<![CDATA[Katy Draws Things

<![CDATA[Katy Draws Things - Blog]]>Tue, 25 Feb 2025 02:36:31 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Artsnacks Review: February 2018]]>Sat, 24 Feb 2018 02:34:24 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/artsnacks-review-february-2018***A few words before we get into it: I’m happy and thankful for all of those that watched my video review last month! However, after unsuccessfully recording the process of January’s Artsnacks Challenge, I’m temporarily reverting back to the blog reviews until I can find an alternative way of video storage, or… just get a camera. Moving on!

Ah, February. The month where partners purchase overpriced chocolate for their loved ones and hope they don’t make the connection that roses that die within two weeks probably aren’t the best thing to purchase as a symbol of their affection.

BUT WORRY NOT, FOR I HAVE BOXES, AND THESE BOXES HAVE SNACKS.

The candy hearts survived because I wasn’t sure if there were the ones that were actually kind of flavorful, or if they were the chalk-candies filled with disdain. Either way, some fun gadgets in the February collection!

I’ll be bundling these guys together, because as I’ve said in previous reviews, paper by itself isn’t super interesting, and a brush also can’t do much on its own. I would also like to take a moment to mention that, while I feel my water color skills are mediocre, I’m excited to have these! The paper is a bonus item in this box, and is Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Paper. This 140lb paper is 100% cotton, sturdy and durable. It doesn’t have a super hard tooth to it like some watercolor paper does, so it feels nice to touch!

Artsnacks spoiled us this month with these tubes of watercolor, with the combined retail value of the two nearly being the price of the subscription itself! Master has given us Sennelier French Artists’ Watercolor – the colors I received are Lemon Yellow and Neutral Tint (Black. It’s black.) Triple-milled and formulated with honey from the Alps for brilliance and luminosity. Honey means, however, that these are not vegan products. Sorry!

And the cute little guy I’ll be working these with is even called the Raphaël Mini Precision Brush – Flat, size 2. It’s a synthetic watercolor brush, supposedly mimicking the exact performance of sable hair. Regrettably, I won’t be able to verify that

My only minor complaint through this is the brush, which had a hair that was too long. Easy fix with scissors, and once everything was even, it painted wonderfully, and created surprisingly fine lines at the right angle! I’ll tell you what though, when they say these paints are luminous, it is not kidding. Even when diluted, that yellow is briiiight. The paper held the color well, but not so permanently that you couldn’t lift it with additional water if you chose to. The richness of the black could in itself work really well to do lineart for a piece, if you’re into that

Another returning brand! This box contains a Faber-Castell Goldfaber Sketching Pencil (2H). If you’ve been keeping up on these reviews, you may recall a previous lesson where I explained the H/B thing you see on pencils. 2H is 2-Hardness, which means less graphite is deposited when using, leaving a lighter picture that is ideal for – tada! – sketching!

Pencils do pencil things! It sketches well and erases well, and the lines are easy to see without being dark. Essentially it does exactly what it says it’s going to – sketch :)

The last piece is an item that I was super excited about, and I’m sorry, but I actually used it the same day I got it because I could not help myself. This Sakura Pigma Micron PN is one of the best things I’ve inked with in a long time. The PN stands for Plastic Nib, and creates fine or medium lines based on pressure. It works kind of like a fountain pen with the varying line widths, except it’s more user friendly to people that can’t handle pen pressure. Like me.

Little Lady Watch Over You

I already raved about this pen in the paragraph above, but let me just reinforce it again by saying this thing rocks. The line and ink quality are great, and because Sakura Micron’s are waterproof, you can easily bundle this with those fancy new watercolors you got

Mercy me. The water color paper I had on hand was not nearly as nice as the Fabriano, but the paints worked beautifully just the same! I'm still blown away by how bright this yellow is. My husband actually asked if I'd done this in highlighter, haha! The total retails value of this box was a bit over $37 USD, making it pay for itself with a $13 surplus! Definitely a wonderful selection this month, and I can't wait to put that pen to more use!

Want to own some of these art products yourself? Find them on Amazon!

Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Paper
Sennelier French Artists’ Watercolor (Link is to a light grey)
Raphael Mini Precision Brush
Faber-Castell Goldfaber Sketching Pencil
Sakura Pigma Micron PN

]]><![CDATA[Follower Appreciation Raffle: February 2018]]>Wed, 07 Feb 2018 17:58:32 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/follower-appreciation-raffle-february-2018

February's Follower Appreciation Raffle is up and going! Sorry it's a bit late this time, but I didn't forget about you guys ;)
You all know the rules! Fill out the Google form, and potentially win yourself a free piece of lineart!
Thanks for everything! ♥
Enter here!

]]><![CDATA[Artsnacks Review: January 2018]]>Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:42:36 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/artsnacks-review-january-2018

This month: The fewest colors I've ever had to work with, and I become outsmarted by one of the products

• Sakura: http://amzn.to/2rSS4aX
• Posca 350: http://amzn.to/2DNDYtd
• Aquagraphix: http://amzn.to/2rS2PdN
• Fudonosuke: http://amzn.to/2DLJegI

--[Credits]--
• Explosion: KeepVid.com
• Music by: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons:
By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

-- "Feelin Good"
-- "Sneaky Snitch"
-- "Vivacity"
-- "Send for the Horses"

]]><![CDATA[Follower Appreciation Giveaway]]>Mon, 01 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/follower-appreciation-giveawayEvery month I raffle off a lineart bust for my followers as a Thank-You for their support. This months raffle is up and running, so fill out the form for your shot at some art!

Find it here!]]><![CDATA[Artsnacks Review: December 2017]]>Thu, 28 Dec 2017 23:26:58 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/artsnacks-review-december-2017IT'S BOXING DAY
(... it's not, actually, but come on, that was clever)

Before I get started, I do want to say that I've recently signed up with the Amazon Affiliate program, so there may be links to the products I've reviewed here for you to purchase! I get a commission, and you get a fancy product. Everyone wins :)

This months box had a lot of interesting pieces! By themselves they're very fun, but together, I will admit that I struggled a bit to make sense of them, haha. This is also the second time that candy survived! My power level is rising

I'll start with what was considered the 'bonus item' in this pack. This is Grumbacher Mixed Media Paper. And it's the perfect dimension to be absolutely perplexing in terms of use. The quality is really good though. Marker doesn't bleed through, and moderately wet mediums don't cause it to warp. Since my bonus pad had a rather limited supply (only 4 pages :( ) I've split a couple to use in conjunction with the other products, and saved one for my final challenge piece!

The full-sized pads of this guy are a bit easier to work on :) Find it on Amazon!

Caran d'Ache is a brand that's appeared a few times in the Artsnacks boxes, and they never disappoint! This is their Metallic Gold Fibralo Marker. As their name implies, it has a fantastic metallic shimmer in the ink, and the menu describes the marker as being able to stay uncapped for up to SEVEN DAYS and not dry out. If I wasn't so in love with shiny things, I'd try it.

Sadly not waterproof, but the bleed isn't massive, all things considered. The shimmer is great, and the Grumbacher paper did seem to resist the ink in the pen a bit more, which made its application smoother and left a more vibrant pigment

Unfortunately, this is not available on Amazon at the time, but you can snag it on the Artsnacks store!

           "KRUNK?"
        - Husband

He was close. This is a KRINK K-32 Acrylic Paint Marker. Paint markers like this are something that I've always been curious about but have never been brave enough to purchase and try (read: I wanted them just to have them. I had no actual need for them). Mine came in this nifty shade of turquoise. This marker was a fun mystery at first because the nib is completely unsaturated until you pump it, so I thought the ink was white, lol.

This one also bleeds a bit in water, but only does so to a large degree if you wet it while the ink itself is still wet. The chisel tip allows for some awesome variance in lines, and coverage is good! You may have noticed that, because this is a wet medium, it causes the cardstock I use for my testing to warp. The Grumbacher, however, is still nice and rigid.

Check out the color selection and grab your own Krink!

If you've never used a gel pen don't ever speak to me or my 90's childhood ever again.

Pentel is a pretty popular brand, and this is their Slicci Gel Pen, .25mm. Fast drying, fun to write with, fun colors!

The biggest deception here is that the ink, despite what the body color implies, is not metallic.

The second lie is that I know how to spell this brand.

However, the super fine tip is to die for, and the color is quite a nice shade of orange! Not water proof, but it did resist the water better using the Grumbacher!

You can find singles and multi-packs available on Amazon

The final piece in this months box is an Artsnacks Exclusive: Bruynzeel Expression Colored Pencil Set. Mine came in these beautiful shades of blue and green. :) The core is strong, but you don't need a lot of pressure to apply some good color with these dudes.

Even so, I feel like I didn't use enough LOL. The color application is great, but in my opinion, the blending is a bit 'eh.' It blends together alright, but doesn't seem to mingle together with its partners well. Also a fun discovery I had while doing the wet test: these seem to be almost 'water soluble,' so getting them wet actually lets you more or less erase them!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The real challenge here was getting everything to work together on such a small surface. And granted, while I probably could have not used the Sample Pad and still followed the rules, this was part of the fun I think lol. So, viola! A fish/water themed bookmark

Total retail value for this box was roughly $25 USD, so once again the contents paid for itself. I'm hoping to use this paint pen again in the future, because blocking colors in with it was fun and so very easy!

If nothing else gets your attention, PLEASE try the Grumbacher paper. It's a real treat

Have a safe and Happy New Year!
♥

]]><![CDATA[Regarding Patreon]]>Tue, 26 Dec 2017 17:35:58 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/regarding-patreonFirst off, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Holiday!

Next, the reason for this post. I will be closing down my Patreon, and here's why:
Late last month/early this month, Patreon announced that they would be changing how the fee structure worked to put more money into the creators pocket. However, the way the math worked out, caused this to be a huge impact on those that were pledging a small amount per month - an amount that many people did. While Patreon did later decide to not implement these fee changes, many patrons had already pulled their pledges, because the fee structure simply did not allow them to maintain this financially.

Patreon did send out an apology for the uproar this whole thing had caused, but through their initial explanation of how this new structure would work, a post had claimed something along the lines of that they would rather have just a few creators be highly successful than have many 'small' creators that just brought in a couple bucks.

Small creators like me.

While the apology was appreciated and I do respect the team for owning up to the poor decision, this comment has just left a really poor taste in my mouth and I can not get over it.

In addition to that, I feel that I myself am struggling to stay on top of it, or don't quite know what to offer to make the subscription more appealing. (i haven't had more than 4 patrons at any point during the 2-some years I've had it open) I do not want to paywall my art, so making certain pieces Patreon only isn't an option for me. I also struggle making WIP's an exclusive thing, because I get excited when I work on something and want to show, well, everyone lol.

Until something else comes along, I will see about working out some kind of rewards system for Ko-Fi donations (I am open to suggestions!)

I will not be pulling any of my Patreon pledges, so for creators on there, you will still have my support.

But thank you everyone who's stuck with me!]]><![CDATA[Artsnacks Review: Nov 2017]]>Sun, 26 Nov 2017 01:01:46 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/artsnacks-review-nov-2017Bawk bawk boxing time!
Get it? Because it’s Thanksgiving time and turkeys make... bird... noises
… shut up

This is the first review where the candy actually survived up to the photo shoot. I would like to reassure all of you that, at this point in time, it no longer exists. This is also the first box that I’ve gotten that does NOT contain a brush pen! Which I’m kind of relieved about honestly.

LOOKIT THE CUTE LITTLE GUY! This is YUPO Medium mini paper pad. It’s approximately 2x3.5 inches. Like you might be able to see, this brand of paper is tree-free, non-absorbent and water proof. It’s an extremely interesting item that takes a bit of patience. Since the paper is non-absorbent, your mediums are going to dry a lot slower, and are very prone to smearing. The plus side to this is that mistakes are easily wiped clean. I’ll be using this paper alongside my standard test sheets so you guys can see how it compares to normal paper!

I’ll get the less-interesting item out of the way first. I’d like to clarify: when I say that I don’t mean the product is bad, I’m just saying I personally as an artist don’t get excited about graphite. Here we have the Caran D’Ache Grafwood Pencil in 4B. If this brand sound familiar, it’s because I also reviewed a duo of their Aquarelle Pencils and had my mind blown by them

Congratulations! It’s a pencil! It blends like you’d expect it to, and remnants of the darker lines get left behind when you erase with a standard plastic eraser
As is tradition, I sketched some chibis of my tiefling children. Cadence may not have been the best character to doodle with a dark graphite since she has a very light color scheme, so I drew Codex on the Yupo paper, and, uh, wow? This isn’t so much about the pencil as it is the paper, but his drawing came out significantly smoother. Without tooth, the graphite just slides on like melted butter. Not rough or scratchy at all. Bueno.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE PEN OF THE FUTURE. If I didn’t already have it, I’d have sold the souls of 17 infants and a puppy to obtain it. This is the Molotow Liquid Chrome and it’s one of the coolest things currently available on the planet.

See that tip? Like maybe the nib is missing or the pigment has completely worn off? That’s the ink baby.

It’s alcohol based and permanent, thus waterproof. As you can see, it dries to a wonderful metallic shine on porous paper and a HIGH-GLOSS MIRROR FINISH on non-porous. So I did a test of the pen on the Yupo paper, and guys. Oh my god. Oh. My. God.

GAWD. Did I mention it’s refillable? Use it for everything.

These cute twins are the Tombow TwinTone Dual-Tip Markers. They have both an extra fine fiber tip, and a broader bullet tip. The colors are quite nice, though maybe go down a bit darker than the body would imply if you’re layering them and doing this on an absorbent paper

Does not play well with water – but it does say they can be ‘blended out’ using water? I didn’t quite have the supplies on hand needed to try that out effectively, so I’m not sure if that’s the case. Unless by ‘blended out’ it means ‘remove completely.’ Because that’s basically what happened. For the Yupo, because it’s not absorbent, the paper basically ‘resisted’ the ink and kept it this really pretty pastel range. It also blended together much nicer.

The final piece in this collection is the Amsterdam Titanium White Acrylic Marker. Artist that work traditionally can vouch for the value of white ink. I myself remember struggling to find a good white that I could apply to my pieces, because for some reason I could not find white gel pens anywhere. It describes this as a useful ‘blending’ tool, but I, uh, haven’t quite figured out how to do that with an opaque ink.

So this was super interesting and I now understand what it was talking about! Being water based, it can also pull the ink from other water based inks and blend them. The green you see was a wet-erase marker, so it reacted. This is also the only tool in the batch that does not work better on the Yupo paper (nothing for the white ink to soak into if you’re layering, I’d guess?)

Pink and blue markers - how could I NOT go the cute fairy Pokemon route? I think the constraint on paper size was more challenging than getting these mediums to work together. The Yupo paper is an absolute treat to work on overall, and I may price out larger sheets of it to test out with marker work.

The total retail value of this box is approximately $24 and change, which breaks it right at the cost of the subscription.

And is probably how much I'm going to spend in refills for this Liquid Chrome Marker

]]><![CDATA[Up and Going!]]>Sat, 25 Nov 2017 23:04:36 GMThttp://www.katydraws.com/blog/up-and-goingHello Everyone!

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I decided to add a 'blog'' to this website for a few reasons. For one, this will allow me to keep everyone updated on sales that are happening, whether that be in my Etsy shop, or just commission wise. Another reason is that I would like to have a place to host the reviews I do. Currently I am subscribed to an art program called Artsnacks, which delivers a small box of products on a monthly basis. My reviews typically involve a small demo, in addition to my opinion with the pros and cons, mixed with some witty commentary to keep things interesting.

You know, review things :)

I may transfer some of these reviews over from my tumblr, but until then, thanks for stopping by!
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