InspireME Crate for October 2017
In October I decided to try a new box called InspireME Crate. This box features art supplies and lessons that you can follow along with. For those who want to try out some of these supplies for themselves, I have included my Amazon and MisterArt affiliate links down below.
When you open the box this is what it looks like. I see a Prismacolor pencil!
The first items I received were two Soucolor alcohol art markers. These markers are an economical alternative to Copic markers and I've been wanting to try them. The colors I got were Lemon Yellow and Rose Beige. These markers are available in a pack of 100 at Amazon for $39.00. They are not available in open stock and they have no refills or replaceable nibs, but they are about 39 cents a piece.
The second item was a Sakura Pigma Sensei pen. The nib appeared to be a 1.0 mm chisel nib. This pen is available at Amazon in a pack of 12 for $26.89.
The next item was a Yellowed Orange Prismacolor pencil. Prismacolor Premier pencils are available in sets or open stock. You can get a set of 72 Prismacolor pencils on Amazon for $28.44 and for as low as $1.14 each on Misterart.com if you join their VIP member club. They are also available at dickblick.com.
Finally there was a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. You can get these on Amazon in a pack of three for $7.19.
Then there was a mini sketchbook for doodling and experimenting.
One of the unique features of InspireME Crate is the Creativity Booklet. This is a small booklet that contains tutorials and ideas for each month.
For the month of October there were a lot of tutorials on Halloween subjects and ideas on what to draw. There was also a story prompt where you could draw your own concepts of the characters!
There was also a WarmMe Up booklet. This booklet is for helping artists to practice drawing daily. It contains prompts for daily drawings and even coloring pages by the featured artist of the month. The artist of the month was Mayte. See her art on Instagram @Maytedraws
This booklet is very nice for artists who want to start drawing daily, but can't think of things to draw. It is also good for beginning artists and shows how to draw things.
Doodlin' Time!
The Sakura Pigma Sensei pen is waterproof and is nice for calligraphy style lines. This particular pen seemed a little dry at times. The Prismacolor Premier pencil had a nice bright orange color and great coverage. The Soucolor alcohol markers seemed to blend pretty well and the white Sakura Gelly Roll pen was good for adding white on the black ink.
'Cartoon Pumpkins'
by Ellie Taylor
I practiced some quick drawings of the pumpkins for the Halloween lessons. I used the Prismacolor pencil for the main color of the pumpkins and used the Soucolor markers to blend and shade them.They blended very nicely together.Then I drew the details with the Sakura Pigma Sensei pen and used the white Gelly Roll for the highlights.
This box is really neat for beginning artists or artists who are looking to practice and improve their drawing skill. The instruction booklets are filled with lots of good information and tips about drawing and lots of inspiration for drawing ideas.
If you are interested in trying this box they have 4 different plans: a full monthly box in which you get art supplies and all the booklets, a one time box where you can just order the current box and try it out, a box with just the sketchbook and the instructional booklets, or a digital download of the past instructional booklets. You can get the full monthly box on a month by month basis, a three month plan, or a six month plan. The price of a one month subscription is $35 with free shipping to the United States. International shipping is available but not free. Check them out at https://www.inspiremecrate.com/