ArtSnacks Box for September 2017
This month ArtSnacks had a special bonus box from Liquitex in addition to its regular box! The regular box featured Stabilo pens and ArtSnacks' own Plumchester pen. I have included my Amazon and MisterArt affiliate links down below for those of you who would like to try out these supplies for yourself.
When I opened the box this was what I saw. Pretty pen colors!
The first item that I received was a set of four Stabilo pointMax markers. This set was 0.8 mm size. I get a lot of Stabilos in different subscription boxes and so I am getting a pretty big collection of these pens. You can get this set at Amazon for $7.78.
The second item I got was a 0.9 mm Draft-Matic Mechanical Pencil. This pencil retails for around $10 on Amazon depending on the type of lead that you get.
The third item in the box was the Plumchester P4 Fineliner pen. This pen is a brand that ArtSnacks has developed and is for sale in their online store. It retails for $2.99. It has a 4 mm diameter.
Finally there was a MOO Professional Artist Eraser. I received this in another art box and it is very nice. You can get a pack of ten on Amazon for $24.45.
There was also the items list, a watermelon lollipop, and a blue ArtSnacks sticker. I like the fact that they are putting in different colored stickers now.
Liquitex Bonus Box
The Liquitex box came a couple of weeks later than the regular box, but when it finally arrived it was full of acrylic paint!
The first tube of paint was Titanium White Heavy Body Acrylic. You can get this 2 fl oz. tube of Titanium White at Misterart.com for $5.49 if you join their VIP club. $6.29 is the regular price at Misterart.com. Dickblick.com should also have this.
Next there were two tubes of Heavy Body Acrylic paint marked Red Medium A and B. "So what's that all about?", I was thinking. You can get a 2 fl. oz. tube of Cadmium Red Medium at Misterart.com for $11.99.
There were also two tubes of Heavy Body Acrylic marked Yellow Medium A and B. So I decided this must be some kind of test. You can get Cadmium Yellow Medium 2 fl. oz. for $8.39.
Finally there was a plastic palette knife to spread the paint. You can get a set of plastic palette knives for $4.75 on Amazon.com.
There was a card from ArtSnacks and a lifesaver candy.
Then there was a pamphlet and sure enough it explained that this was a product test. So basically Liquitex is trying to develop Cadmium colors that are Cadmium free, but still retain the pigment strength of real Cadmium pigments. The tubes were marked A and B as a blind test to see if people could tell which tubes had Cadmium paint in them.
Doodlin' Time!
I swatched out all the materials together and mixed the Liquitex paints on the bottom of the page.
The Plumchester pen writes nicely and makes fine thin lines.The Stabilo pointMax pens had very pretty colors. The Alvin Draft-Matic Mechanical Pencil had a very nice weight to it and felt good in my hand. The MOO eraser works great and doesn't tear up the paper.
I mixed the red and yellow Liquitex paints with the Titanium White and I couldn't tell the difference. I went to the Liquitex website to take the test and see which paints were Cadmium free. I guessed the tubes marked A were Cadmium free. SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU WANT TO TAKE THE TEST FOR YOURSELF DON'T READ THIS NEXT PART!
I was wrong. The tubes marked B were Cadmium free, so I think Liquitex succeeded in making a highly pigmented paint although in the test 47% of the people guessed correctly.
'Yellow Rose Variant'
by Ellie Taylor
I decided to paint a yellow rose. I started out with just the Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics and I found that if you use them exclusively without any other acrylics, they dry slower and more like oils (especially if the weather is humid). People who like oil paints will appreciate this. However, I like fast drying paint and this was frustrating to me at first. The painting above is my third attempt. I kept getting orange blobs and not a rose! Finally I used the Draft-Matic Mechanical Pencil and Stabilo pointMax pens to draw out the rose first. Then I used a very thinned down mixture of the Liquitex paints to paint the rose and its background. I use Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic paint all the time, but I usually mix it with regular acrylics so I don't have the slow drying paint problem.
This was a really interesting month for the ArtSnacks box because of the Liquitex collaboration and I liked testing out this new Liquitex paint. I think they have succeeded in making a very highly pigmented paint without Cadmium and I'm definitely going to get some when they start marketing it!
If you want to try out this subscription box company, their website is http://www.artsnacks.co/ The boxes start at $24 a month with free shipping to the United States. International shipping is available, but it is not free.