Back To Art School: Student Grade Faves and Awesome Art Books

Affiliate Disclaimer: For full transparency, you should know that many of my links in my posts are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission when readers purchase items using my affiliate links. This helps me fund the blog domain costs, and you will not be charged extra if you buy anything using my links. 

Schools are back in session here in my area, so I was inspired by the shift in atmosphere to share a few of my favorite student grade art supplies and art books that have helped me improve my skills. To keep this post from becoming  a novel, I won't be giving extensive reviews of each item. I have reviewed some of these items in the past, so I will link those reviews when applicable. 

Photo by PixelBay from Pexels.com

Apologies to My illo Sketchbook: A More Nuanced Review

After some soul searching and daily sketching I have realized that I was too judgmental in my initial review of the illo sketchbook. I was too dismissive, too hasty. I should have waited because ever since I clicked "publish" on my previous post, I have been reaching for that little 8x8 square sketchbook more often than I ever expected. I have used Micron pens, Copic and Prismacolor markers, glitter gel and nail stickers  (don't judge!) as well as a variety of colored pencils, and I am embarrassed that I dismissed it so easily. I actually love this book!

Affiliate Disclaimer: For full transparency, you should know that many of my links in my posts are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission when readers purchase items using my affiliate links. This helps me fund the blog domain costs, and you will not be charged extra if you buy anything using my links. 

I Bought an illo Sketchbook: It's Aight

Affiliate Disclaimer: For full transparency, you should know that many of my links in my posts are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission when readers purchase items using my affiliate links. This helps me fund the blog domain costs, and you will not be charged extra if you buy anything using my links. 

I have been seeing the Illo sketchbook featured by a lot of artists on social media lately, and I needed a new sketchbook, so I figured I would give one a try. These babies are pretty spendy at $16 for an 8x8 inch and $24+ for the 10x10 inch. Of course I bought the smaller format because ...24 dollars. So the question is "is it worth the price?"

NOTE: I have since changed my mind about some of the points in this intial illo review, so I posted a new, more detailed review to be fair.

Watch Me Screw up the Giant Eyeball! and More Reviews

Well, I almost got through my eyeball study without screwing it up, but not quite. All the same, I spent a lot of time painting, filming and editing so I am going to embed that last part here. I'm not sure what my issue is with eyelashes. I just totally overdo them. It's a quirk (by "quirk" I really mean rookie error I need to stop doing). I still enjoyed the process, and I think I learned a lot about painting with acrylics already. Since I bought so much stuff for painting, and I still have a huge amount to learn, I will be continuing my painting blogs for the month of August. Hopefully I will have some new speed paints and tips to pass along with my reviews.

Acrylic Paint-Related Reviews: Masterson's Sta-Wet Pallet, Liquitex Basics, Bomega Brushes

While learning to film and edit art videos I have also had the opportunity to use some of my new art supplies, which means I have plenty of reviews to share, but I will only cover three items in this post to keep it brief. I will also embed a video of me using these products. The video is not a review itself, but I do share some of the tips I learned recently. Keep reading below for the detailed reviews.

Tap the Breaks and Back It Up a Bit: Acrylic Basics

I don't know why I thought I could just grab a bunch of supplies and start painting after so many years away from the medium. Confidence is nice, but I should have done some research and watched refresher videos for beginners, which is what I have been doing these past few days since I bombed the first try at an acrylic portrait. Thanks to more seasoned artists and YouTubers, I feel a bit more prepared and ready to give this another try, but I am not going to attempt a full blown painting right away. Instead, I will start with skin tone value studies and then move on to practice parts of the face. I will film a study of the human eye and share clips in this post. But first, lessons learned!

Affiliate Disclaimer: For full transparency, you should know that many of my links in my posts are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission when readers purchase items using my affiliate links. This helps me fund the blog domain costs, and you will not be charged extra if you buy anything using my links.