Hello, and welcome back to Jenna Gets Creative! Thank you so much to everyone who has already
watched my goals and plans for 2019 video and left comments with your opinions and suggestions.
If you haven't done that yet, I'll link that video in the icard right now. I think we'll
make the start of my face cam intros and outros a subscriber goal. That seems to be the feedback
I'm getting. The first video I edit after this channel reaches 250 subscribers will
be my official face reveal! I hope everyone had a great holiday season,
and I hope your new year is starting off well. It's 2019 already! Did 2018 go fast for anyone
else? You already know what my goals and plans are for this year, but I want to hear from
you. Do you make resolutions? What are you hoping to accomplish this year? Leave a comment
down below! In today's video I'll be talking about my
art favourites of 2018. The piece you're watching right now was another Project Olive Branch
gift. This butterfly crown turns into a bit of a 3D art project at the end, because the
ink smudged and I decided to fix it by cutting it out, and I like how it turned out. This
isn't how I intended to do my first true 3D art project on the channel, though. I do have
plans for a 3D piece in the works! On to the favourites! I'm going to break this
down into categories. First up, pencils! In terms of drawing pencils, my favourite
has always been the Mars Lumograph pencils, and it still is. I find myself reaching for
the 2H pencil the most, and I actually got a dozen new 2H pencils for Christmas, so I'm
set for a few years now. For coloured pencils, I was a big fan of PrismaColor
for a very long time. I got my first set when I was a teenager, and I've loved them ever
since, but when I bought a new set of Premiers just after Christmas last year, I found out
for myself what a lot of pencil artists here on YouTube already knew: production quality
has gone way, way down. They're still the same vibrant, smooth, creamy leads I'm used
to, but they break far too easy. They don't hold a point at all. The wood casings often
come cracked, and off-centre leads are becoming far too common. So this year, I finally started
to branch out and explore other brands. I've tried several different lines of pencils from
Derwent, Faber-Castell, Joseph Hartmut, and others, and although I do love my Derwents
(especially the Inktense), Faber-Castell has come out the clear winner. The Goldfaber line
is my new favourite for small and quick projects, and the Polychromos is my new favourite for
my more ambitious pieces, and pieces requiring super fine detail. Thankfully my family has
come through this Christmas and made it possible for me to get the full sets. My wonderful
husband gave me the full set of Goldfabers, and I pooled together the cash and gift cards
from others family members and placed an order for the full 120 sets of Polychromos! In addition
to that, I've been told that the Caran D'ache Luminance white pencil is far superior to
the Polychromos white, so I went ahead and ordered one from Jackson's in the UK. Pro
tip for my fellow Canadians who don't live close to the Concordia university art store:
Jackson's will ship a small number of open stock pencils as international letter mail
for under $2 shipping cost. If you only need a couple, don't get dinged on shipping from
the American stores! On to watercolours: In terms of watercolor
pencils, I'm not overly impressed with any traditional watercolor pencils I've found,
but I do like Derwent's Inktense and Graphitint lines. In terms of watercolor paints, Kuretake
Gansai Tambi are the winner, for me! They are so vibrant, and so easy to use. They don't
need to be sprayed down and left to soften before use, and although you can water them
down to get the transparency of traditional Western watercolor paints, used straight from
the pan you can get much more opaque layers, similar to gouache. Honourable mention from
the other paints I've tried in the last year goes to the Sakura Koi and Derwent Inktense
pan sets. Markers: Although Copics are pretty much everyone's
favourite, I also want to shine a bit of spotlight on the Winsor & Newton Brushmarkers and Promarkers,
and the Spectra AD markers by Chartpak (which are the same as the Blick Studio brushmarkers).
These are all excellent alcohol based markers with brush nib options, and for the most part
they play nicely together. The Blick Studio line even carries ink refills, and both alternatives
are significantly cheaper than Copic if you look in the right places. All of that said,
my fellow Canadians, if you want to avoid possible large tariffs at the border, Curry's
is my personal favourite Canadian supplier for ordering all three brands, and they offer
free shipping on orders of $75 or more before tax. (Not sponsored!)
Paint Brushes: For traditional paint brushes, my favourites have proved to be the Winsor
& Newton and Opus house brand brushes that I bought over a decade ago and still use.
I also really like the Black Gold flat brush that came in the October SketchBox, and I'll
be keeping my eye out for that brand when I buy more brushes in the future. For water
brush pens, I find I don't like any of the knock offs of the blue Pentel brushes. My
favourites are the longer, clear-barrelled brush pens similar to the red detailed ones
sold by Arteza. Mine are branded Magicfly, but if you look for them on Amazon you'll
see the exact same brushes branded as Laniakea, Lightwish, Happy Hours, Kuuqa , and several
dozen other names. They hold more water, they're easier to control, and they come in a larger
range of brush shapes and sizes. For Fine Liners: Although the Sakura Micron
pens are indeed excellent, I've tried a whole lot of different brands this year, and the
mighty Micron is not my favourite. For use with Copics and other alcohol based markers,
the crown goes to Copic multiliners. For all other uses, my go-to favourite is the Staedtler
Pigment Liner. Honourable mentions from cheaper lines go to "For Drawing" by Marvy Uchida,
and the STA pigment liners. Paper: The absolute best all purpose art paper
I've found this year is Canson XL Mix Media. If I'm not using markers or heavy washes of
watercolor, you can pretty much just assume that I'm using Canson XL Mix Media paper.
For watercolor, my favourites are Bee Paper Company 100% rag cotton paper, and Strathmore
Vision watercolor paper. The Bee Paper Company paper comes in pre-cut A5 sheets and has a
rougher tooth, while the Strathmore Vision paper is smoother, and comes in pads in several
different sizes. I usually get the 9x12 pads, and then cut it down if I want something smaller.
In terms of sketch books, I love the Stillman & Birn Beta Series for mixed media, and my
usual travel sketch book for pencil and ink is the Pentalic Traveller 4x6 sketch book.
I also use a lot of tracing paper, getting my sketches cleaned up and transferred to
my good paper for the final piece, and while any tracing paper will do, I prefer Canson.
It's thinner and more transparent than most, and doesn't have that wax paper feel that
the Daler-Rowney and dollar store pads have. Last but not least, let's talk about paper
for alcohol markers. I've tried lots of different coated and uncoated marker papers this year,
including every option Copic puts out, and my favourite of all those is the basic thin,
coated marker paper that comes in pads branded either Copic or Transotype. (They're the same
thing.) If I want thicker paper, rather than spend a bunch of money on Copic's coated blending
card, my usual go-to is the plain old heavyweight cardstock.
So, that about wraps it up. What were your favourite art supplies this past year? Have
you tried any of the items on my list? Leave a comment down below! I love reading your
comments, and I do my best to reply to everyone. If you're new here, please do subscribe and
ring that bell for notifications. I upload every Tuesday and Thursday with occasional
bonus videos. I'm an art channel, so most of my content is time-lapse art projects like
this, but I also do crafts, tutorials, and art-related product reviews. Thanks for watching,
and I'll see you in the end card.
You made it to the end of the video! Don't forget to hit like and leave a comment, and
if you haven't already, hit subscribe and ring that bell. I upload every Tuesday and
Thursday, and I feature artists and crafters in my endcard. Use the hashtag #LookJennaYT.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you later. Bye guys!