- Ellie Taylor
SketchBox for April 2019
In April the Basic SketchBox featured Ironlak and Amsterdam acrylic paints! I was really excited to try these out! For those who are interested in trying these supplies for themselves, I have included my Amazon and MisterArt affiliate links down below.
The art on the box was done by Julie Strong.
Cutie Boots says, "Raargh, I'm a tiger too!" (He mock growls a lot when he plays. It's so cute!)
The first items that I received were five plastic painting knives. They had various shapes representing the most common painting knives. This was a set from Art Alternatives and is available on Amazon for around $9.
The second item was a Princeton Catalyst 1/4 inch angle shader brush. This kind of brush retails on Amazon for around $9.
Next there was a Grafwood Caran d'Ache 4H pencil. You can get a set of 15 Caran d'Ache pencils on Amazon for $36.45.
The main items were four tubes of Amsterdam Acrylics and one tube of Ironlak Heavy Body Acrylic. The Amsterdam acrylic tubes were 20 ml and the Ironlak tube was 60 ml. The colors I received were Titanium White, Primary Magenta, Primary Yellow, Primary Cyan, and Flesh Tint. This set of Amsterdam Acrylics is available on Amazon for $25.47. The Ironlak heavy body acrylics are available at ironlak.com for $6.99
There was also a small Sketchbox Signature 4X7 inch canvas board. You can get a pack of twelve 4X6 inch canvas boards for $8.96. Common canvas sizes are easier to frame than unusual sizes so I would recommend getting 4X6 inch canvases.
Then there was the art supplies list, a SketchBox sticker, and the print of the month featuring D. Burke.
Doodlin ' Time!
The Caran d'Ache pencil was nice for sketching. The Amsterdam and Ironlak acrylics are very high quality paints and had very nice coverage. Also from these tubes, you can create any other color from these primary colors. The Princeton angle brush was a very nice brush and the bristles were very good quality. The plastic paint knives are good for beginners to try out and see if they like them. However, if you want make professional knife paintings, I would recommend a nice metal painting knife like a Bob Ross painting knife. That's what I own.
'Living Water'
by Ellie Taylor
This painting is available on my Ebay store at https://www.ebay.com/str/ellietaylorartist
To test out these acrylic paints, I painted a 16X20 inch oval painting. The canvas came from Hobby Lobby and I used it instead of the 4X7 inch canvas board because I wanted to make a big painting for Easter. I painted a picture of a river in the bottom of a big valley with pine trees and sunbeams shining through the clouds. It also has three crosses hidden in the painting representing the Holy Trinity.
I only used the paint that I received in the SketchBox for this whole painting. This shows that you can create nearly all the colors with the three primary colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow. As you can see this painting has a wide range of blues, oranges, reds, greens, purples, browns, yellows etc., all created by the colors in this box.
The Ironlak paint was a thick bodied paint and it mixed well with the Amsterdam acrylics to create the cloud colors. I did use some Liquitex acrylic gesso with the Titanium White because I didn't want to use all the Amsterdam white on one painting. I mainly used the Princeton Angle shader on the painting, but used a couple more flat brushes and filberts. The plastic painting knives were just too flimsy so I didn't really use them for this painting.
I really liked this box because I love Amsterdam acrylics and now I really like Ironlak acrylics too.
If you want to check this box out, SketchBox offers two subscription levels: the Basic Box for $25 plus $5 shipping and the Premium Box for $35 plus $5 shipping in the US. Shipping is $10 to Canada and $15 to all other countries. SketchBox has a list in their FAQ of the countries that they ship to. Check them out through my referral link. https://getsketchbox.com/refer/Elean-IFGGOHVY