Checking Out the Paletteful Packs Box
This month I checked out a new art subscription box called Paletteful Packs. This is a relatively new box that just started a few months ago. They have two different boxes that you can order: a Young Artist's box which is designed for kids or the Premier Pack which is designed for adults. If you want to try out these supplies for yourself, I have included my Amazon and MisterArt affiliate links in this post.
This is the February 2017 box.
When you open the box this is what you see.
The first item I received was a Sakura Pigma Sensei drawing set.
The Pigma Sensei drawing set consists of four pens, one mechanical pencil, and an eraser. The pen sizes are 0.3mm, 0.4 mm, 0.6 mm, and 1.0 mm. The mechanical pencil takes 0.7 mm lead. This set is available at Amazon, dickblick.com, Misterart.com, and runs from $11.75 to $16.74. At Misterart.com you can get the individual pens for $1.63 a piece if you join their VIP member club.
The next item was a portrait set of six Tombow Dual Brush pens. I was actually considering buying this set and now I don't have to because I got it here!
These markers are water based and have a bullet nib on one end and a brush nib on the other. They are blendable. You can find a set of 10 markers at Amazon.com for $18.00. These markers are also available at Misterart.com for $2.00 a piece with VIP membership or $2.32 regular price. You can also find the set of 6 for $12.25 at dickblick.com. Michaels should have these too.
The final item was an Art Alternatives Pen and Ink 5.5 X 8 inch sketchbook with 80 gsm paper.
The paper has a fairly smooth surface and works fine for quick sketches. You can find this at Amazon and dickblick.com starting at $9.13.
Doodlin' Time
I used the sketchbook to test out the marker sets. The Pigma Sensei drawing set made very smooth lines and will work great for inking with watercolors. The mechanical pencil makes very nice thin lines and is good for detailed sketches or graphite drawings. The Tombow markers blend together nicely and the colors are perfect for creating portraits. The sketchbook pages worked just fine with the Sakura markers and pencil, but the Tombow markers need marker paper for a decent blending experience. The paper started to come up with these markers. However, this sketchbook is not really meant for major marker work, it's designed for quick sketches and light watercolor or quick marker sketches with not much blending. I really like the hardcover on the sketchbook.
Overall this was a nice box and these are very good quality art sets. Tombow and Sakura are very well known popular brands. Go check them out at www.palettefulpacks.com. The Young Artist's box starts at $29.95 a month with free shipping to the USA and the Premier Pack starts at $34.95 per month also with free shipping in the USA. These boxes also ship internationally, but shipping is not free outside of the United States.