Saturday, September 19, 2015

.notebook ramble.

My friends will be the first to tell you that I have a notebook problem. In particular, a pocket notebook problem. So when the new Colors Fieldnotes was announced on Tuesday, I was beside myself with impatience - and since subscribers are supposed to get their mailed out first (and from that receive their first) - it was a daily race home to check my mailbox for these delightful new treasures.
Because they're so green!

I think because I don't have any, I get really excited about the green and red Field Notes editions. Didn't have any, I should say - because Shenandoah, and also I just traded an old Blackwing 602 pencil and a pack on Night Sky for a Sorta Jade single and a pack of Red Blooded.

And also, these are beautiful. And they came the same day as the Secret Garden notebooks I ordered - quite a nice Friday mail day all in all.
I'm not quite ready to start writing in the Sweet Birch - I'm only halfway through the restyled Kraft I popped open Monday, but very soon.



Saturday, September 12, 2015

.field notes.

I spent this afternoon customizing some more of my craft paper Field Notes. Ink and watercolor this time, with bleed proof white.
These will probably end up on my etsy shop later this week. The fern is graph paper, the red flower with bee is lined, and the blue flowers is blank.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

.tuesday.

Sometimes my sleep schedule gets all out of whack, especially after a holiday weekend. And I have to go to work anyway. My brain gets all bibbelty, and I start pondering...things...

And then it gets weird.

And then it becomes a sales pitch.



I'm fine, by the way. This wasn't inspired by a specific event - except for maybe the series of specific events conversations I've had over the last 12+ years of art making for profit.
Because pocket lint is the new black.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

.pigment+palette.

Like everyone else everywhere, I've gotten into subscriptions boxes - fist with one I provided items for, then LootCrate for my Other, and NerdBlox for me. 

I've been side glancing the various art supply subscription boxes out there for a bit, checking out [ast boxes and reviews, and Pigment+Palette seemed the way to go. Artist themed boxes, and most of the past boxes looked like they had a decent amount of quality items, and the box they come it looked fun and useful - black with a magnetic closure.

I received my first box yesterday (the 21st Edition) and .... disappointment.

The first thing, the box. Not as advertised.

Inside the box, two colored pencils, a woodless graphite pencil, a paint stick, and three samples of a new paper from Fabriano. 
The postcard has a print of a oil painting by Alex Krigbaum on it - so I suppose there's a connection to the paint stick there?

 

All in all, I'm kind of disappointed. Mostly because of the container - or if there'd been one or two items in there.
  • The Krink K-80 Permanent Paint Marker on DickBlick is $8.79; though P+P has it's price listed at $11.00
  • The Cretacolor Monolith Woodless Pencils on DB are $1.58 P+P prices them at $2.30
  • The Creatocolor Studio Artist Color Pencils on DB cannot be bought individually, but you can get a Studio Set of 72 for $36.05, which breaks down to about 50 cents a pencil.
  • A full sheet of the Fabriano Unica is listed by P+P at $2.30 each, and Fabriano paper usually comes in 22" x 30" sheets - my three samples are postcard size, 4"x6" - so you can cut 25 of these from a single sheet.
As far as I can tell, I received $13.22 in art supplies, for 18$ with shipping included. Throw in manpower, printing, shipping, and packaging - it probably works out even, but I wouldn't call it a deal by any means. The Paint Marker might be cool - I haven't played with it yet, but I'm drowning in color pencils, as I think everyone else who suffered through high school AP Art is as well. If you're wanting to try out new things it might be worth your dollars, but I'd personally be more interested if the things included were more unusual or if the box had been nicer.  I know I keep harping on about this box, but I'm always looking for storage for all of my nichey little bits I use in collage work - the box I received I'll re-purpose for shipping etsy orders but nothing more. 

I'll probably cancel.