Right! So as you can see, I got a little bit carried away doing some online art
supply shopping, getting a few miscellaneous craft tools as well. I went
on the Jackson's art supplies website and I'll be doing more of a thorough
kind of talk about the shop itself and their website throughout the video but I
am really excited to just dive right in and see what I've got and I know some of
you- as you've kindly commented- would like me to just get on with it as well! I will
say this will be quite a chatty video, I do like to talk, I like to be thorough
and just cover any questions I do anticipate coming up so if that isn't
your cup of tea, if the length of this video it looks like it's gonna offend
you, then you know- no hard feelings- just don't watch this one.
I will leave timestamps below in the description to any useful bits of the
video that you might want to skip to but with all that said, I can't wait any
longer, I just want to see what I've bought. And why. Okay so right on top
and probably the least interesting thing in here but it's good kind of segue into
the 'why' behind this haul, this is just some masking film. I've wanted to
experiment more with watercolors recently and just play with kind of
stenciling and using shapes and washes in a fun and interesting way. I've never
used masking paper before rather than masking fluid so yeah I don't know
how it's going to go but I thought it would be interesting to try this out. If
anything, I think it'll work well with gouache or acrylics or you know with the
use of ink and rollers. I was pleasantly surprised with this masking film I
quickly and sloppily cut out a couple of stencils and found that it was really
easy to cut into tiny precise details with a sharp craft knife it stuck
down great and stayed down. I got the crisp lines that I was looking for and
overall it was just what I needed. Everything else in here is a mystery
right now. I ordered these a few days ago, I got the next day delivery but I am the
kind of person- I don't like to spend a lot of money but when I do spend money, I
do spend a lot at once and quite impulsively. So I'm not the kind of
person that checks my basket before I check out so everything
from here... your guess is as good as mine! I do remember what this thing is. I have
the worst upper body strength you guys. So embarrassing.
This is an artist's easel box or box easel. I've never used one of these
before but I wanted something convenient and portable. I have quite a few of these
wooden boxes anyway from car boot sales, I think they're really useful to store
paints in and I like the added benefit of having an easel built in as well.
Something a bit less cumbersome than this big guy. Yeah the box easel is
simple but well-made, it's sturdy and roomy inside with lots of space for
paints and brushes and whatever else you might want in there. I'll have to let you
know how I got on with the easel section, I was struggling to fit it all into the
camera frame, but from the looks of it it was just what I was looking for and it's
just got a lovely charming look to it, and a really good a sturdy feel as well.
I got three of these. These are just glass jars that I would like to use for
my water .... actually wet already..... I guess they wet it to seal the lid on?
Interesting. Okay I'm really struggling to open that but I've got three of these
just to put water in for while I'm painting, I've got a few jars and there's
the jar that you see in my videos all the time and I just wanted some larger
ones that I could have both as a useful thing to be painting with but also as a
nice display item and these look like very good quality, nice and weighty and
it's arrived in great condition. I don't know why it's wet and I'm struggling to
open it but those things are minor. So I finally prised the lid off the big one,
they are good quality, no scratches or anything, no chips or dents. They hold a
lot of water and overall just have the look I was going for. This purchase was
half about the practicality and half about the aesthetic and these do tick
both of those boxes.
Alright so that is split open in there but these are just some sponges that I bought.
These are natural sea sponges and they are the Jackson's own brand. I thought
these would be cool to use again with the masking paper and just to make some
textures, some nice textures in my paintings. I've liked using sponges in my
art before so it'd be nice to get back into that. They do feel really nice,
there's a few different textures to them, so I think I could get some nice use of
these.The sponges are cool, I like the variety of textures and sizes the little
ones especially have a lot of character and make just the kind of textures I was
looking for. I'm really looking forward to using these. Just FYI by the way this
isn't a sponsored video, none of this stuff was sent to me, I paid for it with all my
own money and Jackson's have no idea that I'm making this video. I do love
them though. I actually discovered them a year or so ago. They have a shop in
Putney, Putney bridge near where my sister lived at the time. They also have
a store in Dalston, East London which you can actually do a 360-degree
tour of the inside which is amazing if you really want that 'kid in a candy
store' feeling or if you're like me and you get a bit anxious going to places that
you've never been before, it's a nice like kind of warm up to seeing how the
store is laid out. They also have a store in somewhere Quedgeley in Gloucester?
Anyway I remember passing by the Putney shop and any artist knows that feeling of
discovering a new art supply store and just seeing everything,
mouth-watering... and like I said I'm not much of a shopper, I actually get quite
overwhelmed in shops so I didn't buy anything at the time but since then I
have used the website time and time again for finding art supplies that I
think are quite well-priced, competitively priced, and also things
that I've struggled to find on Amazon which is where I tend to go for art
supplies. But I will get into pricing later on in the video. Let's
carry on and see what I've got.
So... oh right okay! It just had a lot of stuff into this acrylic box. Okay, so this
paint is actually the culprit behind all of this. Like I said, I've wanted to
get back into using watercolors and I've heard a lot of great things about the
Daniel Smith watercolors. I've really struggled to find them well priced
online (they are incredibly expensive anyway) but everywhere else I've looked
they are majorly overpriced so Jackson's I found was the best price that I could
find. And I mean still it was super expensive so I decided to just get a few
that I thought would be useful and usable just as a starting point. And you
know, if I need to get any more I will do. Oh boy these paints totally lived up to
the hype! They are lovely and richly pigmented, smooth to apply with a great
variation in lightness and opacity depending on how much water is used.
Overall they just seemed like pure quality paints, the swatches on the
Jackson's website were really accurate as well. I only wish I'd chosen either
Pthalo blue or Prussian blue not both since they are not too far off each
other. So back to the topic of pricing, I will say that I do find Jackson's are
really good and competitive in comparison to maybe art supply stores
that aren't so art-specific so maybe more crafty like hobbycraft, the range,
even the works. I have found it to be quite a struggle to find certain brands
in shops here in the UK and if any of you guys can help me out
that'd be amazing but I find that things that I see being used by
maybe American artists or even European artists I find really difficult to find-
-even on Amazon- here unless you know the right places. And as an online shopper,
I've struggled so far to find a good place but Jackson's has really filled
that need for me. And I realised they actually do a price match on certain
brands against stores like hobby crafts and cass arts which is another local store
that I wanted to check out. Also to go with the watercolour paintings, I got some
tape to stretch paper. I really miss the act of stretching paper.
It's one of those art things I enjoy doing... one of those things that doesn't
take a lot of thought but it feels kind of crafty. So looking forward to doing
some of that.
I bought a little spray jar. And this is kind of overindulgent because I already have quite a
few of these but I like that it's a glass one and yeah that looks pretty good to me.
And that again is just for rewetting my palate and keeping my
paints nice and moist.
Wow! Oh! It's a lot bigger than I thought it was gonna be....
So this is a porcelain pallet for my paints and I bought it because it has this
lovely design. It's definitely not something that I needed but it's just
gorgeous. It's got this lovely like Chinese dragon design on it and I've
been looking for a porcelain pallet for my paints and they are generally the
best in terms of not... what's the word... splitting?? the paint. Anyone thats used
like plastic pallets and even metal ones will know what I'm talking about. But
yeah, I have to be again over-indulgent and just get one that's really gorgeous.
Like isn't that-... that'll look amazing on display somewhere. It's way bigger than I
thought was gonna be, I thought it would be about this size but that's
just me not checking the dimensions of things and buying things really
impulsively. I mean I'm happy I'm thrilled with the size of it. I think
that is so special and that's something I'll have forever.
I just love this it's weighty, it's beautiful and it handles paint perfectly with no beading on the
porcelain surface. My mum said it looks like- I think she
called it like an appetizer bowl- she said she can get loads of these for
cheap from the charity shop which is fair enough. I hadn't even thought of
that but I do love this one nonetheless. Okay so this is just some
masking fluid. I got the Windsor and Newton kind because the only other
masking fluid I've used has been kind of off-brand ones and it worked alright but
I think it would be nice to see how well a proper brand one will do. What I like about
the Jackson website is that they actually have reviews on products and
this one has a really good reviews so looking forward to seeing how well this
works again to do some fun things with
watercolor. This masking fluid worked great, just as the reviews said. It was a
great consistency, dried nicely and evenly and did its job. It stopped the
paint getting through to the paper and it came up cleanly and all in one piece
leaving a good clean line behind. It stinks but all masking fluid stinks. So
back to the topic of the website... it is dangerous to say the least. Dangerous in
the sense that, I went on there to buy these and I bought all of this. The way
things are laid out for me just makes sense. It's just so easy to find what you're
looking for, everything is where you would expect it to be everything's
categorized really well and the search function works really well. The site
itself is just really responsive and there's a lot of detail given to each
individual item as well as- as I said- reviews on most things that I looked at.
They do ship worldwide and at I think quite good prices. I mean the most
expensive that I could find was £34 for the heaviest shipping to
Brazil which is quite a lot to be fair, but looking at places like Australia the
US it averages from between like £5-25 so depending on what
you've bought and like the value and weight of what you want, it could work
out being quite cost-effective. Also just on the topic of their website, their
Instagram as well it's just #goals. Okay this is what I was talking about.... this is
something that I really didn't need. It wasn't what I was looking for but I was having
a browse and I ended up buying one of these glue tape things I just love
seeing like crafters and journallers using these. It seems really handy so I
saw that and thought 'oh yeah I want one of those' so I added that to my basket
and then didn't think about it again. And to go with that I also- because you
know I need more random glue things- bought this Tombow- this was Tombow as
well- liquid glue... see I don't even know why- I don't know what this is! But
yeah, I think it's just like a glue stick type thing; it's got a pen tip and a
broad tip.
Now this is a watercolor pad. It's Arches. You probably have seen these before, I
have always wanted to try this watercolor paper, I've heard really good
things about it. Do I need any more watercolor paper?
Absolutely not. Do I have any room for any more watercolor paper?
Not at the moment. But I am looking forward to trying this out. I just love
that look of the cover which is such a silly reasons to buy watercolor paper
but I have heard some really good things about this one so we'll see how that
goes as well. This watercolor paper looks lovely. I didn't try it out because I
don't want to waste it but the pages are thick and textured with a subtle creamy
tone rather than a harsh white. The pad itself is well-constructed and overall
it just oozes quality. I did actually find this one slightly cheaper on Amazon
though. Okay I know that this is a selection of brushes. I've been really
excited to get some new brushes and most of the brushes I use already are
from Jackson's as well. They offer a great range of
own-brand brushes, really good quality and good prices. This whole video
has been such a workout. That just goes to show how unfit I am. I've always
wanted a lovely big thick mop brushes and they're so expensive...
Yeah I decided I started out at first just going for this which is just a
large round brush, this is a 12. And then I thought 'you know what I'm just gonna
go all out!' and I got this gorgeous synthetic mop brush and for some reason
I've got another one. This- oh my God look at that! That is pretty awesome and
just what I was looking for. I'm so happy with the size of this. It feels great. I
love this wiring detail on it, just the construction of it over overall is
really nice especially for a own brand product. Love this!
Right and then I just got this. Now this I know that I could have got on Amazon
but I thought while I'm doing this massive haul I might as well go for it
from Jackson's. This is a 24 well water color palette. It's plastic, it's got a lovely
big mixing area here. Everything comes out as well I think. Normally when
you see me using watercolors in a palette I'm using my portable painter
palette which I absolutely love but it's very small and very well suited to being
out and about. I wanted an alternative version for when I'm just at home and I
want more room and more paint colors. The size and construction of this palette
are just right for what I wanted it for, the wells are nice and deep with lots of
space for mixing colors too. As with most new plastic pallets, the pain did bead
rather than pooling smoothly but Carrie from Watercolor Misfit recently shared a
tip on preventing that by rubbing toothpaste on the plastic and then
rinsing it off and that seems to work well. I will leave a link to that video
so you can check out her channel because she has a ton of other useful videos too.
Overall I can say I have nothing negative to say about my shopping
experience with Jackson's online. I will have links below to everything I've
mentioned in this video, they will be affiliate links so if you do buy
anything from those links I will make a small Commission so that would be
amazing! I think it ends up being vouchers for the shop as well so just an
excuse for me to buy more things! Otherwise guys, thanks so much for
watching! Let me know if you like this kind of video and I will see you in the
next one, bye!