Paletteful Packs – May 2023

Contents

I forgot to copy the information from Paletteful Packs’ website, so this month’s supplies’ descriptions will be much shorter… and won’t have any MSRP. I’ll just put a list of contents with their prices in the Polish stores if I find them along with my occasional comments 🙂

Stabilo Woody Pastel Set of Six Pencils with Sharpener

Available for 61,50 PLN (14 USD) in Paper Concept

LW’s note: This is clearly a children’s art supply, but I believe you can produce fantastic artwork using any art supply – some of the supplies are just more stubborn than others. In the worst case, if these pencils don’t blow my mind, I’ll give them to one of my nieces or a nephew.

Faber-Castell Gelato Crayon

You can get 4 pcs set for around 30-35 PLN (6,83-7,97 USD) in various Polish online stores.

LW’s note: It’s a water-soluble crayon and it’s extremely soft, it almost feels like it’s half-melted. I’m not overly fond of water-soluble crayons. The Gelato crayon I got is in Peach colour.

Cretacolor Marino Lightfast Watercolor Pencil (x2)

Available for 4.20 PLN (0,96 USD) per piece on Szał Art.

LW’s note: I’m not sure what I think about them – they look sturdy but they also seem like they have a cheap design. They actually are fairly cheap, so I hope they are good quality. I got pencils in Tan Light and Madder Carmine colours.

Tombow Dual Brush Pen Black

Available for 16.60 PLN on Tinta.

LW’s note: Although I’m not a fan of this type of medium, the Tombow Dual Brush Pens are really good. I’ve reviewed them here.

Princeton Summit

• Synthetic Angle Brush 1/2″

• Synthetic Round Brush #4

The brushes are not available in Poland. They are quite good though.

My thoughts

After checking this month’s Package’s contents I was… not thrilled. Quite disappointed, actually. At first, I thought maybe they’d mistaken the packages, as they do have a Paletteful Packs’ version for kids. But, for better or for worse, the Woody pencils were intended to be the main art supply in this pack.

Even so, as I mentioned before, I think (and know!) amazing artworks can even be created with Ketchup and fries if you’re creative enough. So I did want to give the Woody pencils, and all the other supplies from the box, a try.

After testing all the materials I got this month, I was still underwhelmed with them and wondered what would be the best approach and subject to draw/paint. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on the artwork, but looking at the pastel colours and the prompts, I decided to go for a doughnut (get it? :D).

My favourite supply from this box was the paper – it’s a good quality watercolour pad from one of my favourite brands – Strathmore <3. The sheets are thick and don’t bend too much from water but I think the surface is a bit more fragile than other watercolour papers, even Strathmore. The pad’s cover is misleading because it has a canvas texture, which isn’t true for the sheets inside the pad – the sheets have an irregular texture, typical of cold-pressed papers.

The Faber Castel Gelato crayon is… a NO from me. It’s definitely of good quality but I definitely don’t like this supply. It is a water-soluble crayon, similar a bit to the Caran d’Ache Neocolor II, but the Gelato one is much softer and feels like it’s half-melted. And I’m sure it’s supposed to be this way but I don’t really like it. After putting it on paper, it’s difficult to fully dissolve it (the crayon, not the paper 😉 ) but part of it does dissolve easily, so it gives the effect of a watercolour with crayon on top of it. And I know it’s intended to be this way but I do not enjoy it.

The Cretacolor Marino pencils have me undecided. They have nice colours and they work good but the cores feel too hard for some reason – I was afraid they’d scratch the paper. On one hand, these pencils are sturdy and feel fine to hold but then, you can also feel they’re cheap and on top of that, as I mentioned, the cores are too hard. I’m not sure what to think about them, but I know there are other watercolour pencils that feel much better than Cretacolor Marino so I wouldn’t choose them if I didn’t have to.

Believe it or not, the Stabilo Woody pencils were actually a positive surprise to me. They dissolve in water pretty well, not leaving much of the pencil marks, and because they are THICK, there is a lot of the pencils’ core to either draw with or use as watercolours. I did end up giving the pencils to my 7-year-old nephew and he loved them, but I definitely underestimated the poor Woodies!

The brushes and the pen worked great, and exactly as intended. Among the water-based markers, I think Tombows are my favourites, and Princeton Summit brushes prove to be one of my favourites for water-based media, every time I use them.

Overall It wasn’t a BAD pack. It was actually better than expected and definitely better than some packs from the past. But I still ended up giving out the main supply from this month’s box and hating another one. Hopefully, the next packs will be better, although it’s really a matter of taste and preferred art styles and techniques.

And here is the finished artwork. I hope you like it!