Master's Touch Charcoal Pencils

Hello everyone!

Today, I am reviewing the Master's Touch Charcoal Pencils. These can be purchased from Hobby Lobby. 

First off, I would like to say that this is going to be a very mixed opinion review, due to my experience with these.

These come in a pack of six. Two of each soft, medium, and hard woodless pencils. They are quite a bit shorter than a standard pencil. 

The first thing I noticed is that the packaging is a semi hard plastic and very difficult to get into. I had to cut along the side and even then, be careful to not cut myself on the very sharp edges of the plastic package.

At first, I thought I could simply store them in my pencil case with the other colored pencils and pencil media I have. However, three of them broke this way. I taped them back together and they are still useable, however these are quite fragile. I have since put them in a harder case seen here.

As for the way they work, they have a different feel to them along the different gradients. However, unlike graphite pencils and even colored pencils, there isn't much ability to shade with the charcoal itself. You therefore have to use a lot of various shading tools to get the effect you want.

The soft charcoal could lay down quite a lot and quite quickly. It was also, quite smooth as well. The hard was quite hard feeling and the strokes were maybe slightly lighter than the soft pencil. It was also a little scratchy on the paper. The medium, I guess you could say, is the best of both worlds.

As for sharpening, that is where the real adventure comes in. Rather, should I say, conundrum? Take your pick. I used my Bostitch Twist n' Sharp ratchet sharpener. It is very nice and gentle on colored pencils and so I thought it would work well for these. Well, it did not and nothing against the sharpener.

However, as I was sharpening the soft pencil to finish a drawing, this happens. It broke inside the sharpener. That was not the worst of it. I was able to get that chunk out rather easily, it was the fact that what appears to be a lacquer coating, like what other wooden cased pencils have, was instead some kind of plastic coating.

This got stuck in my sharpener, thereby decommissioning it for the moment. I had to use a number of things including paper clips and a craft knife to get it out. The poor pencil sharpener went through a lot for this. It is useable now, but I have had to remove the blade and resharpen it to remove rough edges from the damage.

I will be either using a cheap sharpener from now on or a craft knife to sharpen these.

Overall, the charcoal seems to be pretty good quality, but if you choose to purchase these, do not use your best sharpener on them.

Pros:

• Reasonably priced $5.99
• Woodless - you can use more of the charcoal, but it's slightly cleaner than the sticks.
• Three different kinds - two of each in soft, medium, and hard

Cons:

• Not much difference in shade between the gradients, just the feel on the paper.
• While sharpening, one broke off in the sharpener and slightly damaged the blade.
• Break easily if not well protected
• Packaging difficult to open

Final rating: 2/5 stars

Bonus: here is a picture I drew with these and graphite. It is of Faith Connors from Mirror's Edge Catalyst. I decided to do a face study with a picture from her in the art book. 

Charcoal Pencils: Apparently the woodless charcoal pencils are no longer available on the website, but they are still in the physical store. Here is a similar product, however. 

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Art-Supplies/Drawing-Illustration/Pencils/6-Count-Compressed-Charcoal-Sticks/p/11596

Mirror's Edge Catalyst art book:

https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/29-418/The-Art-of-Mirrors-Edge-Catalyst-Limited-Edition-HC

I hope you enjoyed this review. Please look forward to more!

Thank you for reading!

Gift ideas for Artists

Hello everyone!

I watched a few YouTube videos of some of my favorite artists and a few others the last few days about gift ideas for artists.

Thank you to Zoe Hong, for allowing me to share this video with you all. 

They were very helpful and informative, so I thought I would share a couple of those as well as share a few gift ideas myself.

I have linked a public gift guide on Amazon, should you be interested in possibly getting me something I would like to try and I will review it on the blog as well. If you have other ideas, I am open to those as well.

Below are some of my personal suggestions for artists.

For Beginner Artists

Often, people suggest you get these art sets for these people. While some of them can be really good, a lot of these, unfortunately, have poor quality art supplies. While beginners do not need professional grade things, nor am I suggesting that, they should at least have something decent to play around with.

A few brands I suggest looking for in  sets might be Crayola, General's, Daler Rowney Simply series, and Royal & Langnickel. Some of the art sets at Micheal's and Hobby Lobby might be okay, but I've read very mixed reviews. Therefore, these are a hit or miss. I personally haven't tried them, however.

For Intermediate Artists

These are people who are still discovering different mediums they like, they are likely in middle School to high school, perhaps college age, but they consider art a hobby. I suggest you find out what they like to use, whether they like drawing, painting, or whatever and go from there.

For these people, if it's a high quality set, it might be worth getting. Otherwise, I would pick up something specific.

A few sets I could recommend are General's, Prismacolor, Marco Raffine, and possibly Derwent.

Unless you know exactly what they like, especially if they're picky, I would stay away from sketchbooks and paints as these vary greatly in quality and price. If you really want to do that, get them a set of paints from well known brands like Holbien, Ulbrecht, etc... Sketchbooks I would recommend Canson Mixed media paper. Strathmore is also a good company.

For Advanced and Professional Artists

These artists are going to be very particular. Unless you're an artist yourself, it will be very difficult to get them something.

A gift card or certificate to their favorite art store, might be a good idea. Make sure it's for a decent amount. Art supplies can get very expensive, especially for the advanced and professional artist.

Professional grade brands include; Faber Castell, Derwent, Caran D'arche, Tombow, and the like.

If you wish to get them something specific, I would get to know them and what they like and use. You cannot go wrong with something you know they use a lot of. With all this being said, many artists including myself, love to be surprised with something unique, which we can try out. It's the thought that counts, ultimately. I just hope this helps you in not wasting money and resources on something that the artist in your life will maybe use once, if at all.

Link to my personal gift guide (if you would like to support the blog and other things I would like to do in the future). 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3FYMYRHERBHI9

I hope that this adds to all the helpful guides out there and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe holiday season!

Eraser Comparison and Review

In keeping with my previous theme of essential art supplies, I have decided to do a comparison chart of all of the erasers I have.

Some of them are very popular while others are a little more random, but I thought worth comparing anyway.

The Experiment Setup

As for the experiment, I charted a graph with the types of erasers I will be using and the pencils I will be attempting to erase. I then colored the graph. The charcoal was the hardest, as it's delicate and you'll notice that one line I did the opposite of the others on light to dark. I tried to get consistently on light, medium, to dark tones of each pencil I'm using.

The paper is Bienfeng 8 1/2 x 11" acid free 50lb sketchbook. It has a medium tooth.

Then I proceed to use the following pencils, which I have grouped here and labeled in the chart.

The pencils used are as follows in the order I have them on the chart:

1. General's Semi-Hex Drawing Pencils - 2B and 4B
2. Prisamacolor Premier Colored Pencil
3. Master's Touch (Hobby Lobby Brand) Woodless Charcoal Pencil - Soft
4. Prismacolor Verithin Colored Pencil
5. Derwent Metallic Colored Pencil
6. Tombow Mono Drawing Pencil - 2B and 4B
7. Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Colored Pencil
8. Marco Raffine Oil Based Colored Pencil

The erasers I have used in the experiment are as follows on the chart:

1. General's All Art eraser - a small pink rubber eraser came with the small Semi-Hex drawing set
2. General's Tri-Tip eraser - a soft white rubber eraser
3. General's Jumbo Kneaded eraser 
4. Tombow Mono eraser - Japanese white extra soft plastic eraser
5. Derwent White eraser - comes with some of their pencil sets. Rubber with some sand grit in it. 
6. Papermate Black Pearl - extra hard black rubber eraser 
7. Skyists 5038 Blue eraser - Extra soft rubber eraser. Came with a cheap calligraphy set

The Experiment Results 

In the end, out of all of the erasers, the worst was the General's All Art eraser. This eraser is a bit abrasive on the paper and it also didn't seem to do much in the event of even really erasing graphite. However, this is a good eraser for cleaning other erasers if you need a use for it.

As for the other erasers, none had any trouble erasing graphite. Charcoal and Colored Pencil are the most difficult to erase, however.

I had a surprise with the Blue Skyists, eraser. It came with a cheap calligraphy pen set. It actually is a good eraser. I honestly could say that it might even be worth buying that set alone for the eraser if the quality of the eraser were consistent, which I do not know. It was able to erase even the toughest of colored pencils. Marco Raffine pencils are oil based and I found only the General's Tri-Tip and the Papermate Black Pearl eraser came close.

Now for the feel of each eraser and comparison of the mess the do or do not leave behind. I personally don't mind that, but some people do, therefore, I will put that in my comparison.

1. General's All Art eraser - Hard Rubber eraser. Somewhat abrasive on paper and leaves behind a bit of eraser dust. Did the poorest in my tests of mediums. 
2. General's Tri-Tip eraser - Medium hardness rubber eraser. White, so it will not have a chance of leaving color behind. It leaves a lot of eraser dust as well. Good overall for everything tested and it is helpful for getting into tight corners. It holds it's shape fairly well overall and seems to be fairly long lasting. 
3. General's Jumbo Kneaded eraser - Extra soft and pliable. They are latex free, lanolin free and PVC free. It still retains it's softness if stored in a plastic bag or a case of some kind. This eraser is made to lift things like graphite and charcoal and is good for that. It will not completely remove any markings, however. This does help to erase colored pencils as well, but, only to lighten pigment. It is excellent for shading. It is also great to have around to get into small places as it can be molded into small shapes and pulled apart. There is no eraser dust.
4. Tombow Mono eraser - Extra soft PVC vinyl eraser. This is an excellent all around eraser and you can even vary the pressure to get shading effects. It also does not cause any abrasion on the paper. It leaves very little eraser dust behind and erases especially graphite cleanly. It didn't do a bad job on colored pencil either.
5. Derwent White eraser -Hard rubber eraser with what appears to be some fine sand grit in it. This doesn't seem to be abrasive on the paper noticeably, however. I found this eraser to be the messiest of all of them and it seems to sort of crumble and does not come smooth like the other erasers appear after erasing. With all this in mind, it does often come as a bonus in many art sets from Derwent, so if you use Derwent products, it it worth trying out. It erases colored pencil quite nicely and I've found it to be one of the best for that. 
6. Papermate Black Pearl - Extra hard black rubber eraser. This is a pebble shaped eraser. A lot of people underestimate school supply erasers. but this one is a gem. It is hard and retains it's shape very well. It is very useful for getting into tight corners and leaves very little eraser dust. Two come in a pack, which is a great value as well. 
7. Skyists 5038 Blue eraser - Soft rubber eraser. This eraser did surprisingly well overall with everything I threw at it. It did not leave a lot of eraser dust. Too bad as far as I know, it only comes in a cheap calligraphy set. [I will be reviewing this set in due time].

What I Recommend

Overall, considering the results, value, and ease of being able to purchase I recommend the Tombow Mono, General's Kneaded and the Papermate Black Pearl. I do however, find great uses for the other erasers and I encourage you to try these out as well.

I hope this all helps you in your art and creative en-devours! 

Introducing Art Techniques

Hello everyone!

In order to make this blog fun, interesting, and beneficial to you, my awesome readers, I want to not only do reviews of various art supply products, but show you how to use them as well.

As I post product reviews, I will also write posts on how to use the supplies which I review and different techniques you can do with them.

Sound cool?

If you have anything in particular, which, you would like me to review or a particular art technique you would like to know more about, please feel free to comment below. This will be very helpful to me in knowing what you all are interested in as well.

Thank you for reading!


I would also like to note that I am a member of various affiliate programs. From time to time I will be posting links to these websites as well as others where you can purchase products. I earn a small commission from purchases linked to these links at no extra cost to you. As for the other stores, like Hobby Lobby which, I am not affiliated with, I enjoy them as well and wish to promote them. I am not affiliated with them, however.

Hobby Lobby Tracing Paper Review

Master's Touch Tracing Paper

Tracing paper is something almost every artist uses for a variety of things. I use it to learn how to draw. I can place it on top of a picture and trace the lines and details to get a feel for how it is done. Then, I sometimes use graphite transfer paper to transfer the image or I draw it freehand in my sketchbook and learn from there.

Another way I have used tracing paper is to trace and later transfer an outline of an image I wish to paint.

Paper shown through natural light

Transparency of paper for tracing

It is important to have good quality tracing paper. I don't like it so thin that it tears and wrinkles easily, yet too thick and you can't easily see through it.


Another thing is, that it is smooth and has very little paper grain. This helps to obtain crisp lines.

Master's Touch tracing Paper from Hobby Lobby is an economical tracing paper, which has these qualities. It also comes in a variety of sizes.

• Acid Free paper
• Sizes: 9" X 12", 11" x 14", and 14" x 17" 
• 50 sheets each pad
• 25 LB paper
• Cover made of study heavyweight paper and the back of hard board
• Fold-over cover for easy tearing out of pages.

Cover information

Paper smoothness shown still in the pad

One thing I really like about this paper is the quality for the price.I have used this with pencils, mostly, but I have found it to accept charcoal and it helps with not allowing ink to bleed through other pages when inking a drawing. I have yet to compare this with other brands like Canson, and Bee, but for the price this is definitely worth it. 

I have the 11" x 14" inch paper pad.

Thank you for reading! 

Master's Touch Tracing Paper

Art Supplies Every Beginning Artist Should Have

Good Afternoon, everyone!

Today I am going to go over a few things that every artist needs to be able to start drawing.

I know how it can be daunting and complicated to find good quality art supplies without getting too expensive. This is an especially difficult thing for beginner artists.

Many beginners buy art supply sets or boxes and many of the art supplies inside are poor quality. However, this isn't always the case, but the higher end sets still tend to be very expensive.

When I decided I wanted to try out some better quality art supplies, I purchased them individually for a few reasons.

• Better Quality
• Price (Sometimes you'll find sales)
• Choice on art supplies to purchase.

Most beginning artists start off either drawing, painting, or both. I will first go over drawing supplies and then painting supplies. I will be updating this post with links to reviews of products I personally have tried and suggest.

Paper

Paper should be of good quality and made for the Media you wish to work with. For beginner's I suggest, Canson XL Mixed Media paper. You can find it easily and you will get good quality paper for the price. For something a little more basic, I suggest Bienfeng Take-Me-Along Sketchbook. They also make good quality paper.

Pencils

As for pencils, for beginner's General Pencil Company is a good way to go. They are made in the USA and they come in a variety of degrees. Their charcoal products are also very nice. I began with General's Semi-Hex drawing pencils. I later got the Tombow Mono pencils, which are very useful for colored pencil drawings as the graphite is very dense and does not smear. Tombow is a Japanese company with some unique products. However, I still use General's for when I do want to smear it!

Erasers

There are many forms of erasers on the market right now. I have quite a few myself. I will have an article comparing the erasers I have personally used up soon. However, I will give you some basics to have.

One important thing to remember is, to try to get erasers which don't have any dye in them as this with age can come out and mark up your paper.

Rubber Eraser

Rubber erasers are the most basic form of eraser and are used for general work. They are usually the cheapest and easiest to get. Be careful as some may tear your paper. General's All Art, Papermate black Pearl, and Derwent white eraser are good choices.

Kneaded Erasers

These erasers are fun as you knead them into shapes with your hands. This allows you to lighten and lift whatever it is you are trying to erase out of the paper. They clean themselves as well when you knead them again.

Plastic Erasers

There are a lot of these out there. The ones I have personally used and found useful are, Factis Eraser,and Tombow Mono eraser.

Crayons

Good old crayons! I grew up using crayons and still love them for certain projects. I recommend Crayola and Prang crayons as these are my personal favorites and have very consistent quality. Crayola has perhaps the most colors of all crayon companies. All the colors! 

Colored Pencils

My other favorite medium to use! I will be doing a colored pencil comparison with all of the colored pencils I currently have soon as well. There are wax and oil based colored pencils. There isn't a whole lot of difference between them except that Oil based do not get a waxy film on the paper called wax bloom and you can get some different blending effects with them.

Colored Pencils are a really neat medium as you can blend them in different ways, provided you have good quality artist pencils to do so. This can be done with colorless blender pencils as well as other things like odorless paint thinner, mineral spirits and the like,

A few brands I would recommend include:

Koh-I-Noor,
Marco Raffine
Derwent
Prismacolor

I will update this review with these posts as well.

Pencil Sharpener

It is always good to have a good quality pencil sharpener.

I recommend a hand one as it is less likely to break the pencils. Pencil sharpeners for the most part are inexpensive as well.

General's All Art red sharpener is good to begin with and then later on, the Bostitch Twist N' Sharp. 

Other Accessories which are optional

Chamois - a small piece of leather or some are synthetic for shading and softening pencil, charcoal and even colored pencil

Eraser Shield - a small metal stencil-like thing, which allows you to erase smaller areas and avoid places you don't!

Tortillions and Blending Stumps - Pieces of paper wrapped very tightly to shade, blend and even move color or charcoal around. Also useful for Oil and chalk pastels!



I think that is everything! I hope you all look forward to product reviews and I have posted links to where you might purchase these products on this page.

Thank you for reading!

Welcome to Inspired Art Blog!

Hello and this is Inspirational Art Supply Reviews, where I review and compare various kinds of art supplies as well as some you may not at first suspect to be used as art supplies.

I want to not only review various products, but also show how they can be used for creativity and show both economical as well as higher end products.

I will post reviews at least every week and possibly more if time allows in my schedule.

I will also post links as to where you can purchase the product as well.

If you would like to request a product review, please leave your suggestions in the comments and I will try to review it as soon as possible.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing what discoveries we can make together!