MOST affordable high quality paper I can get
• Bee ALSO has a wonderful mixed media paper that doubles as really good hot press watercolor paper! 

Cons: 

• This paper has become increasingly hard to find!  I grab it whenever I can get it, but I’ll be sad if this company just disappears because their paper has been my ABSOLUTE favorite for awhile!  

2.  Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Pros: 

• 100% Cotton and Cold press - amazing quality
• Arches is the absolute gold standard of watercolor paper, and it shows.
• I can easily get Arches just about everywhere I shop for art supplies

Cons: 

• It’s expensive.  I can sometimes find it on sale locally, and when I do I grab it up!  But the quality definitely comes at a price
• They do NOT offer a sketchbook binding option.  For me, I would love an option like this because I tend to do better with using and storing a sketchbook than a large pad of paper.  

3.  Arteza Expert Watercolor Paper

Pros: 

• 100% Cotton and Cold Press Paper - with pretty great quality
• Arteza is very accessible
• Decently affordable paper - more expensive than their other watercolor papers but still a bargain for the quality.  

Cons: 

• There are several brands of “Arteza Expert” paper listed, and only a tiny section of it is 100% cotton, so be careful when buying.  (I think they do also have greeting cards and postcards that are 100%)
• The do NOT offer a 100% cotton sketchbook!  I wish they did because I would definitely buy it if one was offered!  

Honorable Mention: Paul Rubens Hot Press Sketchbook

I love this for illustrations with line work!  Cold press paper will ruin your fineliners and other black pens pretty fast, so I try to work on smoother paper when I’m doing an illustration.  This and my Bee Creative mixed media paper are my favorites for these purposes!  They are both high quality and affordable!  

I’d also like to mention that I’ve not tried paper or sketchbooks from either Etchr or Stillman & Bern.  Both of those are companies that I’ve seen great things about and would like to try in the future!  Etchr is a pricier option mainly because you have to buy the books in bundles.  Stillman & Bern isn’t local to me anywhere during the pandemic, but I could order from them in the future!  

** I also want to note that NONE of these companies are paying me anything!  I’m just a person who loves buying and trying art supplies!  I bought all of these with my own money and my opinion isn’t influenced by anything other than my personal experiences with the supplies!** 

What are your favorite brands of paper?  What is most important to you when you are purchasing watercolor paper?  Let me know in the comments!!!