Hey look, it's an ArtSnacks box! Okay, not exactly.
Hello and welcome back to Jenna Gets Creative. I'm doing another round of No-Box Art Box
and this time I'm tackling the April 2021 ArtSnacks Plus offering. As usual I'm going
to go through what was in the box and what the MSRP in USD would be on the menu cards.
I'll also indicate which items were in both the basic and plus tiers and which are exclusive
to plus, talk about what I used instead, and why. In the description box you'll find it
all typed out along with prices converted to CAD and GBP, real world price listings,
and value vs cost calculations. Before I jump into it I do want to give a
bit of a disclaimer about the way my piece turned out. This box sent out randomized colours
but the plus box items are in themed sets, so I stuck to a theme. I picked orange. I
looked for orange-coloured references and a sliced orange caught my eye. The result
is not necessarily an orange! I ended up putting darker bits into the flesh of the fruit that
don't blend back out the way I wanted it to and I knew it wouldn't as soon as I started
with the darker colour but it was too late, it doesn't look like any ordinary navel orange
I've ever seen, but the world of citrus fruits is actually quite vast. Who's to say which
one this is! (laughs) If I weren't limiting myself to matched supplies for the box I could
have stopped at the first few spots and dulled it back down with a blender pen, I could have
brought in a white gel pen and pulled out highlights, I could gone over it with coloured
pencil for detail, but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the challenge. Anyway, I was
talking on the phone with my grandmother and refereeing between my kid and the cats and
trying to get the piece done before supper time so I could jump straight into editing
afterward, starting again wasn't an option, I just embraced it. If you ever get to that
"oh crap I messed up" point with your artwork and you don't have a really important reason
to start again like it's an assignment or a commission, just go with it sometimes. Make
it beautiful anyway. It's art, it doesn't have to be perfect.
If this is your first No-Box Art Box video or your first in a while, let me explain what
this challenge is. Back in 2018 when I jumped into the world of art on YouTube, I wanted
to subscribe to every art box out there, but I can't possibly hope to afford that and I'm
not a big enough fish to get them for free, so I started the No-Box Art Box Challenge.
Pretend you've got any art box out there by matching it as close as possible using your
own supplies and try out the challenge. It's a great way to try a service before paying
for it, to try them all when you can't afford it or if they don't ship to you, to try out
past boxes that aren't available anymore, or just to have some fun and get inspired.
Step 1: Pick any art or craft subscription box service, pick a past box that already
shipped, and look up the contents. Step 2: Match the supplies the box sent as
close as possible using items you already own. Don't go shopping specifically to match
a particular box. If you're using this challenge to re-do a box you actually got, don't use
those exact supplies from the real box. Exact matches for any other reason are perfectly
fine and might even be the reason you pick a particular box. Go for it!
Step 3: Mark art and have fun. If the original box had a challenge prompt or theme try to
stick to it. Only add missing essentials such as a pencil or a piece of paper.
Feel free to do this challenge for absolutely any box out there, not necessarily just this
one or the ones I've done in the past, and share your art using the hashtag #NoBoxArtBox.
Feel free to leave me a link as well! I do curate a master playlist here on YouTube for
the challenge, and I'd love to feature your challenge videos in it.
And before I jump into the box contents I'd like to give a quick reminder that I have
two big giveaways coming up! The "Let's Get Jenna Monetized" giveaway will open for entries
when I'm eligible to monetize this channel, which at this point means raising my 12 month
watch hours total by about 670 hours, which sounds like a lot but I put out a minimum
of 3 videos a weeks and the book videos are usually at least 15 minutes long, so really
what I need is a couple dozen more regular viewers and we'll get there in no time. The
prize for that is a small original artwork plus winner's choice of the box of art supplies
I've been setting aside to giveaway, my duplicate fantasy genre novels, or a custom book depository
order. The second giveaway coming up is the "Let's Get Jenna to 2k" giveaway and that's
here to help the other giveaway happen sooner. I certainly hope the almost 700 new subscribers
I'll gain by the time we get there will result in 20-30 new regular viewers. Really though,
if every new subscriber between now and 2,000 watched 1 hour worth of my videos, we'd reach
both goals at the same time! And that's not 1 hour multiple times, that's just each new
subscriber adding 1 hour total watch time to my channel beyond what my regular viewers
are already doing. The finish line is in sight! Like, comment and share to help it happen!
I'm rambling. The prize for the 2k giveaway will be winner's choice of an amazon gift
card or a book depository order. Details and prize values in the case of the gift cards
and orders are in the description box down below. You do have to be 14+, actively subscribed
to this channel, and willing and able to provide a mailing address if you win.
Moving on, finally, to the supplies the real ArtSnacks box sent and the items I've matched
for them. Everybody got a Pentel Arts Color Brush Pen
and I will show you one that I own on screen first. The box sent out gray or sepia and
I only have black so I didn't use this exact product, but I do own one and I absolutely
love it. This gets reached for and used most out of all the tools in my miscellaneous water
based markers box. This is ink in what is essentially a waterbrush pen paint brush,
except it comes preloaded with ink in the barrel instead. Often this sort of product
is filled with a watercolour ink that reactivates but these are fairly permanent once dry, similar
to the Cambio pens, so I suspect they're Indian Ink based. They have an MSRP of $8.39 USD,
no they are not cheap, but I do happen to know you can buy the filled barrels without
the brush tip end when you run out and that's significantly cheaper. You could also put
your own ink in it. In its place, embracing the dark grey tone
of the pen actually shown in the official ArtSnacks YouTube channel unboxing video,
I went with my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Dot pen. One end is similar to a Micron PN or
a Tombow Fudenosuke and the other is a squishy, perfectly round felt nib. The nibs don't really
match all that well and I considered one of my grey Marabu Graphix water based markers,
but I rarely end up using this pen and I like this particular shade.
The next item everybody got was a Kuretake-ZIG Cocoiro Letter Pen, and this is a black ink
pen in a semi-rigid felt brush nib. You can bend it a little for calligraphy or you can
easily control the tip and get precise, fine lines. They retail for $7.00 USD.
I considered using one of my Tombow pens, but then I figured it would be cool to keep
within the brand since I do have that option and I went with my Kuretake Zig Writer for
Vellum pen. This has a PN type nib on one end and a generously sized felt bullet nib
on the other end, but to mimic the Cocoiro I only used the PN nib. I realized now, hours
later as I went back to my desk to grab the names of what I used that I actually have
another Kuretake pen in my arsenal that has the same sort of fairly firm brush nib on
two ends, AND it's black ink on one end and dark grey on the other. I could have used
that one pen to replace both supplies. Whoops! Didn't see that one, missed a great opportunity.
Next is a Tombow ABT PRO Alcohol-Based Marker and I am showing you one for real because
I got the special release ArtSnacks x Tombow collab box last spring when these were a new
product. These are alcohol based ink in a classic narrow Tombow marker barrel, exactly
the same size as their water based markers and their dual-ended Fudenosuke pen. It has
a brush nib and a chisel nib, and I believe the colour range is supposed to match with
their other products, but I could be wrong on that. Open stock these retail for $5.99
USD which is in the range of a Copic Sketch or Copic Classic, and I'm still a little salty
about that because not only in Tombow expecting you to replace the whole marker rather than
just sell you refill inks, I would be surprised if these skinny little barrels have as much
ink as Copic Ciaos. They also don't blend the same as Copics.
It's like trying to blend Sharpies. It's funny, actually, the artist in the official unboxing
was blaming himself, user error, and the fact that he wasn't used to the paper type. He
was completely giving the markers the benefit of the doubt and assuming the fact that they
weren't easily blending was his fault, not the markers, but I really don't hear many
people saying these blend nicely, and I've never found them to blend nicely. Not with
other Tombow ABT markers and not with other brands. But anyway, I won't take up half the
videos run time talking about these markers. Go check out my unboxing and review on these
markers if you actually want all the opinions. By the way, the colour sent out in the real
boxes was randomized. The official unboxing video had a red. That box's Plus items were
also red, and I don't know if they intentionally matched colours in the Plus boxes or if that
was coincidence, but ArtSnacks typically doesn't care about matching. It's one of the cons
to that service, the items don't necessarily go together. I will comment more about my
colour choice when I get to the Plus items. The final item that everyone got was a Pentel
GraphGear 300 Mechanical Pencil in the 0.7mm lead size, and that has an MSRP of $4.99 USD.
I genuinely preferred 0.7mm mechanical pencils all through school but when it came to sketching
I always reached for traditional pencils. I have to believe it's for that reason that
the universe decided to have some fun with me, but every single time an art box has sent
me a mechanical pencil, regardless of whether or not the size was random or everyone got
the same size, I have only ever received artist quality mechanical pencils in 0.5mm. I caved
and ordered my preferred leads in that size about 2 years ago. So today I'm using the
closest thing I have, which is a Pentel Orenz mechanical pencil in 0.5mm. The lead softness
for the actual box was not specified in the unboxing video and I haven't found a legible
photo of the actual card to read and see if it said, but mine is either currently stocked
with good old HB if this particular pencil is still sporting the leads it came with,
or 2H if I have refilled it. Moving on to the Plus exclusive items, they
quintupled down, or I guess sextupled down on the ABT markers and sent 5 more! Assorted
tonal family 5 packs were sent, and these packs have an MSRP of $29.99 USD. The official
unboxing video's box had the pink tones set which ranges from a soft pink up to a very
heavy, deep red. I was going to replicate that selection because the red ABT marker
I actually have is that darkest shade, none of my other ABT markers are exact matches
for the 5 sets, but I don't have enough variety pink/red family alcohol markers to duplicate
gradient in that particular 5 set AND also have that matching red as my 6th open stock
marker. So I went with my yellow and picked the orange tones set.
I'm matching this set with a mix of Copic, Spectrum Noir, and SketchBox Signature markers.
I used Copic Y21 Buttercup Yellow, Copic YR15 Pumpkin Yellow, SketchBox Signature YR15 Tangerine,
Copic YR09 Chinese Orange, and Spectrum Noir Illustrator B03 Amber. Considering Copic Ciaos
and pretty much everything Spectrum Noir sells are cheaper than the ABT markers I'd say my
version works out cheaper even though it's 60% Copic and actually blends. [Ohhh! Mem]
By the way that's a longer video, just under 5 minutes, bunch of kids doing a rap battle
parody. It's hilarious! Go watch it. Look for "The Rap Battle Parody" and you'll find
it. If you're familiar with ArtSnacks Plus you
know they always send a full size substrate item, and this box is no different. Plus subscribers
got a full A4 size, 75-sheet pad of Marabu Graphix Marker Paper. It's 75gsm coated cellulose
paper, pretty much exactly like every other thin coated marker paper out there, and the
full size A4 pad has an MSRP of $24.99 USD. I went with my tried and true Transotype Bleedproof
marker pad. If you order this sort of thin coated marker paper with Copic branding you'll
get exactly this pad, just with Copic's name on it instead of Transotype. They don't even
change the colours on the cover. It's the same pad of paper. Mine is 70gsm and it has
50 sheets. I usually cut it in half like I have for today's video, so these pads last
me a very long time. After today's piece I still have 4 sheets left in the pad and I
bought this in fall of 2018. I ordered my next pad of this stuff in 2019 and haven't
torn the plastic wrap off it yet. I'm sure if this was the only paper I ever used for
markers it would go faster, especially if I always used the full sheet, but sometimes
I prefer something heavier. With these types of paper, what's interesting
and important to note is that the coating they refer to is on the back of the page.
So you're not colouring on top of a coating, the coating is on the reverse side to prevent
bleeding through to sheets underneath it. If you've ever had these sheets loose or torn
a page out of a pad and then got mixed up you might have had the unfortunate experience
of accidentally drawing on the coated side. Weird things happen! The colours are muted,
nothing blends right, and everything feathers. Whenever I cut these sheets down I always
make a light pencil mark on the front size first so I know which side to work with when
I go to use that other half in the future. This type of paper is also called layout paper
or drafting paper because of how thin, perfectly smooth, and ph-neutral it is. It was originally
designed for architectural drafting, product design, that sort of work. Not all papers
called layout paper will be coated for alcohol markers, so watch out for that. You'll also
see much thinner papers that you might want to call tracing paper labelled layout or drafting.
They might even be called drafting film when they're thin enough. Not the same thing! Though
I have heard vellum drafting film is surprisingly good for coloured pencil.
I also wanted to explain my choice to tape down the paper to another sheet of paper.
It's on top of another white surface because since this is so thin, once it's wet with
ink it temporarily gets a little transparent, and I don't want to be seeing the blue colour
and grid pattern of my cutting mat through the colours I'm trying to blend. I chose to
tape because I wanted to preserve a precise border. There's no extra benefit to taping
this paper to the one underneath it rather than making my border as wide as the tape
and not having it stick to anything else, I just wanted a thinner border, but by making
it easy to turn both sheets instead of spinning the thin sheet on top on the thicker sheet
I do minimize the risk of accidentally creasing this super thin, delicate paper.
So, what do I think of this supply combination? Kind of on the fence. Honestly I'm glad I
didn't get the real April ArtSnacks box OR the real February ScrawlrBox because unless
Tombow themselves pick me as an ambassador and start sending me free stuff, in which
case I will make whatever they send me work its butt off, I don't particularly want more
ABT markers. I was really excited when Tombow announced alcohol markers, I love their products
in general and I had high hopes, but this is just Sharpies with an artist quality brush
nib, priced to match Copics. There are absolutely uses for these markers, artistic ones, but
without the Copic-like ease of blending they don't fit my style, and the apparent amount
of product for the price just doesn't add up. With that said, I love the colour gradient
sets. That's something Copic used to do in 3 packs but I haven't seen them in a long
time, and 5 is obviously a better blending set than 3.
I do like the idea of adding a grey for shading but I don't think going water based was a
good idea. This made my alcohol nibs messy when I went over it and I have to scribble
them clean, which is a waste of their ink. I do think the black pen was a great addition,
but I really didn't have much of a use for it in the piece I ended up doing. I put an
outline on the fruit just to use it in the artwork rather than just for my signature,
but my piece didn't end up needing black. A pencil is always a great tool, but I've
been almost exclusively using coloured leads under markers and watercolour lately because
it blends in better, and I don't like the graphite lines I can still see on this finished
piece. Pilot makes great coloured lead mechanical pencils, so I'd love to see these boxes start
sending those when they do alcohol marker boxes instead.
If you're looking for more to watch I've got some suggestions up on the left side of the
screen now. Don't forget to like, comment, maybe even subscribe, and if you like living
life creatively, whatever that means to you, I'd love to have you along for the ride. Bye
guys!