Paletteful Packs – October 2021
Wait, it’s almost December and you’re writing about the October pack? Well, yes. I ordered the pack in September, it needs around 2 weeks to arrive in Poland and it got stuck in Warsaw’s airport for a month… But, it finally arrived!
But, first things first.
Contents
Sadly, because the package I received was delayed I don’t have access to the original October Pack content listing, but of course I’m going to tell you what I found in the box 🙂
- Tombow Dual Brush Blue Blendables set (6 pens)
- Tombow Blending Kit
- Winsor & Newton 0.1 Fineliner in Indigo Blue (x2)
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens
- Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media paper pad (6×8 in., 15 sheets)
- White Sakura Gelly Roll 10 pen
- A cute blue sticker
Prices
I paid for the pack 35$ (around 145 PLN) plus 15$ for shipping (~62,5 PLN) and 40 PLN (around 10$) for custom fees. Altogether it was 60$/245,5 PLN. Let’s look at the prices of the contents separately. I can’t compare it to what’s stated on Paletteful Packs because the current listing is for the November pack already, so this time I’ll only check the prices of these items in the stores where I usually buy my art supplies (you can check the links in Info section).
- Tombow Dual Brush Blue Blendables set (6 pens) – 77,50 PLN. Apparently, this set isn’t available either in Poland at all or only in the stores I usually get my supplies at. I can buy the pens separately though, each for around 12,51 PLN which would make 75,06 PLN for the full set. Found different sets of these pens in PaperConcept store, each for 77,50 PLN so the price seems correct.
- Tombow Blending Kit – 34 PLN. This one I also found in PaperConcept, different packaging though, but same contents, for 34 PLN
- Winsor & Newton 0.1 Fineliner in Indigo Blue – 17,50 PLN. Available on SzałArt for 8,75 PLN each, so that makes 17,50 PLN for two pieces.
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens – 22,90 PLN. Another one from PaperConcept and since I actually did buy some of my supplies there, too, I suppose I should add the store to my links list 🙂 Anyway, as with the blending kit, Paper Concept has the set in a cheaper packing, available to buy for 22,90 PLN.
- Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media paper pad (6×8 in., 15 sheets) – 23,90 PLN. This one seems unavailable to get in Poland. There are other tones I found like Tan and Gray and you can get them at SklepPlastyczny for 23,90 PLN but not in Blue version.
- White Sakura Gelly Roll 10 pen – 6,40 PLN. Available on SzałArt for 6,40 PLN.
Added up the price is 182,2 PLN excluding the shipping and other fees, so the difference is 63,3 PLN. I’ll leave it for everyone else’s consideration if it’s worth it for them or not, I will add though, that it’s a curated set boosting our creativity. Also, people have to get paid. Obviously, without the customs fee it would have been much more worth it, I guess that’s one of the downsides of living in Poland 🙁
Supplies
It’s a bit too early for a full review of the items from the package but I have some initial thoughts about them.
Tombow Dual Brush Blue Blendables set (6 pens)
The main course of the din.. I mean the October Pack. I have mixed feelings about these because I’m not used to water-based markers, so I have to get used to them and learn how to use them properly. The markers themselves have very nice brush tips, I think a bit stiffer than Copics if you know those. The colours though, the colours are amazing! They are beautiful and rich, it’s a pure pleasure to simply put them on paper. Very satisfying I must say.
Tombow Blending Kit
The Blending Kit is an additional accessory for regular Tombow Dual Brush markers. It’s a set of 3 or 4 items (depending on how you look at it 🙂 ). In the set, you get a Dual Brush Blender Pen, a Spray Mister and a Blending Palette. Additionally, you get a booklet with tips on blending the Dual Brush Pens. The Palette is just a laminated sheet of paper but it serves its purpose and on the backside, it has listed all the Dual Brush Pens colours available to buy. I think it’s a cool addition to the markers, especially since you use the palette and spray for other water-based media, too.
Winsor & Newton 0.1 Fineliner in Indigo Blue
Pretty regular 0.1 fineliner in a beautiful blue shade and with nice, modern design. I love it.
Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens
These are very interesting. They are officially called Brush Pens, but they’re more of fineliners with flexible nibs. According to the packaging, one of the pens has a hard tip and the other one – soft tip. The nibs look the same and the pens don’t have English descriptions on them so you have to figure out on your own which one is which. A tip from me: the green pen is soft, the blue is hard. They both have beautiful, high-quality black ink and I already see I’ll love working with these pens.
Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media paper pad
The pad’s cover suggests the texture of the paper is like canvas but the actual paper inside has a “hairy” texture. The paper is also not really blue in my opinion, kind of a mix of blue, grey and green but it’s definitely a pretty colour of paper and I’m excited to draw on it. The sheets are very thick, almost like cardboard and it’s obvious the paper is high quality.
White Sakura Gelly Roll 10 pen
Sakura Gelly Rolls are the most popular white gel pens out there. They aren’t the best, but they are good enough. I tested the gel pen with a Fudenosuke pen and Tombow Dual Brush pens and although the gel pen was almost completely opaque over the Fudenosuke pen, it was struggling with opacity over the Dula Brush pens, even after several layers.
Prompts
Prompt #1: Wolf
Prompt #2: Calm
Prompt #3: Windmill
Prompt #4: Enchanted
So this is it, for now. I’ll return soon with another blog post about the November pack which made me super excited because it contained one of my favourite media AND something I always wanted to try and now I absolutely love it! 😀
What do you think about art supplies subscription boxes in general? Have you tried any? Which ones are your favourites? Share your thoughts!
~LW
