Art Supplies I Regret Buying 

The soap you’ve got is their hand soap! It’s awesome for getting ink or paint off of hands. Their brush soap doesn’t have the rough bits and works really well! I’d love to see a favorites and a most used supplies video!

This was really interesting to us- we are fascinated by artists' experience with their supplies! We've never heard anyone say they regret trading up to 100% cotton paper- the intermediate grades are great products, but there's nothing like a top quality watercolor paper to bring the paints to their best advantage! One thing we do want to mention about cream-colored or toned paper is that it can be a little easier on the eyes when sketching in full sun. Thanks for sharing these great observations!

I actually like the WhiteNights tubes for the exact same reason you dislike them. 😁I appreciate gooey paint even when working outdoors in a hot and humid city.

Tip: the Fabriano 50% cotton paper feels basically exactly as the 100% cotton one. Hope you'll have better experiences in the future.

I hate yellowish paper so I figured I would use my talent sketchbook for gouache so I can cover the whole page 😅 I would love to see a video of your favorite supplies 😍

I also regret buying one of those crappy plastic palettes. A lot of people like them, but I hate how the plastic feels and how easily they stain. The Masters soap you have is definitely for hands, not brushes. The brush soap works nicely in my experience. I would love to see a video on your favorite supplies and also your most used. Thanks for sharing.

Yes do a favourite list of supplies. Nice to hear other people's lists and why.

For cleaning brushes, I highly recommend The Masters brush cleaner and preserver. As you note, the hand soap is not for brushes, but good for hand clean up. I use the brush cleaner every time I put away my brushes. First I clean the brush and rinse then go to a clean part of the cleaner and add some more to leave in the brush. I shape the brush to a point, lay flat to dry, then cap. I have brushes that are over 30 years old and still in great shape!

I have lots of regrets too...most of them I have given away. My biggest regret right now is QOR paint. I gave a way the tubes but still have a palette full of them. I hear people love them, but my experience has been that they are very fussy about the paper they work well on, and I have had a lot of color fading. So not a fan. I also gave away a full a set of Mission Gold....they seemed very much like low end watercolor to me very fake and overly bright. I also have given away many beginners sets of color pencils. I think once you start using and getting used to pro pencils and paint you can't go back, there is too big of a difference in quality. That bar of soap is only made to use on your hands ...the little pots are wonderful for cleaning brushes and palettes. Don't give up on Master's Touch brush cleaner it's the best. And the pots are so cute. Another regret is Black Velvet brushes....I prefer a brush with a little snap and these are as floppy as an old slipper. And I have a whole set because I was so sure I would like them....note to self: always buy only one brush to try before buying more. I'm glad you are feeling better.

Oh no, I'm always scared to watch these lol!! I will anyway, though, need the tea!! 🤣🤗❤️

As for the brush with a cap you can drill small holes to vent or air the brushes. And yes I have never found the right mixing palette 🎨 yet 😅

Thank you for sharing these items, I feel like it's such a personal experience with art supplies so some things you might like while others just don't work for you. And I would love to see a favorite list or most used supplies list!

Love ur thoughts! The sketchbook is fantastic for non water media, and the kneaded eraser might work better once u knead it first. Some need breaking in.

Masters makes a brush soap that doesn't have the little scrubber things in it. That said, I just use a bar of Ivory soap instead for both hands and brushes. Most of my regrets are paper related. I have some of that Fabriano 25% cotton. My reaction to it was "why did they bother?" lol I also have the plastic palettes and while they work well as long as you are leaving them open and flat on your painting table, you can't close them up until they are really dry. And then if you don't use them super often, the dry paint on top may fall off into the bottom well. That part isn't bad, just annoying. I think my fav is the Mijello Fusion (18 wells). I also like palettes that I can put my own half pans in. I'd love to see both a favorites and a most used video.

Loved seeing the items that didn’t work for you. I find that the Royal Talens Art Creation sketchbook works well with gouache, acrylic, Neocolor II and brush pens like Tombow, but I agree that it’s not really for watercolor. I too love the soft touch cover though and am trying to use mine with the media that works best with it.

I think this kind of analysis is great, overtime we start to develop what supplies we love to use and what we don’t, i made a lot of impulse buy mainly on the paint side of things since who can resist colorful swatches 🤭, i think my biggest regrets was the inktense stick, i was feeling adventurous and at the time it was my birthday so i have an extra money to spare, but after buying it and trying, nah they’re definitely not for me, i tried the fabriano 25% it was rather pricy but not as much like their artistico line, and i gotta say also not a big favorite, for cellulose paper i still prefer hahnemuhle brittania and now for the 100% cotton baohong all the way both the academy and artist range are all great. I think a favorite or most use supplies is a great video for reference, maybe do like a favorite supplies vs most used supplies, i certainly have some supplies i love but doesn’t used as often.

You are not the first I have seen not like the white nights tubes, I love the pans also. Thank you for sharing ❤

Great video! Yes, I have several regrets also (some expensive). This is how we learn thought.

for white nights i usually buy the ones in full pans so it’s already completely dry and doesnt run at all. even when u wet it, it dries okay just like any other paints that have been dried in a pan. it’s a lil more costly compared to the ones in tubes but i think its worth it because it’s still relatively cheaper compared to other artist quality paints plus most of their earthy colors are granulating which is what i want when it comes paints. can’t keep buying daniel smith paints so my alternative is always white nights

Oh yes, please, both favourites and most used supplies!

That Master’s soap is hands only, it’s not meant for anything else. The same company makes a brush soap cake in a round container, it works great.

this is such a great idea for a video and so useful. Lovely seeing what supplies didn’t work for you and why. Thank you for sharing.

Both! A favorites and a most used video, please!

I would love to see a favourite supplies list. I live in a humid hot country as well and I always have trouble with palettes that has wells on both sides. I simply switched to a Mijello 18-well palette and haven't looked back. It is perfect with enough mixing areas and all wells on the bottom side. Another use you could get out of Talens sketchbook in using Gouache. Surprisingly toned paper provides a kind of underpainting that shows through Gouache beautifully. I switched to use a 100% cotton paper, we have local brands here cheaper than canson cellulose and its magic, hope you give it a try.

This is such a good video idea!! So valuable!

I would love to see videos about your favorite art supplies! especially the ones you use the most. I am a somewhat beginner artist that is wanting to try new medias and supplies but I can never commit to buying new supplies because I don’t want to end up just wasting them 😢

The neadable eraser is one of my favorites! Break it in half. Then pull it like taffy to stretch it. Then fold the pieces together to work it. You can roll it on pencil drawings to lift the pigments instead of smudge erasing. Great content!

I regret buying fabriano 25pc cotton hotpress too. Its a stubborn paper to work on and since I am stubborn too, we are in it together till I use it all up!

Really interesting video, I love the unique approach of talking about regrets + your reasoning is pretty relatable :) Would love a favorites video!

Very enjoyable video! I've wondered about that Fabriano Studio paper and now I'll stick to 100% cellulose for practice. One thing you could try to make the mixing area of your business card-type palette usable: adhere a piece of Palette Paper (it comes in pads) to the inside lid using repositionable glue (either in stick or a tape runner form). It's easy to remove when it gets too stained and replace with a fresh piece of paper. I've done this on the inside lid of a mint tin that holds some half pans.

Great video Vee, so helpful 💜 I think I might have to follow in your footsteps and put one of these videos together too - I love most of my supplies but there are a couple of stinkers that I would like to help other artists avoid spending money on too :)

Thank you this was very helpful. Yes would love to see a vid of your faves! 😀

Your voice is so comfortable to listen to and thanks for the detailed explanations, they really help!

I've had no issues with the soap on my hands or brushes. The abrasive bits are very fine, and the soap is even packaged as being for general use, as well as having many online retailers label it as such. Reviews on Jerry's Artarama say they use it even on their sable brushes with no issue. Both the big soap bar and the circular pucks of cleaner enclosed in the little flip-top packages are great, in my opinion.

I actually love the Talens sketchbooks because they're more accessible than the Strathmore mixed media books and pretty much perform the same! But agree they definitely do better with gouache or true mixed media applications.

I understand how you feel, especially with that palette. I prefer mixing spaces and those don’t really work for me. I don’t use palette dirt often so when all the mixing spaces are full, I get annoyed having to clean all of it up again. 😕 I catch myself trying to do journaling but don’t want to buy more tools.😂 I also don’t like screw caps either, they take too long to close-especially when I’m using things that need to be closed instantly, but I don’t like the easy poppable ones because I manage to never close them correctly.😣

I also have’t found a pallet that works 100% for me. And I would have so many ideas. 😊 thanks for the video. BTW I also made my own Toolkit pallet from cosmetic boxes and pans.😊

Your favorites I would love to see a video on but it does make a lot of sense to see a video of the ones that you use a lot that would be my first choice the ones that you use a lot thank you for sharing and you have a new subscriber 😊

Same with the pallet and the date seal.

I would definitely like to see a favorites video, I think that could be a lot of fun!

YES, I agree the tube versions of White Nights don’t like to dry!!! I tried to get the Mint color in full pan, but all they had was the tube, so I thought “Alright I’ve put tubes paint into pans and dried them before” and it took W.N. Mint nearly 2 solid months to dry!!!!

Regrets videos are super useful

I love these types a videos 😃Not for you (because wasting money :( ) but like seeying what works and wat doesnt! Im going to use the fabrianno watercolor paper 25% cotton as swatch paper, because they dont work for painting (weird seizing....), but shows of texture!

Great video! I have had trouble with some of those as well. (Edit- I mistook your intro as saying you were new haha still subbed. Thanks for sharing)

Both would be very interesting.

thank you

I don't like this plastic palette that much either, because I have to let it dry before I fold it together so that the paint doesn't drip off one side. I also don't like picking up color from the upper part and hovering a greater distance with the brush over the palette until I reach the paper and possibly dripping color into the mixing surfaces or even worse into the pan and change colour I needed.

I have almost that same palette and I have noticed that when some of my paints dry up, they crack and fall out of the wells and I'm left with chunks of paint falling everywhere when I close and open it.

Can I suggest, the black travel brush, why don’t you not use it as a travel brush and just use it in your art studio so you can just leave it out as a working brush without the need to keep putting the cap on over the bristles. If you know what I mean. 😊 as for the watercolour paper, I always use 100% cotton because the paints react better on this paper. Your pad could work well for gouache that is if you have gouache 🙂

You can drill a hole in the brush cap if you want to keep it.

Ooh how interesting. I just stumbled onto your channel from your recent art supplies haul video. I'm greatly enjoying your content so far. Anyway, I love screw-cap fountain pens because they just feel secure to me, but the click ones are so satisfying, too!

Allan Jay Quesada recommended your channel....I am hooked!!

A lot of fun stuff. I love the stamps

I can honestly harp about the Masters Brush Cleaner And Preserver for hooours. It does an amazing job of getting paint out of brushes (even, ahem, dried acrylic paint all gunked up in ferrule, for a while) 😅 And reshaping brushes which might have, ahem, been left in water or bent out of shape 😅😅 I do love their handsoap too and use both!! And yaaas that pesky humidity! Oh that is certainly understandable!!

Enjoyed seeing these!

Making the travel pallet from cosmetic pans and a card holder is such a creative idea! Even if you didn’t like using it 😅

I would love a favorites and a most used supplies!

I have a pack of Fabriano 25% that I haven't opened yet and now that I have watched this, I now expect I will use it for experimenting. When I started doing watercolour (and I'm still very beginner), I bought a couple of Strathmore 400 watercolour hardbound journal books thinking that they were a good quality as advertised. Nope, they are clearly a lower quality paper and I even run into having bits that won't take water at all (I think it might be sizing/coating?). I just recently found out (after a lot of googling) that there is zero cotton in them. I use them for swatching and that's about it. I'll be donating my new Strathmore journal and possibly Fabriano paper, and sticking to my proven good quality paper.

I also bought the trodat stamper and I never use it either. Well not yet. I have the Meeden watercolour palette and my colours seem vibrant enough. I didn’t catch if yours is also Meeden. Thanks for sharing. ❤ looking forward to your favs. New sub.😊

I love the talons art sketchbook! Very affordable and good quality

i also fell into the stamped dates trend! I had to get rid of mine too, it was bulky and i never remembered it!

Ey those White Nights tube paints lol I know!! Mine are mostly solid in their pans now, but that took a very long time as well as desert-like dry winters BUT still stick to the touch. I was really upset about that at first because I ordered many tubes from overseas!

The art toolkit is my favorite because you can get additional mixing wells to add and it doesn’t have that lip that hangs over the pans on normal business card holders. I like the capped fountain pens for travel because I worry less about them leaking or exploding everywhere!

Hello! - Talens makes limited edition sketchbooks, with decorative covers, and these have an intense white paper in them. I saw them in a store beside their regular ones. Same price. I got an A5 and an A4 one. - I have tried several putty erasers. The best one, without hesitation, is the Faber-Castell one.

Drill an air hole in the travel paint brush! Simple solution.

This video made me sad. I have supplies as well that don't work as good as I wish they did.

Very useful info about the travel brushes. If you buy another kneaded eraser in the future, keep it in a Ziploc bag. I've had the same one for years and it is still soft. As for soap, I use the Da Vinci, it is milder on brushes. Thanks

I agree with you; I would tell any novice to invest in high end items from the get go and save money! TFS!!

I kinda have the same issues with kneadable erasers. I live in Germany, and it's pretty cold right now. I bought a cheap set of 4 kneadable erasers and only 1 of them isn't sticky and works like magic! I have no idea why they're like that, I've been keeping them in the same place and yet 3 of them don't work

Si, por favor, cuáles son tus favoritos??

I have a swatch binder but mine is an A5 size and I only swatch individuals cards for tubes and I have clear inserts that hold two half sheets that equal an A5 and instead do pallet swatches vs individual. Took my a week to swatch rebutting but now I take the binder with me when I shop for colors. I have a specific sketchbook I use for color mixing combos for reference

Art Creation sketchbook is actually one of my favourite art supplies, i only draw in them. I actually like it not being white-white, but i agree that it's not for watercolors. I use it for pencils mainly. Otherwise, great video!

Interesting note about the ink! I only tend to use one ink because I’ve had fountain pens become unusable or hard to use due to where I live.

You should partner up with someone with a 3D printer or a ceramic artist and create your most perfect palette . I would enjoy a video on your journey to your perfect palette 😊

I’m glad you showed that Fabriano paper. In the US, the 25% cotton paper is in their “Studio” line. I haven’t seen it in spiral pads, but I have several large glue-bound pads with the fold-over cover, with hot press paper. Like you, not only did I not think the cotton was noticeable, I also thought it was too heavily sized. I was hoping that the cold press version would be better. The hot press paper resists water to a pretty significant degree, and then when it does soak in, the end result looks quite faded. Your colors actually looked better than mine. That said, I Fabriano Studio Hot Press 140 lb (300 gsm) is a great paper for a lot of other things. It works well with acrylic paint and oil pastels, among other things.

I would love to see a favorites video or used video. I live in a humid climate. I'm having a hard time keeping watercolor pallets from molding. Have you found a trick?

It was interesting to hear your views on these items. I agree with the pallette comments, and that kneadable eraser is no longer fit for use, you should bin it. With the Seamiart brush, is it possible to drill a tiny hole in the lid, to avoid the 'air lock' problem?

It's a shame that the White Nights paints won't dry in your climate, they really are nice.

You can find much nicer ink pads from Memento. Versafine is lovely, black, clean and beautiful. I don't know if the brand is available in Thailand, though.

i agree with the first one. that fabriano studio paper feels worse to use than just cellulose. its strange to me that some artists recommend it as a beginner/stepping stone paper :l i also think the lack of vent hole in the brush is a problem. the rest i think are just personal preferences (which is fine and valid too)

Give Versafine Onyx Black ink pad a try, it's oil based. Takes longer to dry, but it's waterproof. I've used the same ink pad for a few years and haven't needed to re-ink it. I use a piece of masking tape to keep my ink pads closed up well.

I see alot of people enjoy the mijello paint palette. Alot of mixng space. And the wells are positioned in a oblong rectangle kind of way for lack of a better description. Have you seen this palette. My biggest problem is never enough mixing space as i enjoy mixing so much and working on different projects at the same time. Ive actually thought about taking one of my empty metal tins from the big colored pencil sets such as deli, brutfuner and makig my own palette. It would be alot of room for mixing and i coukd set up the llittle pans with magnets however i wanted. Plenty of mixing space both inside the tin and also on the inside lid as well. Bonus is the deli pencil set has a very pretty cover. And both empty tins are the perfect dimesnions. Lol. Both pencil sets are quite inexpensive but lovely pencils and as a bonus get to refurbish the tins as watercolor palettes.

Well, better make some popcorn and take my rightful place, i.e. first! 😁

Hello! I love this video. The fabriano paper is a letdown, I don't like it at all. Same goes with white nights watercolour. It was my first big watercolour purchase but was immediately turned off by its opacity. I never tried the Proarte brushes as you mentioned, but I have Proarte prolene series and I absolutely LOVE them! where did you get Proarte brushes btw?

kneadable erasers always start off sticky, but playing with it for a while and more usage makes it less sticky and a tad bit harder to make it managable. i had mine for 2 years and its still pretty good tho i reccomend the faber castell one

Nice video! I have a plastic pallete as you have too, and I regret the same way because I never use it, it´s clean and inside the plastic and I have no idea why I bought it? (maybe an impulse?). I just don´t agree about your Rainbow Palette watercolor tin, I have one of this exactly the same size (but it´s a plain color outside, it´s rose), and I bought also the little empty half pans, so I can fill them with the colors I want...It was one of my best acquisitions, because I got another one bigger also...

I have never heard of a kneadable eraser being sticky, must be the brand. Staedtler works great and is only about 2 dollars. It’s the best for lightening pencil lines so graphite does not get trapped underneath watercolour washes. The masters brush cleaner is white and smooth, comes in a round jar and works great at cleaning all brushes. I remember our illustration kits in uni had that Fabriano paper which I couldn’t stand, it’s hard to believe it has any cotton content and the texture is like an embossing

Aah, Sometimes I don't know if the regret of buying art tools that don't work or that we end up hating is worse than the desire to try them and can’t

Many of the products you have with these palettes, I have or would have also. In fact, regarding the screw together fountain pen, I especially wouldn't like. This is also the case for me with certain other screw on items as I have found alternative items with much easier covers, etc., so why bother with a screw one? I live in Arizona, so paints that are sticky in some states, are not so much here. However on the flip side, some watercolor sets and acrylics dry entirely too fast. I've never heard of a kneadable eraser that sticky, but I can imagine it. My problem is hearing a great review on certain products that I end up getting myself only to find them very lacking in one way or another. Needless to say I have learned not to do it anymore. TFS. XOXOJane

Great video and really informative!😁 and yeah, i live in europe so, totally different climate from your country, but most of the white nights from tubes also wont dry up for me😅 so its propably not the climate fault but just the tubes faults. Did made a mini palette around 2 years ago when the tubes were really new to buy in my country and most of them are NOW dry🥴 but in a half or full pan, nope forget it😅 thats alsy why i only use the tubes when i want just a lil of fresh and strong paint but otherwise always the pans. Well IF i grab the white nights. Dont use them as much and often asni did when i started with watercolors, even though theyre not bad or anything and look really nice.

Can you roll the eraser? That will help.

Favorite pencils colored please

yep, I still haven't found the right palette 😞

I forgot to comment when I watched this the other day! I wanted to say that I got a couple versions of that tin palette. I think Meeden may have brought out the design, and the Meeden 24 half pan version of mine is good quality. The design is... pretty good. It might be a little less saturated than I imagined, as well, but I wouldn't call mine muted. I also got a cheaper knockoff of the smaller size, and it was thin metal and dented. The clips to hold in the pans just pulled right out of the insert. Now, I can't say it was actually less vibrant in terms of the graphic. But yeah, it was definitely lower quality. So, I'm not surprised that yours was also disappointing. Is it the best design ever? No, it's kind of a knockoff of that beautiful one by Schmincke. But it's prettier than my all-black ones so, I'm ok with it. 🙂

I bought the fabriano 25% for the exact same reason too , I ended up buying directly 100% and never finished my fabriano pad 😅

i find the best palette is literally just a plate!

Hi should kneed the eraser and not use it as an actual eraser if that makes sense. It has to be soft and sticky that’s what lifts the color

I can't seem to find the right paletter for me, either.

Ask a friend to drill a small hole in the end of that travel brush - maybe about 3/32" (2mm). Why waste a brush just for that reason?

I think the Fabriano paper being so expensive must be a location thing. It's absolutely not comparable to cotton rag paper, you're right that it is basically a nicer student grade cellulose paper. Where I am in Canada, it is only a little bit more expensive than the cheapest of papers. Fabriano student is the recommended beginner paper here. I'm sorry it was sold to you as a high quality paper when it def is not! Now I'm not saying it's awful as it's great for sketches and really is a good beginner or cheaper paper - it's just not artist grade cotton rag.