Art supplies I REGRET buying! 

What art supplies you REGRET buying? Tell us in the comments and help the community to avoid that next wrong purchase 🙊

My experience with gelly roll pens: I test it on my hand first. It's pure white. I test it on a blank piece of paper. Much of the same. I test it on my drawing. It's streaky, it's milky, and it's damaging the paper.

I agree with you about the gelly pen. They never worked for me.

Despite the paper not working for you those paintings are beautiful.

Art supplies you love. Yes!please.

I also agree with the gelly roll ........ saw so many people raving about how great they are but I have never had any luck with it. I much prefer the uniball signo.

Hi, I have found that any powder mediums you MUST use a gum Arabic or another liquid medium to keep it together and on your surface! I have also had better results with this kind of “paint” if I seal it down with a spray fixative or UV varnish! Best white highlight option is Dr. pH Martins bleed-proof white!

Scrub the plastic palettes with whitening toothpaste. Makes a huge difference.

I love the Schmincke Bronze powder. I found nothing else that is that brilliant. I mix it with just a little bit of the horadam watercolour (usually with a yellow or orange) and I never had a problem with the powder coming off.

Can't beat a proper porcelain pallette. Also - using the back of the plate is genius! That Schminke gold paint - I wonder if it would work better mixed with an acrylic gel medium? I'd like to see the art supplis you love. ❤

I enjoyed hearing about your issues with the purchases you've regretted. My palettes are white porcelain plates I purchase at thrift shops. I have some cast iron dragon shaped brush holders that are much smaller than yours and they work great. I actually like Fabriano 1264 hot press paper. I appreciate the sizing that keeps the paint on the surface instead of being absorbed into the paper fibers. It works well for my style of illustration. As a long time water color/gouache artist, I've always been disappointed with markers. Marker colors are limited. I can always get the color I desire with wc. Markers leave streaks and often bleed through the page. I even use wc on sketch paper and don't have issues with streaking or bleed through. Marker tip size determines the thickness of the line. I use a Manga brushes with my wc and using only one brush, I can achieve wide marks as well as teeny tiny lines and dots. Markers are way more expensive than wc, and because they're plastic, they have a much larger negative impact on the environment than a tube of wc that can last for years. I've totally stopped using Micron pens and white gel pens because they are expensive and always dry out quickly. Because they're plastic, they also have a negative impact on the environment. I've switched to Le Pen Technical Drawing Pens which although plastic, last me approximately 1 year instead of 1-2 weeks for Micron pens. For white highlights, I use gouache and a fine brush. I also use dip pens and ink because I like the variation in line weights inherent in works made with dip pens. My biggest regret purchase was a $140 set of Marmai Blu watercolors. They come with a stupid huge palette that doesn't fit on my desk. The pan layout inside the palette is curved and totally awkward because it makes most of the colors difficult to reach. The layout suggested by the manufacturer not how I lay out my palette. After 3 years of not using these paints, I finally spent $2.49 on a compact plastic palette, then spent about 4 hours digging the gummy honey based paints out of the stupid palette so I could transfer them to the new palette. Now that I have a palette that fits on my desk and is laid out in a way that makes sense to me, I actually like the paints and have been using them regularly. Another regret purchase is the Derwent set of 3 water soluble graphite woodless pencils. There is almost no variation between the light, medium and dark. They cannot be sharpened to an exact point, so I cannot draw precisely with them AND, the color is permanent when dry so it cannot be lifted and cannot be erased, which means I have to keep applying more and more graphite to attempt to get contrast. I end up muddy dark works. Additionally, slight pressure causes the pencils to break, so I now have lots of small unusable pieces. I recently purchased Faber Castel Graphite Aquarelle pencils that I love. There's distinct variation between the shades, they can be reactivated with water, which means you can move the graphite around to correct the intensity of the application. FC WSG can be lifted and erased, and I can get fine detail because they sharpen to an exact point. My first regret purchase was a Pentel Aqwash water brush. It leaked uncontrollably and I was convinced that water brushes were a total waste of money - until I tried the Kuritake Zig water brushes. I now use my Zig water brush constantly.

With white gelly rolls in my experience number 10 sort of works, the thinner ones not. Also, it goes well only over permanent mediums, like black sakura fineliners or coloured pencils. On watercolor and water based inks, it picks up colour. I sometimes go over that once more when the one that picked up colour has dried and it's slightly better.

For any kind of dry pigment, you will need a binding agent to turn it into paint. So if you want the metallic waterpaint, then yes you'll need to add ox gall. You can also add egg yoke to turn it into tempera, or oil to turn it into oil paint :) so don't give up on it, it's just a single component you can use to make your own colours.

Thanks for the info! The ceramic brush holder is perfect for chinese brush calligraphy brushes like the orchid bamboo brush or large mountain horse brush for landscape work.

Clicked on this video because I saw the Fabriano 1264 paper in the thumbnail, which I have considered buying. Glad to hear your opinion and will avoid it now. Now I'm also glad I didn't get a proper brush stand. When I feel like using one, I'm using a chopstick holder, which works quite well. Nice video and I would like to see the Art supplies you love!

I also just use white dish, but never upside down! Mind blown. With markers there, where you used green as shadow, it does work with pencils, but I would choose purple or gray. Yet, I am not nearly as skilled as you are

The Ohuhu markers you purchased was the "landscape" set. If you had purchased the "portrait" set instead there are lots more skin colours to choose from and you would have had no problems blending and mixing them to look very realistic. There are also various skin types included, not just Caucasian, but Asian and African skin colours.

Okay you crack me up because I have the same supplies that don’t work for me. The schminke gold powder should be mixed with gum Arabic, then it will work and stay put on the paper

Regarding schminke powder (as someone who has more than one bottle and loves them)) Basically treat them not as a replacement of a gold leaf, but a metallic loose pigment which is as sparkly as a gold leaf AND won’t evade the paper completely in seconds as normal pigment does after water dries. Can mix it with other watercolors, can blend and do gradients, do drips and basically any effects which gold leaf won’t do. If you want something looking the same but much more stable after drying - they have an acrylic paint in this range, works and feels as a basic soft body, adheres to anything same way etc. (I’ve used it for sizing once, it worked).

Hi, i completely agree with you on the white gelly roll. I feel they were highly promoted by quite a few art youtubers as being excellent for white highlights. The best white pen i have used is the Uniball Signo. But even these can be temperamental at times. Re: the Ecoline brushpens. I love these, but rarely use them diretly on to paper. I think using them on a palette with a brush gives far nicer effects plus you can mix the colours better in this way, and knock back the brighter shades.

Art supplies you love ❤️ thanks for sharing

I hope you give the Schminke bronze paint another try. That shine is very beautiful unlike any other gold paints I've seen 😍

I love my acrylic inks! I find them really versatile. I can water them down and layer like I would with my drawing inks or I can use them opaque like acrylics. I also have a lot of trouble with the Jellyroll pens. I gave up on trying to make them work for me and use a small brush with gouache instead.

Zigzag soap dish- most effective brush holder for my practice

I like acrylic inks because I can use them like watercolour - I find tube acrylic paint to be too thick to work with and it usually ends up drying lumpy if you don't smooth them out. As it can't be reactivated like watercolour once it's dry, I also find the tubes to be quite wasteful - with acrylic ink, I only need a few drops and I get lots of coverage from it without wasting a lot of paint.

Looks like there is a long queue for the Sakura gelly roll white pen because I too have had problems with it. The ink is too milky and only the 10 works well enough for any highlights at all.

If you want a place to rest your watercolor brushes as you paint, I suggest a chopstick rest. These are usually ceramic are often beautiful and only about 1/2" or 1 cm high. They are small, so not helpful if your work space is as messy as mine.

Love your Artwork. Beautiful💕

I love these kind of videos, because what it can be useful for someone, can be a regret to other! I kind of wish to make myself a video of "art supplies i regret buying - here's how i use anyways" as a "hack" to use what i got until the end and not let it spoil in my stash, haha. For aqua bronze, i was considering buying the powder and mix with gum arabic, mulling on a glass slab, like a traditional way of making watercolor, but now I am not so sure (seen on Jackson's art blog commentary section that gum arabic does not react that well to aqua bronze because the powder already has some dextrin glue to make it water soluble) BUT! maybe you could make that powder salvageable by buying their Aqua-fix solution? it's a sort of milky jelly fixative you mix in with watercolors, it dries transparent and does not lift off any paint that`s been mixed with it!

I really really enjoyed this video - thank you :) Love to get other opionions (and you dont sound too judgemental ❤)

Art supplies you love please! Great art 👏🏼

I’ve moved to the Kuratake White ink instead of the Gelli Roll and I’m really happy with it.

Hi! I do agree with the sakura white gelly roll. I bought a set of 3…🙄

Thank you excelent information.........looking forward to : Art supplys you love!

7:27 I have a set with the 5, 8 and 10 - the 5 and 8 are stored in the back, worthless - only size 10 works !! And it does, I Think they used an other formula, it seems more thick than the smaller ones..

I tried the Sakura white gelly roll pens and hated them as well. However Sakura does make a very nice white, gold and silver pen just called something else. I forget the name. Sorry. But they work great over watercolor!!

Thank you for posting about the fabriano 1264. I thought I was getting a really good deal for 25% cotton. I found their mixed media paper to be more enjoyable for watercolour. I'm going to try stretching the watercolour paper, maybe it just has too much sizing

Coincidentally, I just saw another RU-vid video that showed a similar handle-less brush to spread glue over a large sheet of paper 😊 Good video, thanks for posting.

I love the Schmincke Aqua bronze. I mix it with Golden brand iridescent paint. I have also used it with water with no flaking or smearing. 50% product / 50% water or 50/50 with Golden paint. No issues.

I was just at Barnes and Noble and they were selling the Fabriano Pad and I was so tempted but decided not to 😂

Art supplies you love, please! 🙂

I had the same experience with the jelly roll pen! I heard so many artists say they use it and love it but it didn't work for me at all

many of the mentiones I wanted to buy soon. thank you for making this video. what are the art supplies you love?

A note on the Liquitex acrylic inks... they are a wonderful solution for underpainting when you want to still be able to see your linework on the canvas before laying down paint. And you don't have binder break down like you do when you water down the heavy body to the same consistency. They might have other uses but that's the one I personally use them for. Oddly they work pretty well for underpainting gouache as well.

Acrylic ink is lightfast pigment. Most really bright colors fade over time, especially regular inks made of dyes.

Art supplies you love please. I found this video very helpful. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing

Acrylic ink is great on gel plate

Art supplies you love

I use Arteza EverBlend Markers for my portraiture and I use Polychromos and Derwent Lightfast pencils on top

Thank you! Very useful video

Thanks so much for the informative video. I also use up anything, even if I don't like it, so there is no waste. This is a testament to your talent that you can do so well with sub-par supplies. You can also donate to a local arts center or school. Gel pens were disappointing for me, also. I got ones that worked a bit, then dried up. Some watercolor artists uses a pastel pencil for highlights, which I would like to try. I am going to try a Derwent Inktense block in Antique White, as it is very affordable and wets easily. Many artists use this and you don't have to worry about it drying up.

I have some of those brushes. I use them for acrylics. I love them.

I bought the same thing from sminke the aqua bronze but it needs its own medium

brilliant video ☺☺☺

Great video. Thanks for sharing

Art supplies yoy love!

Art supplies you love - this would be wonderful! Per piacere 🙏

The mix media brush with the squat hand is great for laying gesso on a canvas. I still won’t get it and just use a brush from the hardware shop, cheaper and does the job.

I only use the fabriano studio cold press for sketches, I tried the Hot Press as well but the sizing had gone bad and returned it. I do hate the Gel pens, they always dry up. As an alternative to microns I use the zebra brush pen, it is waterproof and get more variety of lines.

I prefer Winsor and Newton markers for blending (under painting then I use colored pencils)- I once had a huge set of copic and prismacolor markers but gave them away not because I thought they were bad but it was because they were too many color choices that I never get used to/ got to know well enough to have an effective system of using them. I bought one broad brush like that to try my hand at abstract painting but like you it gave me hand pain. As an amateur artist for 5 years (planning to go pro), I agree with you on everything you mentioned. And yes go ahead and do that art supplies you love video.

If you mix the gold powder with watercolour it will work better, as pointed out by other people because the watercolour has gum arabic in it as a binder. I have the same problem sometimes with gel pens. Sometimes you can get the colour to come out if you bang the ball tip hard against a table if you hold the pen vertically at a 90degree angle. You can use the porcelain brush holder if you put a book or something similar next to it so that the height difference is not as big.

I'm new to watercolor and made the mistake of buying that Fabriano paper. We live (buy) and learn... I shake my fist at it every time I see it on my shelf. XD

I'm SO glad I'm not alone in just finding Fabriano 25% cotton papers to be a total regret of a purchase. I really wanted to like it but I agree that even 100% cellulose paper worked better than it-- at least with cellulose paper, I know what I can and can't do on it. I've actually really enjoyed using Canson Montval for some specific watercolors as well as fountain pen ink, for one. They have their niches. That Fabriano 25% was just... a sopping mess in between, plus the surface kept peeling off on me. I have no idea if I got a defective batch but once was enough.

Never buy anything from Temu.

Ecoline is not lightfast. They are just a dye based marker, one thing I noticed with dyes is they don't mix clean and you need to test your markers before you use them because there is always some amount of color separation no mater what brand you choose (copic, prismacolor, etc.). if you want something that will mix more like traditional watercolors you could try windsor & newtons watercolor markers or if you like ink you can try Faber-castell's pit pens, or Pentels ink brushes.

Ohuhu has a skin colour set and I really like the markers. They're also a lot cheaper than Copic markers.

I regret buying the aqua bronze too. It’s an absolute mess

New sub UK . you made me laugh .good video. I am not an Artist I am learning to draw and paint Water color . The worst thing I brought was the Faber Castell Pitt Fineliner and the smudge with Copics, Polychomes ....so now I use them for writing note and my planner! Thank you so much for sharing

I've just about given up on white Gelly Roll pens. The ink just seems to dry so quickly and then it all gunks up at the tip.

If using plastic palletts for watercolor, if the problem is pooling of colours, simply rough up the pallettes with sandpaper to make a rougher surface. Problem solved.

Thank you for sparing me any grief by purchasing the Liquitex brush. Your demo shows me it is not suitable to my needs. Also thanks for speaking truth about the Jelly Roll white pens. Good show & tell.

Oh no the jelly Sakura pen! I just bought a bunch of them for the first time! They are coming 😢. I hope they work.

I buy larger brushes at a local pro Benjamin Moore paint store. A 3" Chinex bristle brush with a long wooden handle is about $20.

With the gold schmink use a spray fixative

ART SUPPLIES YOU LOVE ❤❤❤❤

i have the same Schimincke porcelain palette - you need to use a back end of a fork or something thin but solid to pop it out - its held down by a large magnet ;) I keep the porcelain bit on my desk and the box is stuffed with full and half pans ;)

I regret buying expensive ink. I'm much more familiar with the viscosity and flow of waterproof India ink instead.

I find the comments on the gelly roll pen simply fascinating. I use the 08 and 10 religiously and have had little to no problems with it. For a time I would go so far as to say I would have praised it as a valuable tool. That is not to say it hasn’t had its moments for sure, but I am surprised the amount of hate it gets. Perhaps my idea for it differ from others though so who knows.

Great video, thanks. For your Ecoline markers, you can blend them easily on a plastic pallette and then pick up the newly mixed color with a brush. MIght not be the application you had in mind, but at least you won't have wasted them and your $$$. I use a piece of plastic packaging from stickers with the white card inside the plastic wrapper. It works great as a pallette and is free.

Would love to see your most used supplies

The schminke gold pigment I add a little medium to the water and it remains stable on the page every time

Those gelly roll pens are the worst, they never worked for me either. Great video, thanks for sharing. ❤

I love my Gelly Roll pens. The Uniball Signo had me at my wits end so I had to get the Gelly Roll. I regret buying Holbein watercolours. Just not my jam.

using acrylic airbrush medium instead of water with the aqua Bronze would probably work better. mixing acrylic ink into mediums instead of using them as ink might be worth doing. fluids mix easier than heavy body. Golden Higb Flow for example use to be Golden Airbrush Colors and they renamed them to Golden High Flow. they were intended for airbrush, not ink drawing, but you cam use them that way.

Definitely get Ohuhu brush tipped big bundles. Much better. They have a lot of skin tones.

thank you- finally someone else that can't stand that terrible Fabriano paper! I bought it in Croatia 2 summers ago and it so bad.

I’m not sure white gel ink will do what you want, but two things to note: 1. Gelly Roll white comes in 3 sizes: 05, 07, and 10. I’ve found only the 10 works well and remains functional without clogging 2. If you are looking for a more opaque white gel, many people like Arteza. For myself, I prefer the Uniball Signo Broad 1.0. They do have a tendency to clog over time, but I’ve found the ones from Japan perform much better over time. Hope this helps.

Grazie! L’oro schmincke che hai mostrato sono sempre tentata si comprarlo, ma immagino già che non mi soddisferà .. hai trovato qualcosa di intenso e più stabile ?

No plastic paint trays. I would be using silicone fidgit poppers for paint and watercolors and ink because when it dries they just peel off.

I regret buying this masking fluid pen/drawing gum marker. Whenever I use it, it ends up ruining the paper if I try rubbing it off, and it never 'peels'. At least on the watercolor paper I use, but alas. I should have gotten a bottle of the masking fluid instead....

Greased Lightning degreser will clean those plastic palettes right up. It literally eats ink, both India and acrylic based.

just fyi.. for those plastic palettes, use magic erasers on them. gets them clean pretty good

I hate white gel pens. I got different ones but they all suck. will try white uni posca pens, fingers crossed...

I just got the horadam pallette in this size - but it doesnt have the porcelain inside, just 3 standard rows - that porcelain thing is not something you see everyday 10:06 I believe you Can get your money back if you sell it 2.hand…

I have Arches but practice on the 1264, it's not bad. It's also much better than Canson to take washes. I was thinking about the Bronze stuff but read a lot of reviews and saved my money. Gelly Roll is garbage. I use Signo instead.

What's th esketchbook on 4:06 please? Do they sell these, or it's handmade by you?

The gelli white pen was the same for me and they came dry complitely. And i bought many in another country in Europe and they all were awful. Such a disappointment . Thank you . I thought it was only my buying that were wrong..

You could use the brush holder with hakes, and Chinese/Japanese calligraphy brushes - which is what they're really made for. Just not much use for ordinary watercolour brushes. The things I regret buying - a lightweight watercolour paper from Fabriano, which would do nothing that I wanted it to do. And generally, sets of colours - they are very rarely balanced in any way, the only principle they follow is that they always contain the cheapest possible pigments, including black (which I rarely use). Gouache sets are particularly useless, because the mix fugitive with permanent colours; the white is always Zinc/Chinese White, which is fine but a good, opaque Titanium would work a lot better. Apart from that, I struggle to think what I really regret buying - other than the Lamy Joy fountain pen, which might not qualify as an art material: the one I have just won't work - no reliable ink flow. Best recent buys - Fude pens from Hongdian and Sailor; carbon black ink; and Hahnemühle rough torchon watercolour paper, which is beautiful to work with; Sailor brushpen; String and Space heavyweight cartridge paper in spiral-bound sketchbooks.

Thank you so much for this video. Totally agree about the Fabriano brand. I bought Fabriano Pastel paper, not cheap - white Ingres - it has indented lines into the paper!!! Un-usable. I would never buy Fabriano anything again. I look forward to hearing about art materials you like. 😊✔️