Friday Round Up: 10 Product Recommendations from ArtSnacks

Art­Snacks April Box via @asdfmariely

For months, I’ve been think­ing about doing a post that cov­ers art mate­ri­als. Specif­i­cal­ly, prod­ucts that are help­ful and seem fun to try. I don’t test out enough of these items in my day-to-day life, and so I have the help of some­one who does! Sarah Ruben­stein of Art Snacks com­piled a list of what to try.  I’ll have her take it from here:

Art­Snacks is a month­ly sub­scrip­tion box to the best art sup­plies. Every month, we send you 4–5 full-size art prod­ucts that range from pens and pen­cils, to inks and paints. Once you get your box, we encour­age you to cre­ate a piece of art­work using only the items in the box. When you’ve made your mas­ter piece, share it on any social media out­lets with the hash­tag #art­snackschal­lenge.

Tombow Mono Zero Eraser

The MONO Zero Eras­er by Tombow has a sweet pen-style grip, so the expe­ri­ence of using an eras­er doesn’t change — com­pared to using a pen­cil. It’s real­ly great for using with­in detailed pen­cil drawings.

Palomino Blackwing 602

The Palomi­no fam­i­ly includes 3 dif­fer­ent eras­er-topped pen­cils – but this one is a favorite of ours. The lead in this cedar pen­cil makes for a dark­er black than your aver­age pen­cil, even with less pres­sure. It has a vel­vety draw­ing tex­ture and a firm weight.

Catalyst Contour (Series 20)

This lit­tle guy gives you a very dif­fer­ent paint­ing expe­ri­ence. The Cat­a­lyst Con­tour by Prince­ton Brush is basi­cal­ly a wedge that push­es paint around a sur­face with ease, and cre­ates shapes you would­n’t get with a reg­u­lar brush.

Copic Ciao Marker

Every­one loves a reli­able Cop­ic mark­er. This is a pro­fes­sion­al-grade, dou­ble-end­ed mark­er with the abil­i­ty to blend like no oth­er. The high-qual­i­ty col­or cre­ates dimen­sion in any illus­tra­tion or design.

M. Graham & Co. Artists’ Gouache

M. Gra­ham & Co. Artists’ Gouache has a sim­i­lar recipe to their water­col­or paints. The hon­ey-based gouache won’t crack or chip when dry. You’ll achieve very fine lines with­out a prob­lem, and with a con­sis­ten­cy of soft but­ter, it’s suit­able for impas­to or thick brush work.

Connoisseur Protégé Short Handle Premium Taklon Brush

This is a pro­fes­sion­al-grade brush that is short in size, and will han­dle any type of paint. It makes a great mark when paired with the M. Gra­ham & Co. Artists’ Gouache, and is just a sta­ple item to have in your art bin.

Copic Multiliner

The Cop­ic Mul­ti­lin­er is a new detail­ing ink pen with a high qual­i­ty mark. It has pig­ment- based ink, and is great for fine art, design, comics, col­lage, writ­ing and doodling.

Genie Canvas Mini

The Genie Can­vas Mini is the first and only ful­ly col­lapsi­ble can­vas out on the mar­ket. Made in a vari­ety of sizes, you can stretch it tight over a few wood­en dow­els, and take it apart when your paint­ing is dry. It’s super easy to roll up and send to a friend.

KRINK K‑80 Permanent Paint Stick

Atten­tion: This is just anoth­er cray­on. The KRINK K‑80 Per­ma­nent Paint Stick is a new prod­uct from KRINK, and is actu­al­ly a sol­id stick of thick paint that cre­ates a tex­tured line, resem­bling the mark/line left by a cray­on. It’s real­ly cool.

Pentalic Soft Pastel

We love con­ve­nience, and when it comes to grab­bing art sup­plies on the go, we reach for our Pen­tal­ic Soft Pas­tels. This petite four-pack of pas­tels is neat­ly packed in a small box, mak­ing it per­fect for sketch­ing on the go.

Thanks, Sarah!