March ArtSnacks

Here we are, again! But I did actually cancel my subscription this time, so this is the last one. For now.

All in all, I feel like the ArtSnacks was a decent subscription for the price. I got a lot of things I wouldn’t have picked up or tried otherwise. And it’s been fun each month to try and incorporate the different colors and mediums into a cohesive picture.

Maybe in a few months I’ll resubscribe and get some more stuff. We’ll see!

Anyway, here’s this month’s picture:

A bit more stylistic than normal, but I like it, at least.

Let’s go through the thing.

Plumchester Paint Marker
Mine’s kinda an aqua green, which is one of my favorite colors, hooray! I got another one of these in an earlier box. This one felt a little hard to get good color coverage, but I may just need to pump it more. (It’s acrylic paint.) I guess they got new colors so they sent them out again.

Chameleon Color Tones Colored Pencil
This is a double-ended colored pencil–mine is peach and darker peach–and I guess they’re designed to blend together perfectly. It’s a nice color pencil, and the colors do go together nicely. I already have a nice peach-colored pencil, though.

KUM CUB3 Pencil Sharpener
This is a really nice pencil sharpener, and I did need one. Super excited for this, as silly as that sounds. It fits multiple sizes and can work on both pencils and crayons. Also, it’s made of eco-friendly plastic.

Kuretake-ZIG ai Liner Brush Pen
This is a black brush pen, apparently fashioned after eyeliner. Probably not the best idea, since they had to include a warning not to actually use it AS eyeliner. The ink didn’t flow quite as fast as I wanted it to, meaning I had to go over my lines a few times. I definitely prefer the Sakura brush pens, but one can really never have too many, amirite?

ArtSnacks x Blackwing Pencil
It’s ArtSnacks’ 8th birthday! Happy birthday to them. They made these custom pencils for everyone. I sharpened mine with my new pencil sharpener, and they have a cool flat eraser that I can see being useful for more careful erasing situations.

As I said, I’ve had fun with the ArtSnacks! I’d definitely do it again sometime. But for now I’m happy to play with what I have, though I will miss the anticipation. Maybe now I need to find a different sort of challenge, one where you’re tasked to use the materials you have in new ways.

How are you, squider?

February ArtSnacks

I still haven’t cancelled. I have no excuses.

Good variety this month, though–stuff I haven’t gotten a bunch of, for the most part. Actually, only two colored things, hooray!

Let’s get into the haul, shall we?

Higgins Acrylic Ink
This is the bottle of ink. I thought it was black, initially, but having done the image and actually, you know, looked closer, it’s actually Payne’s Gray. I have Payne’s Gray in my watercolor set too, wooooo. At least with the watercolors, it’s good for a wide variety of gray tones. Obviously the ink here is pretty dark, but I’m sure that can be played with.

I like acrylic paint/ink in general–it covers well and easy to clean up. I still am a little nervous about having bottles of ink floating around, however. Disaster in the making.

Princeton Velvetouch Series 3950 Synthetic Brush, Round Size 4
This is a nice paintbrush! It worked well with the ink, and I don’t have a round size 4 otherwise. Not much to say beyond that, really.

Kuretake-ZIG Metallic Clean Color Dot Double-Ended Marker
Silver, of course. I have another Kuretake-ZIG something or other from a previous box. It’s a yellow brush pen that I got my first month. This one is also nice–a nice metallic silver, which is a lovely color. Double-ended, with a large round side and a much-narrower side. I used most the thin side, though I used the wider side for the moon. Dries a bit slow, so something to be aware of.

Koh-I-Noor Thermoplastic Eraser
Mine’s yellow, obviously. To be honest? Not my favorite. I felt like it didn’t do a great job of erasing the pencil sketch. It is nice to hold, however.

Caran d’Ache Grafstone Pencil
This is a solid piece of graphite, as opposed to being a piece of graphite encased in wood, like a normal pencil. There’s an element to be played with here, if you were more creative than I am. Maybe I should try more straight pencil art instead of working with ink and colors all the time. Things to ponder.

So, I appreciate getting some gear instead of just paint pens and markers in weird colors. Erasers are always good, especially if they don’t smear the ink, and the paintbrush will be useful for a number of different mediums. And I really like the silver marker. It’s got a great metallic sheen, and seems thick enough that it could go on top of just about anything.

I might cancel this month. Or I might not. It is nice to try out new things every month, and it does make it so I do some experimentation that I might not otherwise.

I’m mostly experimenting with color lately otherwise–I bought myself a set of water-based markers, and received a nice set of colored pencils and some alcohol-based markers for Christmas. I REALLY like the alcohol-based markers, but they do give me a headache after awhile, and it’s too cold to work outside, so oh well.

How are you, squiders? Art thoughts?

January ArtSnacks

Sorry this is a little late, squiders! I’ve been feeling a little under the weather the last few days. Nothing serious, but I did take it pretty easy and now am feeling much better.

(Yesterday I basically watched Ghost Adventures: Artifacts or whatever it’s called.)

I know I keep saying I’m done with ArtSnacks, but then I get excited and keep getting it. So here we are. Possibly for the last time, but at this point I’d better stop saying anything before I look too ridiculous.

#artsnackschallenge

I remembered to put the materials in the picture this month, unlike last month.

(The snack this month is a dumdum, which continues to not actually be a snack.)

Okay, let’s get into it.

ShinHan Art Touch Liners, Cool Grey Set of 5
So these are ink pens in a variety of sizes/types: .1 mm, .3 mm, .5mm, a chiseled tip, and a brush tip. It’s kind of a silvery gray, as you can see. I outlined the circle in the .1 mm and filled it in with the brush tip, then used the .5mm and the chiseled tip for the words. The color is nice, and I can see using them instead of black ink for effect. The chiseled tip ink erased a bit when I used my eraser, though, so that’s something to remember. No smudging, though. Overall, very nice.

Karin DecoBrush Metallic Marker
Mine is gold, obviously. The paint comes out thick and fast, so it needs a careful hand, but it dries relatively quick. However, I got two gold things last month, so I don’t know that I needed yet more gold. It would be good to paint over things for effect, however. And it didn’t drip paint anywhere I didn’t want, which is also a plus.

Zebra M-350 Mechanical Pencil
I think this is the third mechanical pencil I’ve gotten. Maybe the second. It’s a mechanical pencil. I continue to not see any major differences between these, and at this point I probably do not need any more.

Marvy Uchida Pastel LePen Flex
That’s a mouthful for what it essentially a fine tip marker. Mine is yellow-gold, because if there’s one color family I don’t need any more of, it’s yellow/golds. Seriously, ArtSnacks, send me some purple! Green! Blue! Even orange. No more yellows, no more golds. That being said, this is a really nice marker. I would buy more of these (in more useful colors).

Also, the calligraphy looks decent, if I do say so myself, especially since I haven’t done any in about 10 years or so.

How are you doing, squiders? Any thoughts on art supplies or drawing in general?