Art Supply Favorites and Regrets March | What's going on with my Honey Based Watercolors?! 

Hey guys! I'm so sorry, I should have mentioned the first few drawings in the Arteza sketchbook were traced images from the Dana Fox Watercolor with me in the Forest book. I've shared that in other videos, but I forgot to mention it again. I did draw the Van Gogh sketch, the Flamingos and the bunny of course! 💗

Thank you for your honesty on the Michael harding watercolor. When I see the swatches in videos I'm not wowed and I thought maybe it was just me cause people are loving them. So I held off on buying them. I think I will just stick with m.Graham. I maybe will pick up some of the Michael harding colors up in the future but for now I feel like people are really just hyping it up.

Loved your video! I have that same MaimeriBlu palette. When paints stick like that, just put the entire thing in the freezer for about 20 minutes (30 or more for me in California). It stops the wrapper from sticking to the paints. I do it with all my new pans.

Absolutely in love with A. Gallo paints

Thank you for making buying mistakes so we don’t have to😁 I agree with you about the Michael Harding watercolors. I was so excited about them, but most of them are not special. They were so long in the making that other brands have kind of made them irrelevant. I do like a handful of them, but for the price, Daniel Smith or Schmincke have a wider range and M.Graham or Sennelier has everything you need if you like honey based paints. The Fine Art Store now stocks Michael Harding if you want to buy them in the US. Also, thank you for the mini tutorial on the pencil sharpener. It is so hard to find a good automatic one that doesn’t eat your expensive art pencils.

I enjoy playing with supplies too. It just makes me happy. I'm not good at painting .. like at all. I keep trying, though. But like you said swatching of all kinds especially beautiful and unique colors. make me happy and that's what arts about... right? Have a great day!

That first Arteza paper sketch of the inch worm or caterpillar was so cute! I wish you’d paused on that longer! I totally get what you mean about the channel pressure. Holy wow the stabilo Van Gogh sketch was amazing! Ok this is an early comment, I will enjoy finishing now 🤗❤️🤗

I have had some of the same experiences with some of my art supplies. I just did a quick inventory After ordering a bunch more. And I went through the guilt of how much stuff I still have barely gotten around to using yet while I order more. But still love my supplies and I love collecting more. I also get a sorta glowing feeling just Looking at colors. Yeah, just swatching is a pleasure. Thanks for the store tip, I ordered some paints we can no longer get here and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Stephanie, that bunny is so cute! Its so pretty and vibrant! Glad you are giving us all of the tips..right now I notice I am really a Farber-Castell girl! Ohh my that dream box is so amazing I want to get it for this years xmas. Thanks for the tips about the metal getting tint the paints. Luckily I took out the Meiling cheap paints and replace it with better paints and neither of them have the metal rod. I also use my pink pallet from Paul Rubens and took out the upper lid and store them on the bottom with a sticky tape, it works great and it can store up to 60.

Thank you for inspiring us and showing interesting art supplies=3

Thanks for the heads up about CSY. The little metallic sets I have are quite good. Will be wary now about getting any of the regular colors.

I think it’s rust on the white nights, it happened to mine too but only to the ones that are overfilled. I sliced it off with a little craft knife and used a wet paper towel to wipe them and they’re perfect now. I think it happened because they stay tacky here with the humidity and they never really dry. I got the plastic white nights palette instead, I found them on Etsy.

how fun.. can't wait to watch.. but first.. getting the coffee going ..!!

I have a similar AFMAT eraser that was gifted to me and my original Couture Creations one. I keep the large eraser in one and the tiny eraser in the other, just like you. Very handy!

I am in Europe and when Michael Harding started to sell on Jackson’s - and yeah, I don’t get the hype, Roman Szmal is both more interesting and much cheaper, also rewets like a dream but not too runny. If I want something hyped and expensive I’d go for something like A.Gallo

🎉 Going to watch this! 🥳

I love collecting paints too.. have almost all the colours of agallo, schmincke, w&n, and a couple of DS Holbein. I currently have 50 MH paints and they are my current fav. Love the way it flows and they glaze beautifully! My paints are completely dried down now but they wet beautifully. I paint botanical subjects and currently only have agallo and MH on my palette.

Hello, for the woody pencils, i made a stand out of air drying clay! I also have the whole range, and since they’re oily, I didn’t want them to touch each others, so I made a three tier stand, with a slot for each pencil. It’s a great way to store them and to keep them clean 😊😊

I’m like you and get so excited about paints! I got some MH watercolour for Christmas. I’m enjoying them, but I don’t have MGraham as they are v pricy in UK, and I collect sets of those as gifts for my husband who also paints. I think if I was in the US MGraham would be my go to? I was pleasantly surprised my Harding paints dried really quickly in pans (and we live in a colder damp climate, we’re by the sea too!) where Sennelier tubes were almost impossible to dry out and send some to a friend took months to set. So for urban sketchers that’s useful. The MH were already drying just a few hours after decanting.

Well hi Stephanie! What a Saturday treat! Xx

With the rendr paper from creascent you can paint with alcohol markers too without bleeding and don't pass through the other side

Hello from the UK! It's really interesting to hear all these underwhelming comments on Michael Harding's watercolours. I use his oil colours, which are phenomenal, and when I heard he was bringing out watercolours I did not hesitate to buy some. I have been using a combination of W&N and Schmincke, which are great, but to me, the difference with Michael Harding is that they are like another version of his oil colours - very rich, highly pigmented, and a thicker consistency compared to what I already have, almost like a gouache. His Warm White, Warm Light Yellow and Warm Yellow, for example, are the sort of colours you would normally get with his oils, and it's great experimenting with them in w/c form. I also love his Caribbean Turquoise, so rich and beautiful! I have never used DS or M Graham so can't compare, but I am absolutely thrilled with what I have. They will make a huge difference to the way I paint.

The weird shape in the “A Starry Night” painting represents a tree.

I love regret videos. Quite surprised by your take on Michael Harding. Yeah I do think they seem to be a m Graham wannabe, except for an even higher pricetag.

U can use the silicon stretchy bowl lids to cover the platter i think the largest one they sell should work or press and seal wrap should

I'm so glad you mentioned CSY paints. I purchased their metallics for xmas cards and was blown away. Purchased the Mineral set that has 6 colors and my lord they are just awful. I guess since I had such good luck with the previous purchase, i just tried them on a whim and nope, never again.

i have that maimeri blu set - it WAS a pain to get rid of the paper, but i LOOOOVE them - i don't get any bubbliness though, so maybe it's your batch? i also got a 16 set later, and purchased some separate half pans on top of it all, so i can assure you that's not their normal behaviour (i'm in europe, btw, so i was able to get all those goodies for a survivable price).

I have to agree with the CSY watercolors. I loved the metallic set, so I I ordered 4 of the regular watercolor sets. I was so disappointed with what I got. There is very low pigmentation and yes, some cracking in the pan. What really bothered me the most is how grainy they are. Also, if you run your fingers across them, a lot of pigment is left on your finger. Boo😢.

I've been using M. Graham watercolors for several years and have had 0 problems. None, and they live in a palette.

Hi Stephanie, I bought the white nights granulating paints at christmas, now I have a few sets of theirs and love them BUT these paints were an absolute gooey mess!!! My hands were covered and I couldn't get it off for days. The wrappers would NOT come over even after putting them in the freezer!!! Taking the wrappers off took chunks out of the paint so you were left with wrappers with chunks of sticky gooey paint on and you couldn't even get it off to put back in pans. I emailed them but they said that's normal!!!! I threw them in the bin in discust and will never buy white nights again and they were not cheap!!!!

The staining is probably rust from the honey drawing in moisture and the metal being cheaper.

I buy all of my Imperial sheets from Artemiranda they have such good prices and it comes in the most beautiful shape. I also buy all of my mission gold tubes there they have the best open stock prices.

Would a cloche also work to cover your devilled egg pallet (stroke of genius btw, that’s perfect for pallets!)?

Thanks for this video. I tried the CSY paints because I wanted a small palette to just have fun with and put them in my Portable Painter little palette but was disappointed too. Individually, 5 of the 6 colors were nice but the ultramarine was so weak it was useless. I also found that activating them was difficult. Ultimately, I gave up on them because they don't blend. Any two of the colors only end up making mud. Yuck. I also looked at the Michael Harding paints at the Fine Art Store where I shop (because it's local) and was not impressed. The color choices were mundane and the prices are ridiculous. Instead, I restocked some of my Senneliers and then ordered the Urban Sketchers set of Roman Szmal paints from Jackson's and have completely fallen in love with it. I did a quick landscape study during an art zoom meeting and got several compliments on the colors. Will be investing in more RS's this week.

I want those Woodys but they’re $8 each in New Zealand, the same price as a Luminance or Copic Ciao which is already spendy! Yeah…. Not happening with kiddy supplies when I have Neo 2s already as well!

It’s so funny. I’m in Europe and love M.Graham and Qor - and have the same difficulty to get those here in Europe. I guess that’s life. 😀😄 Thanks for your videos. Artemiranda is great!

May i ask where you got the egg platter and charger plate over the egg plate? I use a small egg one but ive been looking for larger one..lol...my family thought i lost my mind when i said i needed one four years ago for my paint...thanks for any help on plates enjoyed video found interesting and informative..mikelle art mom🎨👩‍🎨💛🇨🇦🇺🇸

I thoroughly enjoyed the video, thank you Stephanie! I looked at the Michael Harding watercolors and nothing grabbed my attention. So right now I haven’t tried any of the colors. Pity about your WN and RS watercolors reacting to the metal in the pan. I have some metal palettes where I removed the metal bracket that the pans sit in. Instead I put sticky magnet tape on the bottom of the pans and put the pans in the palettes that way. They are not as secure but this way I inserted more pans into the palette. ❤

I'm definitely in a slump, it's April and I've made no art all year!

After watching your video, I checked my watercolor pallets to see if there was any mold or gunk on them and thankfully, I didn't see anything on them. I bought a lot of off-white salad and dinner plates to use for different watercolor projects. After the watercolor paints dry, I take Glad Cling Wrap to cover up the plates tightly to keep any dust out. As for what's my biggest art supply regret, hands down it's when I overpaid for a 72 set of Chromaflow colored pencils. Thinking about that incident still causes me feelings of guilt and nausea, lol!

Paints like Michael Harding, Daniel Smith, M. Graham are horribly expensive here so I will definitely pass on those. But I did make a huge mistake and bought a lot of paints from Renesans and they are absolutely horrible. They took 3 weeks to dry and you can still make a dent in them when you push in with your finger and they have an awful sheen if you use them in mass tone. I don't know what hit me that I bought them, they are a total waste of money 😞 I watched some reviews on yt but I trusted the wrong people. I wish I would have bought more Roman Szmal paints because those are wonderful. I will probably end up throwing these paints in the trash.

I think for us in the UK it’s exciting to have watercolours on a par with MGraham as W&N are no longer made here and the recipe definitely isn’t as pigmented as it used to be when I first began painting. I have some vintage paints still and they really pop on the page. We just have Daler Rowney now, which are very popular among professional artists, but they stick to a very limited palette of colours and don’t do some of my favourites. The MH paints were competitively priced especially when on,promotion and they seem highly pigmented. And certain colours which vary a lot like Prussian blue for some reason and indigo I like a very particular hue which is inky blue rather than too grey he has hit on the head perfectly. My favourite indigo is W&N but in pan form they have a problem with their mix which seems to go mouldy quickly. So I didn’t dare try the tube version even. MH almost got the identical hue. I think in the US you have so much amazing choice you’d be underwhelmed if comparing prices. At the end of the day how the paints behave when mixing and blending is everything and I’ve been super impressed with the MH paints. They are also intensely pigmented, I filled a mini travel set like the art toolkit and been using that and barely made a dent in the colours. So they will be very good value I think.

I had MGraham watercolors..beautiful colors but I was frustrated at how long it took them to dry…sticky tacky texture. I just couldn’t love them for that reason. I love Daniel Smith best.

I find it so hard to create content when its bleh outside. On the prices of handmade paints I would say that 6 for $20 is a great price. Lots of handmade paints cost $10-$15 for a single half pan.

I hope that one experience with artisan watercolors won't stop people from buying them. I have ordered from several Etsy shops located all over the world and have not been disappointed. I love honey based watercolours but I don't have the humidity where I live. Folks need to know their pigments and minerals to understand how they perform as watercolors. Some just rather insipid unless dyes are added and artisans don't do that. I love my Rosa Gallery watercolours from the Ukraine. They perform way beyond their price. The company has to drive their product to Poland to ship it. For those of you who have not fallen for Russian propoganda (which is everywhere they can post it about 'saving' the Ukraine and not about Putin's expansionist goals, not only former Warsaw Pact members but also the Baltic States) and would like to support a really good company, try Rosa Gallery. I also quite like Paul Rubens, the pink set. I'm quite interested in trying the 4th generation of tubes from them. My biggest disappointment was Cotman tubes. I know a lot of people like them but just not impressed. Maybe it was the pigments I chose. And yes, I have White Nights. I use them as a travel pallet because I do like them, hate to waste good paint and also I don't care if something happens to them. I'd be crushed if some of my other pallets were lost.

haven't watched yet but anything honey based + florida (lived there for 22+ years) do NOT mix. Had to get rid of the entire range of M Graham gouaches I splurged on because of mold 😞

Stephanie ... are you interested in a 48 pan (+4 from Jackson's) A. Gallo set with all the extras from A. Gallo? It's gently used. Email me.

Why warning?..... Actually its a choice of many..... Its like mgraham and other professional brands .....maybe bcoz its not drying

Can u make another giveaway pls??? I wanna try to win!

If you are deciding on a product why are you hampering I will h crappy paper. Not suggesting 100% cotton but give it a fair chance

I’m not telling anyone what to do or think but if you buy from China it’s no different than buying from Russia. Chinas human rights or lack of them is atrocious but people will buy from them and then have a heart attack if someone buys from Russia. There is a word for that. People can and should do what the want but they shouldn’t be a hypocrite about it. This is in no way directed at you Stephanie, you know your a fav of mine. I’m just tired of hearing how White Knights shouldn’t be bought but anything from China is just fine.

" don't know what this is, looks like an evil tower". Everyone that is interested in art besides swatching colors knows that this is a cypress tree.

Mixing art or sports with politics is absolutely stupid.

To all you lovely people here who tend to have a bad feeling when taking out your russian art supplies: please put these feelings aside. I know that outside of Europe, people are not well informed on the history of this conflict. How did we get to this point? To put it in a nutshell: in 2014 the democratically chosen government of the ukraine was overthrown by western forces, they even admitted that they spent 19 billion in order to do so. (Why would they want that...right??) It was horrific, many people were burnt alive. The newly installed western puppets started a horrible war against the russian speaking minority, this resulted in Russia pushing for the Minsk convention, which was then signed by the Kiev regime and it stated that the rights of the minorities (there are also Romanian and Hungarian minorities there because the Ukraine is an artificially created state) should be respected. That never happened. The Kiev regime has killed more than 40 000 russian children during the past 9 years because the Asow Batallions went to the Donbass region and randomly shot people, like as if it is a video game. People on bicycles, mothers with cradles, children on playgrounds, couples in parks who were taking wedding photos, and so on. On top of that, when the Berlin wall fell, Russia was granted the promise that NATO would not expand towards its boundaries, but NATO did, they fooled the russians. The russian army left Germany within 2 weeks after the Berlin wall was taken down, they took all their equipment with them. But who stayed??? You guessed it, the americans stayed and they have strengthened their bases, over 30 !! This is just a short and very small part of what has led to this conflict. I am not pro russia and I am definetely not pro NATO and I am not pro ukraine. I am pro peace and I think war is the most terrible invention there is. But we do need to get the facts together. Now many people in the ukraine are forced to join the army and fight against the russians even if they do not agree. People from the hungarian and romanian regions who absolutely do not agree with the slaughter that has been going on by the kiev regime, imagine how horrible that must be. We have many ukrainian normal people here as refugees and I have talked to many of them and curiously enough they have all told me that they are glad that the russians are finally cleaning up their country...There is a saying here which I love: imagine there is a war and nobody attends it. Sorry it is a long comment but I needed to get this out. There is always more truth behind the propaganda we are being fed by the media! Enjoy your supplies, no matter where they come from. Love and peace to all of you here!

You are always so negative about every thing!!