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!  

March Paletteful Packs - REDEMPTION! All things POSCA!!!

Ok guys, so I know LAST month I was not too kind about Paletteful Packs... so this month I was really hoping they would deliver in a big way....  

AND. THEY. DID!!!!

I know that's a spoiler - but yes it was SO good!  Here's what was in the box, swatches, and what I thought of everything!  

POSCA Pens - Aqua, Green, Pink and Yellow  

I mean, what could I possibly say about these pens that hasn't already been said?!?!?!  They are just fabulous!  I love their coverage and how easy they are to use.  They are the top tier of paint pens.  I already had all 4 of these colors, so I was happy to set these 4 aside completely wrapped until the ones I have are used up.  This color selection was a great and versatile palette.  But these are such a fun and useful art supply!  

POSCA Pastel Pencils - Red and Green

These were an interesting add to the box.  I have never worked with these pastel pencils before, but they seemed to be wax based and did not blend with water or alcohol.  I do not have gamsol, so I didn't try to break them down in that fashion.  These were a nice texture and added a nice variety to the box!  I would have preferred to get a color other than green as I already had plenty of green in this box, but they were fun to play with and layered well to create texture on my final piece.  

Copic Opaque White Pigment 

This was the MOST exciting thing in the box for me!  I have almost purchased this ink several times for myself, but it's expensive and I already have several opaque white mediums.  I'm SO glad I didn't own it because it was the best surprise in this box!  It's beautifully opaque, and very, very fluid!  It worked well both under and over the posca pens, and under the pastels.  This is a fabulous, high end art supply that I will use over and over again!  Thank you PP for this amazing item!  

Robert Simmons Sapphire Brush - Round #3

This brush is a nice #3 round brush.  It works well and will be a nice addition to my brush collection.  I will say that with an MSRP of $13, I feel like a more affordable brush could have been included in order to add another POSCA product, either pen or pastel.  BUT that's really just splitting hairs over things, literally.  

Crescent Ultra-Black Textured Board 8"x10" - 3 Pack

These are very nice illustration boards!  I liked working on it and felt that it held up really well under the POSCA pens specifically.  I'm not usually one for working on thick boards, so this was a fun and different challenge!  I ended up cutting my boards in half so that my daughter and I could work with smaller picture sizes.  I also tested the supplies on black mixed media paper, and it also held up quite nicely with everything in the box.  

So what did I make?  Well, Paletteful Packs does prompts for their boxes, and I started with Prompt #2: Cactus/Succulent.  Yes, I know, but succulents are my ABSOLUTE favorite thing to draw or paint!  So Here are my perfectly Paletteful POSCA succulents: 

I really liked using the pastel overtop of the marker to create texture and interest.  I also liked using markers and pastels at the bottom to create an almost sandy looking ground.  I also used the copic white to make a starry sky, and I *did* cheat a little and used one of the micron pens from last month's box to add prickles to my succulents.  

Was this box worth it?  Well, Paletteful Packs values this box at $58.15.  I went through and was able to value this box for $51.73, so about $6.50 less than what they valued the box at.  I used prices from Blick and Amazon.  This price included valuing the pastels by dividing a 24 pack up, so I do not believe I would be able to test the pastels by themselves easily without a box like this.  All things considered, I would ABSOLUTELY say that this box was worth the $40 that I paid for it!  I will use everything in the box, especially the pens and the Copic ink.  I am glad that I had a chance to test the pastels, I would probably not purchase a whole set of them BUT I'm glad to have tried them.  I also enjoyed getting to paint on the illustration boards, that is not something that I have done before and so it was really fun! So THANK YOU Paletteful Packs, I'm really glad I stuck around for another month, and I'm excited to see what we get in April!  

What do you think of this box?  Do you love POSCA pens as much as me?  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!  

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!

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!  

Paletteful Packs February - Micron and Brush Pens

 I know I said no more subscription boxes (maybe I only said it to myself... but I did say it!), BUT after I watched other people online opening the last two Paletteful boxes, I KNEW I had to give it a try!  I mean, first they got Golden acrylics and THEN they got Daniel Smith watercolors?!?!?  The value in these boxes was INSANE, so I had to try it.  

Well.  I have to say that this box was.... underwhelming at best.  Let me be clear, the items in the box are good items, but the value was just not there for me.  Let me go through each item and explain in further detail.  

Here's the items and the swatch card, and then explanations of each item and my feelings.  

Swatches

Back of Swatch Page

Tombow Dual Brush Markers - 3 Green Shades

I love Tombow brush markers.  These were the best part of the box for me.  We got three different green shades and while that was nice, 2 of them were greens I already have and I only own like 15 Tombow brush markers.  That isn't Paletteful's fault but it would have been nice to get something I didn't already have.  I also would have enjoyed at least 2 more Tombow brush pens, maybe a neutral brown or gray and a complementary color like Pink or Orange.  

Denik Sketchbook

This sketchbook was, just ok.  The artwork is beautiful, and I do really like that it was customized by Alice, whose artwork is always fantastic.  The paper wasn't great.  It was thin, and did not hold up very well to the brush markers.  Brush markers are water-based, and so when I tested them with water the paper didn't hold up at all.  There was pilling and warping and bleeding through.  This isn't that big of a deal, but I would have preferred them to use Mixed Media paper that held up to the wet brush pens a bit better. I know this is pricier, but they *could* have done that if they hadn't blown all their money on the final item in the box.  I also feel that at $11.99 this book is overpriced.  I have an Artists Loft sketchbook that is hardbound that I paid $7 for with paper that held up better than this sketchbook.  

Sakura Micron Pens - Exclusive 100th Anniversary Set of 10

Before I go on my rant here, I want to start by saying that I LOVE Micron Pens.  I love them and own a ton of them.  THAT BEING SAID.... 

1. A 10 pack of the same black fineliners, simply in different sizes, is too many.  At most, 5 of the varied nibs will allow you to make a beautiful and richly lined pen piece in my opinion.  

2. These were an *exclusive* item, and the MSRP given was $35.99.  Now, they are pretty.  But they are the same EXACT fineliners that I can get in a normal barrel on Amazon for $17.  For something that performs the exact same way as something half the price, this mark-up of "expected value" is ridiculous.  I do NOT pay for an art subscription to get a fancy looking version of something much cheaper that does the EXACT same thing.  

3. The high MSRP on these *exclusive* pens prevented the box from having other colors of Tombow brush pens, or a pencil (more on that later), or any kind of highlight/white medium.  

4. The petite box, which is cheaper, recieved a BLACKWING PENCIL.  This actually made me upset.  I paid for the bigger box and my assumption was that I would get all that the smaller box had to offer and more.  The petite box got a smaller sketchbook, the same three Tombow pens, only 5 Microns, and a blackwing pencil.  I would have paid $35 for those supplies and honestly felt way better about it than what I did get.  

The bottom line, will I use these pens?  Of course, but I'm pretty ticked that this is the bulk of what I paid for this month.  Getting an art supply that I don't normally use or that is different is totally fine and never disappointing, but paying money because someone slapped an "exclusive anniversary" label on a set of pens is very frustrating.  Especially for something as common as fineliners, which most people that buy art boxes get ALL the time.  This was a huge let down for me.  

Ok onto the art: When I saw the cover of the notebook, I knew I was probably going to draw succulents.  You guys know I'm a sucker for succulents.... hahahaha.  The paper did ok on this drawing but I definitely had to watch for pilling.  I also only used 5 micron pens to prove the point that 5 is the most you would need.  

I still ended up making a nice piece of art with the products in the box. As I said before, I will definitely use all of these art supplies, but if I had bought them on my own I would have paid closer to $32, and this box actually cost me more than that.  I know a lot of people did really like this box, but for me the point of an art subscription box is to get new, fun things to try in new ways.  These were very basic items that were given a huge markup for being exclusives, which is not at all what I'm about.  

All of that being said, I'm going to stick with Paletteful Packs for another month.  I know they normally jam pack their boxes full of fun and value, so I'm going to give them another chance.  

Did you get this box? If so, what were your thoughts?  What are your thoughts on exclusive items?  

February Sketchbox - Water Soluble GRAPHITE!!!!!

 Another month, another Sketchbox!!! I must admit, I've been playing around with this box of supplies for over a week now and I'm just HAVING SO MUCH FUN!  More on this later!  

Let's start with swatches, what's in the box, and my thoughts on each item in the box:  

Supplies: 

• Princeton Heritage Brush - Round #6 
• This is a beautiful paintbrush.  I enjoyed using it very much!  Valued at $14, I would have settled for something a little less expensive if it meant getting an eraser in this box. 

• Derwent Graphitint Half Pans - Dark Indigo and Juniper
• These. Are. Amazing!  I have seen people use these online before, but I was NOT prepared for how awesome they are!  I really want the whole set now!  The colors were beautiful and granulated so nicely.  They of course are the quality I expect from Derwent.  These erased a bit, but not completely. 

• Derwent Graphitint Pencils - Ivy and Chestnut
• These were also pretty darn awesome!  I loved the colors and they dissolved quite nicely when using water on them.  These erased a bit, but not completely.  

• Spectrum Noir Colortint Pencil - Cafe Au Lait
• This was a nice pencil as well!  I didn't love it as much as the Graphitint pencils, but it was still a nice, dissolving pencil and it was great to have two different browns to create nice contrast.  This pencil *did* have a more clean erase than any of the Graphitint products, which was great.  

• ArtGraph Drawing Graphite Putty
• I was terrified of this package when I saw it.  I waited DAYS to open it.  When I opened it, I used a tiny scoop to take a VERY small amount out into my palette.  As soon as I put the paintbrush to it I was IN LOVE!  This stuff is literally liquid graphite.  I loved being able to use graphite like paint.  But THEN the best part - YOU CAN ERASE IT!  That's right!  It takes a little more to erase than dry pencil, which is perfect because you can draw on top of it and do a light erase without messing up the under layer, but you can also erase it to create highlights!!!!!  WHAT!?!?!  This is the star of the box, and I'm so excited to use it in the future too! One small thing I'd wished was that the plastic bag had a zip top instead of a tear open top so that I could easily keep it sealed.  But this stuff was AMAZING!  

• Cretacolor Watercolor Graphite Set, 6 pc
• Finally, these were decent!  I LOVED the two graphite pencils, the blue and the green.  They were high quality.  These pencils dissolved decently well and they erased pretty well too.  BUT, the red was weak, and was almost the same color as the juniper Graphitint so it didn't really get used much in my piece.  And the white, the white was absolutely useless.  It didn't layer over anything, it didn't write over any of the other graphite, and I didn't use it at all.  I even tried to scribble a bunch of it out and pick it up with a paintbrush to go on the top of the other graphite, and it did... nothing.  I'd much have preferred a 4 piece set here and a swap out for those two pencils for an opaque white medium.  

Quick Notes: 

• We didn't get paper this month.  I'm totally fine with that because the value of the rest of the box was great!  Also - Sketchbox has sent plenty of wet media paper in recent boxes, so everyone should have something to put their art on/in.  
• I definitely benefited from having the Caran D'Ache Palette Aquarelle.  (Palette pictured below.) This is a palette with a smooth side and a rough side, designed to scribble out pencils and pick them up with a wet brush.  It is easily the best $11 I've ever spent on a palette.  I'd HIGHLY recommend it if you ever use watercolor pencils!  
• I used the TINIEST bit of graphite putty!  I have a picture of the palette I used for that so you can see that a little really does go a long way with that stuff!  

Caran D'Ache Palette Aquarelle and my Palette with the Graphite Putty

Box Value: Sketchbox values this box at $52.93 and I have to say it's definitely worth my money!  I will use 90% of what's in this box over and over again for a long time to come.  The *only* thing I would say is that the Creatacolor red and white weren't very useful, and I would have traded them out for a nice eraser and a white opaque medium that actually layers over the graphite.  

That being said...  

This box was AWESOME.  This is exactly what an art subscription should be and should provide.  I would *never* play with graphite on my own accord, but give me graphite the works like watercolor and BAM - I'm pricing out Derwent Graphitint everything online!  And that graphite putty is one of the coolest things I have ever gotten in an art box.  GREAT JOB Sketchbox!  

What did I draw? I knew *immediately* when I saw how the graphite putty worked that I had to draw a statue!  And so of COURSE I drew Hylia from Skyward Sword!  I knew right away that the indigo Graphitint would look amazing as a dark sky.  I also used the pencils and half pans to create a cobblestone path.  I used both green and brown pencils to create the trees, that turned out whimsical just like the trees from Skyward Sword.  I used a combination of wet and dry graphite for Hylia herself.  I'm so very pleased with how this piece turned out!  

Have you ever played with water soluble graphite?  What would you make with this Sketchbox?  Let me know in the comments below! 

January Sketchbox - All About Ink

It's Sketchbox time!  When I opened up this box I was excited and scared all at once because it was all about INK:  

I'll admit that at first glance, I was very excited by the fact that we had three primary colors AND a boss looking fine liner to start out with.  PLUS, the paper looked to be quality as usual, so I was excited!  

I ended up having a LOT of fun and mixing some really vibrant colors, and ended up with this Yoshi:  

He isn't my best work by any stretch, but after a LOT of struggle he turned out better than expected.  

I'll start by laying out the contents of the box and what I thought of each item:  

Swatches

Color Mixes from the Inks

1.  Sketchbox Signature Plastic Palette

This was a perfect little palette to accompany these products.  As shown above, it allowed for secondary mixes and cleaned easily after the project.  I love having little palettes like this around my art space for all sorts of wet media projects.  

2.  Caran d'Ache Grafwood Pencil, 3H

This pencil was a fabulous surprise in this box!  I've never used fancy pencils before (always just been an HB girl), and so I found that I absolutely LOVE sketching with this pencil!  I've already used it to sketch several other pieces and it's got a home in my main stationary bag.  This was a great item!  

3. Dynasty Dagger Brush, 3/8"

I found this to be a very high quality dagger brush, better than the one I've been currently using! For the size of the paper pad, this brush seemed a little bit large at times, but the pointed end did allow for a decent amount of detail.  I will say that having this size of a brush made me think that this in should be able to lay down large wet on wet areas, which I found to be very frustrating with this paper/ink combo.  

4. Staedtler Pigment Liner, 0.3 - 2.0mm

Again, another fabulous addition to this box.  I loved the chisel tip on this liner and thought it worked fabulously.  I did have smudging in a few spots but that was because of my own impatience!  Overall, this liner layed beautifully down on top of the inks and didn't bleed if you let it dry before applying water overtop.  

5. Inks: 

Holbein Acrylic Ink, Naphthol Red 

Speedball Acrylic Calligraphy Inks, Primrose Yellow and Indigo Blue

I greatly preferred the packaging of the Holbein ink, and felt like I wasted way more of the other ink by having to use and clean droppers to put it into the palette. In all other ways I felt the inks could be talked about together.  

When I saw these colors I was SO excited, because they were vibrant and I knew I could get good mixes with them!  They did not disappoint in that department.  HOWEVER, as someone that works primarily with watercolor, I had a hard time with these inks on this paper.  If you layed down color, it DID NOT MOVE.  And yes, they are inks, it's to be expected.  BUT, I wanted to get gradients or looks that were a little more muted and so I watered down the inks to achieve this.  That *seemed* great until I realized that the inks were feathering on the paper WILDLY.  So, if I put them straight onto the paper I got really bold colors with very little buildup ability, and if I used water to lighten the colors I had much less control than what I wanted.  If you look at Yoshi, you can see that on his back there was definite feathering.  I even ended up using a white posca pen to cover over the white details to make them look cleaner in the end.  I don't usually do that but I was too far into the piece to start again and I knew using a Posca would fix the feathering issue.  I am not faulting the inks for this, but the paper.  

6. Magnani Cotton Pad, 140lb Cold Pressed

This paper seems AMAZING for typical watercolor and I'm excited to try it for that purpose in the future.  But I really REALLY think with the supplies that we were given that we should have been given either hot pressed paper or mixed media paper.   This would have slowed down the absorption of the inks on the paper and allowed for watery ink mixes to be applied with more control.   This Yoshi was my second attempt at a picture and I do not think this paper made working with the acrylic inks "fast and easy" as described by Sketchbox.  

**UPDATE** - I tried this paper with my watercolors and also had HUGE feathering issues with wet on wet techniques involving layers. It still feathered after letting the paper dry for a really long time, and so I think that I either got a bad paper pad OR that there is something wrong with this paper.  I watched several videos where people did not seem to have a problem with the paper, so I'm wondering if it's just my pad.  

Overall, I do feel like box was worth my money and I'm looking forward to using these inks with a calligraphy pen for fun AND maybe on some different types of paper to see what I can do!  I'll use the watercolor paper, pencil, liner, brush and palette for other projects too, so this box will definitely get plenty of use in this house!  My daughter did a picture too where she used a much more pigmented version of each color and I love how her rainbow/pot of gold/sun picture turned out!  Here is her piece, posted with her permission:

We always have a lot of fun working together on these boxes, so thank you Sketchbox for another fun challenge!  

What would you have drawn with these supplies?  Do you think I should redo Yoshi on a different paper?  Let me know in the comments below!  

Christmas and Birthday Art Supply Haul!

Because my birthday is the same week as Christmas, I end up with quite the haul by the end of December!  This year, I asked for a lot of art stuff that I won't buy myself but that I knew I really wanted to try!  

***Disclaimer: I know that I'm extremely fortunate to have people in my life that support my hobby and buy me artsy things.  This is not meant to show off or brag, I just simply want to showcase some of the artists, authors, and companies that I am excited to learn from and test out in the upcoming year.***

Here are all of the supplies I ended up with:  

1. Etchr Cold Press Watercolor Sketchbooks

So I have to say, my husband knocked it out of the park!  He always gives great gifts, but this year he got me some fab art supplies that I wouldn't have bought myself.  I have wanted to try these books for almost a year now.  This was a 3 pack variety set, and you will notice that the picture is missing one because I already opened it and started painting in it!  So far, I'm in love!  These sketchbooks are really quality and seem to be exactly what I was looking for in a watercolor sketchbook.  

2. Prismacolor Col-Erase Pencils

I have a nice set of Prismacolors that I've been enjoying for many years, but I really wanted to buy and try the Col-Erase pencils!  My parents got me this set, and I think I swatched them within 24 hours!  They are vibrant and blend beautifully and they ERASE so cleanly!  I know that's what they are supposed to do, but I definitely was surprised at how well they work.  I also think the color selection is exactly perfect for a 24 set and matches my paint palettes beautifully.  I'm very excited to play with these more! 

3. Posca Pens

These were a beautiful surprise!  I have a set of less expensive paint pens that I enjoy using, and I have gotten a few posca pens here and there in art boxes.  I love the vibrant colors in this posca set, and these have small nibs for details!  Since my bullet journal is thick paper that can handle paint pens, I'm very excited to start using these in my monthly layouts!  

4. Artist Books

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE to read, and so I've been staring at several art books online for the past year, thinking I'd get around to buying them eventually.  My parents and sister/bro in law bought me THREE new art books and I've already been pouring over them, learning so much!  I also bought one with a birthday gift card that is set to arrive in January.  The art books I got were: 

• Draw With Jazza - Creating Characters: Fun and Easy Guide to Drawing Cartoons and Comics by Josiah Brooks
• Everyday Watercolor: Learn to Paint Watercolor in 30 Days by Jenna Rainey
• The Joy of Watercolor: 40 Happy Lessons for Painting the World Around You by Emma Block
• No-Fail Watercolor: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Painting with Confidence by Mako

Now, it might seem strange that I wanted all of these beginner books.  But let me start by saying that I still consider myself a beginner in my art journey!  I also think that since I've never had any formal training with painting or drawing that books like this are great ways to learn basics or revisit skills that I might want to try to refine.  As a teacher myself I'm a firm believer that we can always learn something new, and so I'm really excited to work through these 4 books over the next few years.  So far, I have tried one tutorial from the Emma Block book and it was awesome!  

5.  Travel Paintbrushes

My genuine hope is that in 2021 we can actually go on a vacation again or do fun things!  Right now, my travel art supplies never go anywhere because I'm always home, BUT I'm so excited to get a chance to use these travel brushes!  It's a wonderfully high quality set that has all of the round brush sizes I love!  I'm so excited to have this set!  

6.  Tombow Calligraphy Pens

I love these pens!  I have several of them and I'm always excited to get more of them.  These are my favorite liner pens, I like the bold tips and I feel like I get better lines than I would from a traditional fineliner.  They also work really well with watercolors and so I like not having to worry about bleeding when I use these over or under watercolor.  

7.  HANDMADE WATERCOLORS!!!  

Again, my husband TOTALLY surprised me with a set of handmade watercolors from Greenleaf and Blueberry!  They are SO pigmented and he bought me a beautiful set for landscapes and muted tones!  I would never have tried these on my own because they are pricey, but they are amazing! 

I swatched them and did a landscape picture with them (I literally couldn't wait to paint trees with that Pthalo Green!).  Here's the picture below done in one of my Etchr books: 

So I hope that you enjoyed this tour through my new art supplies!  As I get familiar with some of them, expect to see reviews on some of these.  Did any of you get new supplies or books for the holidays?  Let me know in the comments!