I’ve been feeling some feels lately, and I have a hard time putting these feelings into words. I apologise for such solemn images in this post. Maybe you can detect the feelings? I’ll be curious to see your reactions. In times like feelings, paint it out!
BUT ANYWAYS I will talk about how I have become this groupie/obsessed secret-lurking follower-who-never-comments and succumbed to the glittery beautiful advertisements of art supplies! Recently I’ve been really into some art youtubers and many of them were sent these super duper awesome Arteza supplies that were supposedly budget-friendly art supplies of decent B+ quality.
Let me tell you something.
These Arteza Real Brush pens are absolute poop-tier when it comes to hot pressed paper (smooth paper without texture). At first I was like, “Is it just me? Or? Does this not seem like? it’s? Not? WORKING????” I even checked multiple times to see if I’ve bought the wrong ones!
Above pictates (new word, you’re welcome) my feelings after trying out these pens for the first time.
D E S P A I R
I got really ambitious and had bought the biggest pack (96) thinking that they must have been amazing if so many other artists enjoyed them. Instead, I got watercolour pens that didn’t activate with water at all to the point where I ruined the paper.
As seen above with all the stupid paper shreds that I cannot be bothered to photoshop out. AND!! The pens not even juicy and consistently have poor ink flow! Be ashamed of yourself, youtuber artists who all praised this brand just because you got it for free.
Just kidding, it turns out that these pens don’t work with hot pressed paper and only with cold pressed paper (textured watercolour paper), and I am the stupid one.
(In my defense, Arteza’s youtube account said that these pens activate with any kind of paper, but I am here to tell you it’s not true.)
As you see, these pens do work as advertised as long as you have cold pressed watercolour paper. I’ll do a real review later once I get over the learning curve of the pens. I believe that first opinion reviews are not as useful as reviews of products after testing them extensively.
Not all is lost now that I know the secret is in the paper and not the pen~!! (le gasp)
An example of me liking a brand after trying it for a bit is the Gansai Tambi. I was so thrown off by the eastern vs western watercolours that I almost wanted to chuck these paints out. But after understanding how these paints work (slowly, calmly), I’ve learned to really love these paints! They’re wonderful-I love you- please don’t ever leave me, I’m sorry I was wrong.
I’ve been trying out some more conceptually interesting pieces. I feel like I’m not challenging myself more, so hopefully you’ll see some more interesting pieces in the future!