Challenges

Today’s advent calendar item was non-watercolor: the Kokuyo Enpitsu mechanical pencil, which is notable for having really thick lead: 1.3mm. This is nearly twice as thick as the typical 0.7mm lead. I got this because I like thick lead. I usually favor 0.7mm lead over 0.5mm, because I don’t like breakage and prefer a less-fine … Read more

Quin Gold is a color that I go through cycles with: sometimes I use it a lot, sometimes I don’t use it for awhile. Every time I use it I’m like “This color’s great, how come I don’t use it more often?” Today I did a wetland painting in the style of Margaret Babbit, an … Read more

Finally, a non-brush! I got a roll of wide washi tape with the thought that I could cut shapes out of it for masking. Of course, it’s midweek, so I’m too tired to really put in the work to do an intricate piece. I did two mini-pieces, fall leaves and a flower. Once the background … Read more

Another day, another brush! I swear I didn’t put that many in my advent calendar, but my randomizer (my partner) keeps pulling out the brushes. Today’s pick is a Rosemary Snowdrop synthetic sword liner, size 1/4″. I got it because I had heard that sword liners were as good as riggers for thin lines, but … Read more

I rarely use square brushes for watercolor, so I included one in the advent calendar. This is a Winsor & Newton Series 995 3/4″ flat. It’s a good balance of soft and firm, and I liked used it for gouache and acrylic gouache. Today I decided to try it for watercolor, but since I was … Read more

This month I’m doing an DIY “Advent Calendar” where I open and play with one of my own existing art supplies each day in December. I decided to do a tactile approach: I got my partner to wrap 24 items from my art supply cabinet and I chose one at random from a bag. Today, … Read more

My art discord was recently commiserating because art advent calendars cost so much. They’re also often full of items you don’t actually want, in retrospect. I have personally found that “mystery box” type purchases are exciting to anticipate, but ultimately disappointing. You rarely actually want the stuff in them. The best you can hope for … Read more