I recently entered an Instagram challenge hosted by Gavin at Pen Pusher. A 14 day lettering challenge, to letter song titles, post and tag using #penpusherchallenge.
I had a lot of fun writing the daily challenge and posting, and to my surprise I was picked as the lucky winner.
Prize
The Online Calli-Brush pens are a gorgeous pastel colour, dual tipped to allow for calligraphy or brush pen lettering, and create a lovely written word.
The Kuratake Wink of Stella Brush, are without doubt a gorgeous thing. I absolutely love the green and red, they work well on any paper type (white, black or kraft) . They have a lovely glitter effect to them, however the white I have yet to find the best way to use it, I’m sure that’s just me though!
Calli-Brush quick test
WInk of Stella Quick test
Drawing with Wink of Stella
Layering capabilities on Wink of Stella
I do enjoy taking part in Instagram challenges, and its so nice that a business takes the time to send the prizes they have on offer. It restores my faith in social media giveaways.
As a company I have been impressed with the website, and the engagement of the owner via Instagram. I look forward to spending some money with them!
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed here are my own. I paid for any products discussed. I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.
My latest ScrawlrBox subscription arrived, and its another good one! The theme is Geometric Shapes and Cubism. In it are three pouches of Sennelier Soft Body Acrylic paint in Blue, White and Red, a Proarte No6 Scholarcryl brush, a Koh-I-Noor Hardmouth MAGIC pencil, a Daler Rowney Acrylic Paint Pen and an A5 pad of Daler Rowney Acrylic Heavyweight Paper. An exciting box to say the least!
The Featured artist is Julien Raynaud from France. The feature card says “Julien’s art offers colourful geometrical figures inspired by his past”….
My immediate thought was WOW what a box! I love Cubism but only really know of the great Picasso, however I am sure there are many artists out there, I’m just not familiar with them so this is a great opportunity to investigate the style.
The Sennelier paints are in cute little 40ml pouches and are soft body, which I didn’t know what it meant, but to my uneducated head means “runny”. I managed to pour more out than I meant to on the first try but then I used them way too thin in the actual painting, but of course I could layer if I wanted to. I need to practice with these a little more! Initially I had a play at making swatches and trying to make different shades and tones with only these three paints. I liked the results, really good colours!
Now to start on my first “real” piece. I drew a face using the magic pencil. What a lovely pencil this is, I shall definitely have fun playing with this in future projects!
Koh-I-Noor Hardmouth MAGIC pencil makes some gorgeous lines
Next I primed the Acrylic Marker. It was easy to prime and the ink flowed nicely giving clean crisp lines. I suspect its an equivalent to the a Posca 5M pen, it certainly felt and acted similar. I drew over my pencil with the paint marker and in my opinion it’s a good alternative to Posca.
Daler Rowney Acylic Paint Pen
Then to the painting. I added some extra lines with the pencil and played at making blocks of differing colours. The acrylic is a runny, thinner paint, but it’s lovely. Sennelier are a nice brand, I have some of their heavy body paints and I like them, maybe this is why I had some thinner, streaky patches. It’s just something to get used to and be aware of when painting. I liked the results, the paint was easy to mix on the palette with the paint brush and even on the Daler Rowney paper it mixed well and didn’t dry too quickly – well, if I wasn’t being stingy with the paint at least!
My finished piece “cubism style”
Overall I really liked this box. It is a lot of fun, it contains products I mostly am aware of how to use and they’ve already been moved to my art stash collection ready for my next painting session. I am very happy with the box and with Scrawlr as a company.
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed here are my own. I paid for any products discussed. I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.
I follow many people on, and there is always a challenge to get involved in, I thought it was time for me create my own – so here we are, March 2021 Spring Inspired Song Titles, done your way!
Daily Prompts
As I am a bit of a “Jack of all trades, Master of none” I decided to make my challenge of a similar style. There is a prompt for every day of the month, and I would love to see how people interpret the challenge and create something in their own style. Doing as many of the days as you feel comfortable. I chose Song titles of Music that speaks to me, gets me moving, or I just really like, all with a “springtime” feel / theme to them. Try Lettering in Modern or Classic calligraphy style, I don’t mind. Maybe create a journal spread on the day prompt that speaks to you. How about doing some Needlepoint – Embroidery, knitting, crochet or cross stitch. How about incorporating a bit of each of them in a spread. Honestly I don’t mind, do as much or as little as you want. I’m quite keen to see how I manage too, getting something done everyday for 31 days is a big ask!
If you like a smaller challenge, here is a weekly prompt instead.
Weekly Prompts
All I ask is that you use the hashtag #artisticspringtime and follow my Instagram page @donnas_creative_space
Good Luck, I cant wait to see what you do
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed here are my own. I paid for any products discussed. I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.
I have had Posca pens for a while now, I like them. They are acrylic paint pens and I use them to draw lines, colour and generally do mark making within my personal journalling and art makes. They come in a variety of nib sizes, a range of colours and lay nicely over other media when they are dry. If you use them too quickly over a medium that hasn’t dried properly you can and usually do, ruin the nibs. I have one that I have used a couple of times and I have clearly busted and nothing I try brings it back to life. Its a shame, its a 1 mm green metallic and it’s gorgeous, well it used to be! Now I use it if I want to have a blob of paint somewhere, but otherwise I should just pop it in the bin. Posca pens do exactly what they say on the box. They are easy to prime from new. You shake them a bit, you depress the nib a few times to get the paint flowing and then they are there, working away with just the occasional shake and prime to re flow, but that’s not often. They are nice, easy to use pens and you can get replacement nibs if you need them.
Mandala’s coloured using Acrylograph and Posca Pens
Posca Pens used in this test
Archer & Olive exploded into my view via my favourite stationery shop Under the Rowan Trees. Everyone was raving about this company, they make journals and they are gorgeous. I cannot lie, I have three! They sit in their boxes waiting to be used but I have yet to actually break the page. So when I learned that the company was branching out and making acrylic paint pens, I was excited. Archer & Olive products all sell out very quickly each time Danielle of Under the Rowan Trees stocks them, she has a waiting list and I’m not sure the stock even hits the shelves sometimes. I was lucky enough to buy one box last year and I got the 3 mm Tropical Selection. They are water based acrylic pens, they come in a nice white barrel, the lid is coloured to match the paint colour and there is a small sticker also telling you the paint colour. They look amazing when opening the box.
3 mm Tropical Acrylograph pen set
The instructions on how to prime and use are pretty scant, but as I was used to Posca pens I wasn’t worried. HOWEVER don’t be fooled! Each pen needs a good 2 minutes shaking before you even attempt to prime the nib, if you don’t do this, you run the risk of immediately breaking the fibres of the nib. Then you no longer have a nice crisp 3 mm nib, but a frayed fibrous nib. I find that they do not give a good initial coverage and I have tried on white, Kraft and black papers. The initial strokes are watery and thin and because I have damaged a few nibs, fibrous. I also find that, that even once primed, you have to keep shaking and priming to keep the paint flowing long enough to do your piece of work. I find the pens lacking in usability and that they are not a nice experience for me. You are supposed to be able to use them to blend their colours. I find they dry WAY too quickly to achieve this and I just end up with blobs of dry paint on the palette.
Price comparisons: The Archer & Olive pens on their website are $35, Under the Rowan Trees £29 for a set of 9 pens plus one empty pen for “blending”, making them £3.22 per pen. You can only buy them as a set and they always come with the blank pen. The box is lovely, each pen is encased in the foam, having its own slot and the box itself can be used as a blending palette. Posca pens are available everywhere and reasonably priced; a set of 16 colours with the 3 mm nib in the UK have a recommended retail price of £52, but are currently available for £35 via CultPens. This makes the price per pen approximately £2.18. Prices do not including any postage that may apply from your preferred supplier.
Colouring Comparison: In this comparison, I used the colouring book I recently received from Under the Rowan Trees subscription box. The paper is really nice and I thought it would be a good base for the pens. In the image on the left, I used the Archer & Olive Pens with the white almost as a separator for the colour threads. I had been using the pens yesterday, so thought they would be okay today. I had to shake each pen before using and had to pump the nib of each colour before I could get it to flow and I had to re pump each pen before I had completed its swatch. In the image you can see there is very little colouring done with each pen. In the image on the right I used the Posca pens. I haven’t used them in a while, yet for each colour I was able to pick up the pen, start to colour and only towards the last swatch of each of the purple or yellow did I have to re pump as I had used what was in its flow. There is so much more colouring with the Posca pens than the Archer & Olive. I had really high hopes for this comparison, however I was disappointed with the results of this test.
SUMMARY: I feel I have given the Archer & Olive a fair run for their money over the last few months. I have tried them individually, layering over each other and layering over other media. Despite the initial problems of getting them going and keeping them going, they do at least perform as well as the Posca pens in terms of the coverage, eventually. BUT for me, the user experience is far from the same and I’m afraid I just don’t like them. Yet every YouTube video I watch about them, every review I read about them, everyone in the Under the Rowan Trees group all love them. So what on earth am I doing wrong with them? Do I have a duff box? Did I bust them when priming them? I have no idea. I just know that I will not be buying anymore, I do not rate the user experience enough to warrant their cost or the hassle I have to go through each time I try to use them.
In conclusion: I will stick with Posca pens. They just do what they say they will do and are not too expensive ifI make a mistake and mess up a pen.
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed here are my own. I paid for any products discussed. I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.
Well, my favourite stationery shop once again encouraged me to place an order. I’m pretty sure I didn’t “need” the goodies, but well, you know, stationery!
The postman arrived carrying a familiar parcel, and inside was this lovely collection of stationery including a new style business card. I love getting parcels from Danielle and this one doesn’t disappoint.
Who can resist an order from Under the Rowan Trees
I love the Archer and Olive notebooks. Well when I say I love them, I mean they LOOK amazing sitting on my shelf. I have 3 now, and I have yet to actually break the blank page!
This book, is my first “Neapolitan” meaning three colours of paper, White, Black and Kraft. They are lovely crisp colours. The Dot Grid is nice and clearly printed. The page marker with the A&O Logo charm at the end is just divine. The cover is a deep blue colour in a textured fabric and the image on the front is an embedded gold constellation.
I guess one day I will actually use it, and when I do I shall tell you all about it!
I also bought the Sakuru Sketchbook. It has a black cover and cream paper. Looks ideal for drawing and colouring sketches. I have yet to try it, but it reminds me very much of the Royal Talens sketchbooks, they are the same size overall and sit nicely on my shelf together. I hope to use pencil, pen, inks, felt-tips, watercolours.
All opinions expressed here are my own. I paid for any products discussed. I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.
