I got my first ArtSnacks box (April 2016) the other day and I figure I should review it!
So… To be honest I’m disappointed. Not in the individual supplies, really, but the overall package.
I’m REALLY into brushy pens at the moment, so the 3 tapered pens are all right up my alley (more on that later) but the COLORS. I’m sorry, I thought this box was CURATED. In all my poking around I never got that everyone gets different colors, and I really feel like I got the bottom of the barrel on that, or I got the bottom of someone’s attention to detail.
Individually these are all fine colors, but together they’re frikkin awful. I want to do an #ArtSnacksChallenge but these are really uninspiring colors that don’t play nicely together at all. I feel a little cheated seeing the awesome colors everyone else got to play with.
But anyway. Hopefully this isn’t a trend with all my future boxes.
Koi Coloring Brush Pen- (Light Cool Grey) - nice feel, lovely grey for shading, actually gets darker with multiple layers. The tip is resilient so far but soft enough for a varying line. Nice. Like everything else by Sakura, it’s solid but not really extraordinary.
Ironlak Strikers tri-grip twin marker- (G011T- meadow green?) - never heard of this brand but love the feel of this marker in my hand. Not as overpowering as Prismacolor markers, longer barrel than my Blick markers. Nothing super exciting about the ink- it’s a marker. Apparently it’s refillable? The marker body is really nice, I kindof want more of them just to see if other colors make me love it more. I WANT to love it more. This green leans blue and I have so few good GREEN greens, natural greens, so it’s not filling any needs for me yet.
Le Plume fine brush - (Maize) - like the Koi, good tip, flexible but pops back into form after applying pressure. It has a distinct “wet” application, it looks watery and sinks into the paper, almost looks like it’s going to leave wetness stains but then dries into a nice color. Going to bet it’s not great for blending colors.
Kuretake Metallic brush pen- (Blue) - so here’s the thing: I use Kuretake water brushes for my watercoloring sometimes (and I LOVE my new Zig/CocoIro), but I prefer my Koi water brushes. I don’t like the thin, long barrel as much I guess? But on this it kindof works. I’ve also used prefilled watercolor brush pens before and just wasn’t impressed. Changing colors is such a pain when you have to uncap and cap the brushes all the time. So I’m not sure how much play this one will get. It’s an unrealistic, oversaturated blue and the “metallic” doesn’t really come through. If it had been gold or silver or copper I could find more applications for it but it’s blue and not really that shiny at all. I notice this happens a lot with “vibrant” metallic colors just across the board, even Gellyrolls. Kudos for being really brushy and easy to control though, and being the most interesting color in the box.
Faber-Castell jumbo pencil- I don’t use wood pencils a lot, but this one has a nice feel to it. Lays down nice soft graphite. Not sure how the heck I’m going to sharpen it. Not bad. Definitely not something I would have ever bought on my own. Honestly will probably end up with my old architecture school pencils until someone I know needs them for an art class.
So that’s it! Maybe a Challenge will come to me soon, and I’ll post it. Still… Not sure what to think about the box yet. They didn’t really do any of these products justice with this selection, as far as I’m concerned.
@artsnacksblog I guess? Hi! Please send me better colors next time! Not so many cool tones and one warm one! And light values with one bright!
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