Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Tested Out An Artistro Palette!

Christmas brought me some great gifts, as I hope it did for anyone reading this who celebrates. One of these gifts was given by some awesome friends of mine, and it was a great little Artistro palette, which I'll be reviewing today!

The Artistro Premium Quality Watercolor Paint Set came with some fun goodies!

The palette itself came in a lovely pastel mint turquoise cardboard box, which also contained a small sheaf of Watercolor paper, a little card about Artistro itself, and what I think is a sticker, though I can't figure out if it really is or not. 

The Palette itself!

The palette itself is a nice tin box in the same pastel turquoise color as the cardboard box, and while the metal isn't nearly as thick as my black palette, it's still quite convenient to have everything in a lockable case! The latch gives it a leg up on most of my palettes, to be honest, and it has a few other things going for it, too - it has a flat bottom so I can actually set it down places, it only has 2 parts when opened, so it can just sit open, it's fairly tall so I don't have to move brushes as far, and it's a nice soothing color.

Inside is quite nice, too!

Opening this palette reveals that it comes with a few goodies besides the paints! Firstly, it has a big, hefty water brush that feels like I could sit on it accidentally and not break it, plus a fineliner brush! The black pen is actually an acrylic paint pen - the first one I've ever used! And it has three mixing wells and a very large sponge, which are great for when you're changing or mixing colors. As for the lower half, there's a sturdy plastic sheet with a little cutout for your finger so you can pull it away from the paints and... guys...

It's one of the first palettes I've ever had that NAMES ALL THE COLORS outside of the swatch card!

And they're fairly popular color names, too, allowing me to try mixes I've seen elsewhere!

The palette does, of course, come with a swatch card, and it's printed on the exact same watercolor paper that came with the kit, and it's good paper, too, which really surprised me. I'm used to swatch cards that are cardstock or cheap paper, and this was great.

It helps matters, too, that the paints, while small, are very smooth.

These are, no joke, butter-smooth watercolors. Swatching the palette out, I only noticed a few tones out of the 48 that were harder to get consistent - the lightest blue, the lightest green, the fluorescents, and the metallics. Even those would probably have been easier to swatch if I'd spritzed the palette first instead of just stroking a damp brush over the pans 10 times each.

And I'm really pleased with the granulations I see because I love granulations in my tones.

Now, the Artistro palette is not the only art supply I received for Christmas. My mother made sure to buy me a nice Strathmore pad and some new brushes, since the ones I've been using are... well... they're water hogs that don't lay color well, frankly. I've been entirely relying on my waterbrushes and one or two fineliners because the rest just don't paint well.

These Phoenix brushes, however, paint very nicely.

And I will eventually have to start working on bigger paintings
Because these large sheets are tempting.

But I'm still pretty braindead from the holidays, so instead of testing my supplies out on some massive art piece that relies on vast quantities of water, patience, and time, I instead tested things out with a fun little Geometric piece.

"Bubbletime"; watercolor and acrylic; 2022

I used a 7 Round for all of the bubbles and outlined them all with the paint pen. I was very nervous that I'd spill the paint all over my bed, but I activated the pen very slowly and gently (shakeshakeshakeshake, press, pause, press, pause, press, pause, see that the tip is black, draw a small doodle on a scrap page, then get to work).

It went far better than I'd hoped, and I think I'll be adding this paint pen to my passel of liners for future projects! It layers perfectly over watercolors. Speaking of the watercolors, they went on very smooth, though if you don't use wet-into-wet as your technique, it can be a bit hard to even tones out. The paints also dried fairly fast, though that could have been because I had my ceiling fan on and the air was fairly dry.

All in all, if you've been thinking about trying out the Artistro 48 color watercolor palette, I'd say go for it. It's perfect for someone who is trying to make art, especially on a budget. The paper is good quality, the paints are fun, and if you're not planning on preserving the original pieces (I can't speak to the colorfastness of the paints, since I haven't had them long enough to test), then this is a great kit for you. Especially if you've been meaning to see if an acrylic paint pen is right for you with your watercolor art.

If you'd like to have a say in what I paint or draw next week, feel free to hit me up on Ko-Fi with a donation and a message telling me what category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Geometric, Dedbert, Location, Word), and I'll pop it up here with a little thank you note!

And thank you to all my readers who kept me posting throughout 2022!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which I Review A Palette!

 Christmas saw me getting a lot (and I mean a lot) of pajamas, but also some other fun stuff, including a very cool blue sweater and a gift card to a local bookstore from my younger sibling! It has taken me until now to use that gift card, and here is what I got:

The Peter Pauper Press Studio Series Watercolor Field Kit
With 48 Brilliant Colors!

This kit fits in my purse, is easy to carry, is relatively strong plastic, opens easily, and does in fact contain everything advertised (mixing palette, 48 colors, aqua brush, sturdy case, and a sponge). It has a foldable loop on the bottom for easy balancing in one hand.

The mixing palette lifts out on pegs!

Those are some fresh paints lol

A clearer view of the paints

A Swatch using both paints & brush!

So let's talk contents. 

The palette is a palette. There's not a ton to talk about with it - it works and it's pretty decent!

The sponge is a tiny sponge, and I don't hold much hope for its long-term survival, nor am I 100% certain what the sponges are used for, since I usually travel with tissues that I use for cleanup.

The brush... the brush is weird. I've used water brushes before, but they're usually as easy to fill as "unscrew brush from handle, pour water into handle, screw back together, voila". This one is... weird. It has a little black thingy over the opening in the handle when you unscrew it, and that prevents you from just filling it from the tap like the other water brushes I have. It's also very short, so it doesn't hold very much water when you do fill it, which you do by holding it underwater, squeezing the air out of it, and letting the water fill it up. The whole time, you've got your hand underwater and cold and it feels like you're going to break the brush handle. All in all, the worst water brush I've ever used, filling-wise. Actually using it is great, though. It seems to have a more consistent flow than other brushes. I'd say it evens out, frustration in filling vs ease of use.

As for the paints, they're pretty! They're very nice, and they go on very smooth! They do smell... bandaid-y, though. That's odd, but not too unusual for watercolors lol. I think they just contain a lot of gum arabic. No idea about their lightfastness, but since this is a travel set, rather than a proper in-studio set of paints, I'm gonna say they'd be ideal for watercolor sketching rather than permanent art. I will also say that some of the colors are water-hogs. That second lavender on the 4th row down especially soaks up water when you dampen the pans and it ends up not looking like any of the paint reconstituted. Don't believe its lies, it's perfectly fine, it just doesn't swell lol.

The pans after the first wetting/use, also the brush.

One last note on that weird lil water brush: it stains just the same as all the other nylon-tipped water brushes I've used lol. Does anyone else have that problem? It doesn't spread the color, it just completely stains!

But as we all know, the real test of a watercolor kit isn't what it looks like or smells like in a box or on swatches, it's what it looks like when you use it! And here we see my first use of this kit:

"Sketching With Dedbert"; PPP watercolor on watercolor paper with Micron ink; 2022

I think that with a more robust brush, this paint will be fantastic even at home, and on the go I usually have at least 3 brushes on-hand at any given time just bc I'm paranoid about running out of water (a real concern with the weird filling-method on this new one!). I did forget to erase the pencil lines, so sorry about that! But this was a lot of fun, and it's given me ideas on what else to do with my future art!

And that about covers today's art adventure! My conclusion is this: this kit is worth the $20 I spent on it and I encourage anyone on the fence as to whether or not to pick up a Peter Pauper Press field kit to go for it!

Don't forget to Go Enjoy Something!!!

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which There Was a Delivery And I Drew!

Today was very very busy! The other day, I got a delivery of art supplies - my Buff Titanium watercolor stick from Daniel Smith and a paint box by Emooqi - and since then, I've been looking forward to testing them.

Unfortunately for me, I don't paint well while stressed, and with Evie the Wondercat going to the vet's tomorrow for her annual tooth cleaning and polyp check, I'm pretty stressed. I knew painting was going to have to wait.

Here's what I got, though:

This box is cardboard and has a magnetic flap as a closure!

I'll be honest, I just bought this set of 48 paints to put myself over the free shipping limit, but I was so pleasantly surprised at the quality! It really is worth every penny on Amazon (I'm not affiliated in any way, I'm just impressed!). I've never heard of "Emooqi" but if this is the kind of stuff they put out, I'll have to keep an eye out.

A swatching card for the paints!

Watercolor paper! Two Water Brushes! Three Fineliner Brushes! A Drawing Pencil...
A Fantastic palette! (Plus the Daniel Smith watercolor stick I also ordered)

I expected, when I picked this up, that the palette would be cheap plastic, but as soon as I picked up the package I was surprised by its weight.

Guys, that tri-fold palette is METAL!

You read that right, the palette is made of metal, has a hanging loop on the back, and holds at least one water brush (or multiple traditional brushes). There are wells for holding wet colors and trays for mixing colors, and it's just... it's fantastic. I'm in love with this big, heavy palette.

Now let's talk about the Buff Titanium watercolor stick

I have, ever since beginning to follow Nianiani on YouTube, wanted to have Buff Titanium. It's a soft, warm beige color, and she uses it for *everything*. We have a lovely art shop on our main street in my hometown, and they have a gorgeous collection of various tubes of watercolor in every single shade... except Buff Titanium.

So I looked on the interwebs and Amazon had me covered. I could either get a half pan for 7 dollars plus 7 dollars shipping or I could get the stick from Daniel Smith themselves for 10 dollars or so and free shipping if I got up to 25 bucks.

Believe it or not, I didn't fail economics. I passed. For me, getting two useful items for 29 dollars has greater worth than getting one useful item for 14 bucks. 

I've never used a paint stick, though, so I looked up some videos and it turns out it's a lot like a watercolor pencil but since there's no wood coating, you can just use the stick like a pan and brushy-brushy, you're off to buff-town!

I also used that swatch sheet:

The Swatch matches the order in the palette
plus that lil Buff Titanium swatch by itself

I managed to do all that and then I realized I didn't have time to make a good painting.

So I decided I'd combine three things I love - Australian Animals, Autumn, and Drawing.

"Down Under Harvest (unlined)"; colored pencil & graphite; 2021

"Down Under Harvest (Lined)"; colored pencil, graphite, and Pigma Micron PN; 2021

I wasn't sure which look I liked better at first, but I have a definite favorite. The animals are, from left to right, a Quokka holding kale, a Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat perched on a pumpkin, and a Bilby with an apple.

I freaking love drawing wombats. They're such expressive, chubby, adorable creatures. I just want to cuddle them all but I know they'd nibble my face off.

They're biters.

I love them.

Anywho, that'll about do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today Was Busy As Hecc!

Today I took a nice walk! Well, two actually... 

During the first walk, I went down to my local library because they have free books and also someone dropped off a few (read: SIX!) crates of veggies from their garden for anyone and everyone in town to enjoy. I showed up later in the afternoon, so I ended up with a smaller variety, but that just made me super happy that so many people wanted the veggies! I got a lovely summer squash that we ate for dinner (perfect flavor!), some tiny cucumbers that tasted like candy (I ate two of the three I picked up and tossed the third out for the crows, who loved it so much they hopped across the yard with their beaks full!), some beets? radishes? no one seemed to know but I picked up four of them, and a normal looking cucumber as big as my hand from middle finger to wrist.

I also found five Joyce Carol Oates books my partner didn't have yet and picked those up for them.

Now, before I hit up the library and its vegetal treasures, I swung by a local shop near my house that services most of the restaurants in town - they're a wholesaler, but the public can shop there, and they often have Jarritos and Mexican Cokes and also some local sodas and San Pellegrino. I picked up a can of Mtn Dew and a bottle of lime-flavored Jarritos along with a small bag of locally made potato chips! Those with my cucumbers made a fine, snackish lunch :)

With my jaunt complete, I headed home and checked on the cat, who was snoozing in my finished-project-box in my room. My partner swung by for the books just as Evie woke up and she tried to escape, so once the books were safely away (and I'd hugged my love a *lot*), I waddled back inside, threw on my shoes, and wrestled the cat into her harness. She hates that part. She loves being in the harness, but god help you trying to put it on her.

After wrestling a very wriggly kitty into her harness, I managed to clip the lead on her and we went outside to... sit mostly, to be honest. She doesn't move much once she's out there unless she's annoyed with the quality of the grass nearby.

Here are some pics from our "walkies":

A maple tree in my yard with one branch changing color

A flowering bush  my mom planted a couple years ago

The Shade Garden

She saw... a bug? I saw nothing.

That time she saw a bird, but it saw her first lol

Grass is delicious. Apparently.

After the nomnom grassfest concluded, I went inside and started sketching up a landscape on that new hot press paper I bought last week!

Base Colors Only

I'm gonna see how well this paper really handles the layers of color and the different pen elements I'll add later. I'll also see how well it handles the tape I bought - initial positioning indicates it'll be just fine!

Here's hoping that I can get this image completed (it's super blurry in that pic because I could not get the lighting right...), because I love the photo it's taken from, which is a view of Cerro Gordo, CA.

Also, please someone stop me from buying things because I bought more paints tonight. One is a stick of Buff Titanium so I can do better sand colors, and the others are... it's another paint set. I have a problem.

lol

Speaking of problems... I'll probably be helping my grandmother pick up an organ tomorrow. That's several hours in a vehicle with her crazy dog. Love my grandma. Love my mom who'll be helping pick up the organ. Don't love heavy lifting or neurotic dogs as big as me..

Anyway, that'll do it from me today! I just wanted to give you a peek at the painting I just started!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Been Shopping!!!

I'm not a shopaholic. No, really I'm not! I just... have needed things lately. For Art. And life in general, but mostly art lol.

I went for a lovely 3 mile walk on Tuesday and trotted myself downtown. There's a lovely beach down there, and you have to pass a lot of really nice local shops to get there. One of those shops was hiring and because money tastes good and I love the shop (I get my cat's favorite toys there!), I decided to apply there. It's conjoined to the fancy art shop in town, too, so I popped in there, too. After all, you can never have too much watercolor paper, and I was hoping to find some Buff Titanium watercolor.

Well, the Buff Titanium was unfortunately not available (they only had tube paint) but boy did they have a lot of other goodies!!!

The *~* HAUL *~*

Before you lies a delightful assortment of useful art supplies! A roll of masking tape so I actually have borders on my art, a gorgeous pad of cold pressed watercolor paper in size 11"x15" (27,9cm x 38,1cm) with 30 sheets for me to play with, a small block of hot press watercolor paper in size 6"x8" (15,2cm x 20,3cm) which I've never used but has a much smoother finish and is also bound on two sides so it won't warp as easily, and finally a set of 16 pearlescent Yasutomo Niji watercolors! The watercolors were only about 6 bucks and the large paper was only about 19 bucks, so those were quite the steal!

Pretty pretty... shiny shiiiiiiny...

But please don't believe I've not done any artwork since I vanished - I've got two base-colored landscapes I'm working on!

"Impressions Downhill"; watercolor pencil; 2021

"Shabby Harbor"; watercolor pencil; 2021

You might be able to guess I'm not 100% done with these (especially with how faint the colors are) but it's hard to get the layering right when you're outside! I'll be working on these, experimenting with my new paints and papers, and just generally having a blast, I think!

How are your own artistic endeavors coming? Have you worked on anything you're proud of this month?

That'll do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Make Progress!

I got several deliveries over the last week or so, all of which were related to art! I tried very hard not to be overbearing about the wait, too, but...

Guys, for some reason one of my packages got delayed again!

From Amazon, I ordered some really nice Sakura products - some Pigma fineliners and my first white Gelly Roll pens, and I added on a sepia tone fineliner to get free shipping. Now, the sepia liner is apparently coming all the way from Japan, so I 100% understand why it's not due til next month at the earliest and it's not like I need a sepia fineliner right now lol.

But see, my Gelly Rolls were due the 16th, which came and went. Okay, that'll happen during a pandemic. So I check tracking and find out that it's in my town, same as last time, and it's "awaiting delivery scan", whatever that means.

I received them yesterday because they never delivered the mail to my street on Monday or Tuesday.

My Improved Stash of Painting/Drawing Implements

Now, let's add some insult to this.

See I also ordered from Dick Blick for the first time. Bought a ream of 100 sheets of 5"x7" (~12.7cm x 17.78cm) of 100% rag 300gsm/140lb rough-surfaced paper. On the 16th. They shipped late in the day on the 17th and arrived safe and sound at my door (despite the box being a bit crunched) in the early afternoon of the 18th. 

My Block of Paper

I'm going to have to get used to this rough texture, but with that quick turnaround, I might just have to suck up the 8 dollar shipping and order more stuff via Blick. That was a great experience all around.

Speaking of that paper!

"Mountain 01"; watercolor on rag paper; 2021

It holds paint beautifully! It is going to take some getting used to, but I can definitely see myself making a lot of art with this fun, nubbly paper! Now, you may notice I didn't add any outlines, despite my new fineliners coming in (though I drew ripples on the lake with the Gelly Roll!) - that's because I need to practice. A lot.

Black & White Swatches

The Microns are exactly as I remember, which is maybe not so helpful on a paper so textured as watercolor paper, but when I do regular colored pencil or gel pen drawings, they should be great! The Pigma Graphic, meanwhile, is a bit chunkier and easier to control. I'm going to have to practice a ton with the Pigma Brush, though. It's very new to me.

I'm not entirely impressed with the coverage on my 05 Gelly Roll pens, but the 08 and 10 pens cover very nicely!

I do have to cut this short - it's uh...

It's nearly midnight lol.

I've got to get some sleep!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

I'm maybe a little too excited lol

So much is happening right now, you guys, you don't even know! Well... you don't know yet...

First things first: today is another alright day weather-wise. Yeah, it's too humid, and yeah I just had to run outside to tell off a crow trying to kill my mom's favorite chipmunk (Chippy's okay! The crow is not happy with me but I let him know he is welcome to all the suet he wants he just can't eat the lil fluffbutt), but it's not hot and it's not particularly sunny. In fact, it rained last night, which is really, really good!

It's about 64℉ (17.78℃) and 88% humidity, overcast, and still as can be. Perfect day to sit inside with coffee and books and art.

Speaking of which, here's the second bit of news:

I ordered new art supplies! They haven't shipped from Arteza yet, but I ordered a set of watercolor notebooks and a six-pack of various water brushes. I've never used a water brush before, but I love painting with watercolors and it's been literal years since I last had the chance. Mostly I can't due to lack of space and the hazards of having open containers of water near laminate floors with rugs that aren't readily cleanable...

But hopefully these brushes and pads mean I'll be back to painting again! I was always better at painting than sketching or digital art, in my own estimation, so I look forward to getting paint on my fingertips and watching cityscapes appear before my own eyes!

My third bit of news is not exactly something y'all don't already know about, I'm sure.

I loved The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when it first came out. I've played it start to finish multiple times and even fully leveled-up the Master Sword and overcame the Ballad of the Champions and everything and have been thoroughly craving more and more ever since.

Then Nintendo posted that eerie teaser for the sequel a couple years ago and... silence. Then Virus happened and there was even more silence, which S U C K E D.

But today at E3? We have a release year. We have a trailer! We have...

Maybe Link flying through the air in a Skyloftian outfit?!

Oh my god I'm HYPED!

I literally cannot wait!

Is that Time Travel? Is the arm the new Sheikah slate? Has the world truly been fractured and sent back Above or is that straight-up Skyloft?! Wait, did Link just teleport a la Twilight Princess?!?!?! I NEED TO KNOW I NEED TO PLAY I NEED IT GUYS!

So I might be a little keyed-up lol...

But I do still plan on blogging on Thursday (who knows, I might have art supplies by then lol). And I do still plan to do more crochet for next Monday. I might talk about other video games on Saturday, though I'm not sure.

Whatever I do, I'll enjoy it, so I hope you all can...

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Swatch & Thumbnail!

I'm not very good about the leadup to a piece (as is evidenced by every work of art I've made...) so today is all leadup! I was given a Christmas gift by my grandmother - a pack of 70 colored pencils by a company I've never heard of (Nicole) - and decided I should do my due diligence and test out how they work!

The Pencils in Question

The first thing I did was take every single pencil and swatch them out. For those who do not use, follow, or know art terms, that just means that I tested them! I started from the back of the box to the front, left to right, row by row. I ended up with a messy grid that let me know what to expect on my toothy, soft sketchbook paper from these pencils, and I also ended up with that weird feeling I always get after inhaling the waxy smell from crayons for too long, so bonus? All's I know is this: I don't mind the smell, but it makes my eyelids feel heavy and gummy, so maybe that's an allergy?

Regardless, I swatched out all seventy pencils and discovered there were probably a lot of doubled colors. I don't mind this - I'll probably use up the doubled colors pretty fast (peach, brown, gray, black, etc). I also noticed that the neon colors are... very neon! It's hard to look directly at the neon yellow lol. I kinda hope I find some black paper to test them on...

And then I sketched out a little picture of Dedbert riding a slug up to some snowdrops. Why? Why not?!

The Swatch & The Thumbnail/Sketch!

I really like the way these colors work, and I hope that in the future I can use them for a better thought out project, like a faux stained glass effect or some kind of dreamy scene. For today, I just wanted to test the supplies out. I'll probably test them with the gel pens, my sharpies, and also maybe the pack of highlighters I have. I think that'd be fun to see how they all interact!

The Swatches

The grid I have is kind of misleading because Column A is actually the last row of the box and Column G is the front with Row 1 being the left hand side and Row 10 being on the right. Still, I know what I'm looking at and I suppose that's what matters? It's a very pretty set of colors. They should blend into each other nicely once I find an inexpensive blender or make one from rolled paper. It's been forever since I had one.

"Snowdrops"; colored pencil & ballpoint pen; 2021

As for Dedbert and his slug? I want to try using this scene with a few different mediums, so look forward to seeing this in gel pen, just ballpoint pen, crayon, Sharpie, and possibly more! I will be getting back to my fruit dragons at some point, too, and I hope to start reintroducing the watermelon dragon into my work!

That'll about do it for me today. I'm exhausted and I kinda just want to curl up with some more lemon tea and check out the new safety eyes that came in today for future amigurumi projects.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC