Stashdown Post 1

[olivermoss]

Though, this is more of a de-stash. This is the pencils portion of my collection



This is what, after a bit of sorting, gets to stay:



The cartridges in the upper left have colored pencil leads that go in mechanical pencils. They are made by Uni, which is the same company that makes those highly pigmented Posca paint pens people go nuts for. I love these colored refills. If my mechanical pencil has tape on it, it's got a colored lead.

There is also a case of Pentel blue leads which, meh.

Starting on the left:

My Derwent Inktense. I love them, they are solid ink pencils. You can wet them like water color pencils but unlike watercolors you cannot re-went them. One the ink dries, it's dried, It's ink. You can layer it, but you can't lift or rework it.

My purple pencils. Sketchbox did a set of purples that I can't quite let myself get rid of. Also, another random purples.

Some random colored pencils. One of those reds is one a lot of artists recommend for outlining skin tones? Not sure which one.

The dividers are pencil extenders that lets you keep using a pencil when it gets short. It extends the use of pencils.



These were mostly in this box to begin with, but I added a few. These were my backlog of pencils that I didn't want to get rid of, but I've decided they are going to go to Scrap instead.

There are some good ones in there, including the expensive Faber Castells as opposed to the ones sold in my grocery store. I can't even tell you how many hours I poured into trying to use cheap colored pencils not realizing there where tiers of quality within each brand and the art I liked was *not* made by the same pencils I bought at Fred Meyers. I was blaming myself and wearing out my wrists when it was 100% a problem with my tools. I am still pissy. But, one of the reasons I am glad I did Sketchbox was learning things like that.

Now, if you are looking at this and thinking my amount of art supplies is organized, well curated and under control, here is my collection of pen cases:



Please note the depth of those chonkers. That isn't even all my pens and markers, just an attempt to wrangle some of them.

So, I still need to post about pens and markers. I may also post about assorted tools and my pen cases.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Nice set! I haven't ever used ink pencils, but they sound intriguing!

The frustration of sub-par supplies is definitely a thing. I feel like that's been some of my issue with attempts at art in the past. Sometimes it's hard to want to invest in the really expensive, high-quality supplies... but the difference is real.

Those are some chunky pen cases. I look forward to seeing the pens they contain!

[olivermoss]

So much art I liked was tagged or labeled as using Faber Castell pencils. The grocery store stuff and the Polychromos line are not the same. Polychromos are so soft and pigmented. The grocery store stuff can wreck yer wrists. Man, I was so upset when I figured it out. Other types of art supplies don't have tiers. Copics are Copics. Watercolors have tiers within brands, but they label the lower tier as student grade.

I'm peram-salty I think. I may not be good at art, but I've learned a lot about supplies!

[mistressofmuses]

Genuinely, I wouldn't have known that there were different "levels" of Faber Castell - I recognize the brand as a "good" one, but wouldn't have had any idea that pencils under the name had such variable quality.
I know that several brands of acrylic - Golden, Liquitex, etc - have different levels, but they're pretty clearly marked as such. Liquitex has their "Basics" line, but same, it's marketed as being student-grade. (And it's better than $1 bottles of Folkart from Walmart, but definitely not as pigmented or smooth as the higher-quality line.)

I don't blame you for being salty, and I'm vicariously salty! I haven't bought "nice" sketching pencils, but I could very easily have wound up with ones I thought were going to be what I was looking for, only to deal with the same frustration. (So in that sense, I appreciate the warning re: something I had zero idea about.)

[olivermoss]

The difference between regular FB pencils and Polychromos FB pencils can't be overstated. I really thought that the supplies for art I was seeing was very accessible. I bitch about it whenever I can because if I can help one person not waste their time, I'd be happy :)

I am glad I did Sketchbox for a while, I learned a lot of things that I don't know how I'd have learned otherwise!

[mistressofmuses]

I appreciate the bitching, because that very well might save me from having the same experience! But ugh, sorry you DID have that happen.

And definitely nice that you got that experience from Sketchbox. The knowledge seems almost more useful than the supplies! (Though some of those seem pretty good, too)

[olivermoss]

Honestly, yeah. Some people critique the monthly art sub boxes for not really being discounts, but the point of Sketchbox is what you learn. They also have demo videos for everything and have learned that us English speakers absolutely need the instructions translated on some pens or we just break them. It's about the curation and being able to test things.

On one hand I've gotten stupid amounts of milage from Daniel Smith watercolor dot cards, but on the other hand now I have so many fineliners all different brands...

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah, I guess it's not really a discount, but it feels like it really is more about the fact that things have been curated and that it gives you a chance to try something out that you wouldn't have gone for on your own in a store. (And the inclusion of instructions and available demos sounds very helpful!)

Though yeah, I feel like that's a danger with any subscription thing... you could wind up with more of one particular thing than you'll ever be able to use!

[olivermoss]

The boxes are great if you consider your time valuable :) So many boxes came with [main suppy] and liner pen, though. I really wound up with a lot is liner pens.