Recovering from Covid- Patreon Newsletter November 29th (Patreon)

Hey Artnerds!

I apologize for being out of communication for so long! I've mentioned this on a few places, but not on Patreon, I caught Covid at a friend's wedding earlier this month, and it's taken awhile to feel well enough to get to the studio.  Even though it's just my dining room, the trek across the house and the thought of sitting under all those lights at my drafting table was often overwhelming while I felt so bad.

While I'm not 100% yet, I'm feeling much better, and now I'm happy to get behind the desk again!

Black Friday Week and what I've noticed

There's been a lot of chatter about Black Friday and Black Friday week (yanno, basically every day BUT Thanksgiving/Thursday) online lately, with a lot of pundits noticing that we may be at the point of unsustainable.  Retailers are oversaturating the market with a week of sales, and many consumers are just worn out from constant notifications, emails, and near-unnavigable sites (Amazon, I'm lookin' at you).

I've noticed that many of the art supplies and art books that live in my cart for months while I manage Patreon income and wait for sales tend to become a bit more expensive in the Fall months leading up to Thanksgiving.  I use a Honey extension that tracks prices, so for many of these products, I'm waiting for them to either return to their normal price or dip.  This Black Friday week, I bought many things that have been lurking in my cart since May, simply because this was the lowest I've seen them in several months.

I have mixed feelings about this because I feel like many of these things are artificially inflated to make the sale price seem more impressive- and I'd rather just pay a fair price.  I also feel kinda weird about supporting Amazon so much. Generally I use Amazon to buy artist's how to books and Paul Rubens products, and I buy almost everything else either at David's Art Center locally, or through Blick or Ali Express depending on what I'm buying.  But for the Easily Influenced series, many of these books aren't available at Davids, or my local Barnes & Noble, or my local Michaels.

What I bought:

Paul Ruben's new professional watercolors- I want to compare them to the older tubes and see if there's actually an improvement.  Generally, I really like Paul Ruben's tubens.

Paul Rubens Glittery colors that seem like they're gansai style- These have been in my AliExpress cart and Amazon carts for awhile, and TheFrugalCrafter found a deal on both the PR professional colors and the Glittery colors, so I had to bite.

Marie's Pure Pigments-Another one that's been living in my cart for months.

Special Effects Lettering & Calligraphy-Grace Frösén (this is for the easily influenced series, I really enjoy her glass pen lettering on Instagram)

Cozy Days- The Art of Iraville (this is for the easily influenced series)

Botanical Watercolor Painting for Beginners- Cara Olsen (this is for the easily influenced series)

Art Whale Artist's Watercolors (these are supposed to be Superior tube watercolors, I believe TheFrugalCrafter linked a deal)

Meiliang Watercolor Paint Set (tubes- TheFrugalCrafter linked a deal)

What I've been working on:

Supervision Field Test:

I started the review a while back, but juggling Fall Fest and getting sick backburnered the fieldtest by several weeks.  I really like the format of doing the Unbox & Swatch and Fieldtest in the same video when possible, as its more cohesive and I feel like most people don't come back to watch the Fieldtest, but it does make videos take a lot longer, and they're much more involved this way.

Wrapping up Josie Lewis' Michaels collab and Jane Davenport

For the Josie Lewis Art Supply Redemption/Easily Influenced, I purchased a couple sets from the Brea Reese collab that's being sold at Michaels, as well as her book The New Color Mixing Companion: Explore and Create Fresh and Vibrant Color Palettes with Paint, Collage, and Mixed Media.  I've been trying to focus on dual reviews when possible- reviewing one of the artist's books and a product they've released or a collaboration.  The books often provide helpful context and insight into how the artist in question thinks, and I love seeing how other artists think and solve problems.  With Jane Davenport, I'm reviewing two books- Beautiful Faces and Fabulous Figures and her Layercake paints, a more opaque water medium in a compact form.  With both videos, a lot of time is involved- waiting for products to arrive, reading books and taking notes, recording all the segments, editing everything together, and screening the videos to ensure everything works.  Basically, good things take time! 

I'm really enjoying the Easily Influenced series- I've had so much fun making the time to read so many different art books.  It's also neat to look at different artists' online presences and see what I can learn from what's working for them.

Gift Guide on What to Give a Young Artist

Over the years, I've shared a lot of art supply kit reviews and gift guides but this year, I had the pleasure of shopping for a nephew who has gotten into art, and I wanted to share what we bought for his Christmas present.  I'm really pleased to have the opportunity to shop for a young artist, as I've talked about what I would recommend or what I would buy for years, and this is the first time I've been able to put that into action.

When recording this, I assumed he doesn't watch my Youtube channel, but I have since found out he does, so I'll release this as an early access to yall, and hold it until after Christmas to not spoil the fun.

Creating an Autumn Start to Finish 

I've released several Start to Finish watercolor tutorials this Fall, and I wanted to do one more Fall Start to Finish before winter sets in.  This last one is Renn Faire inspired because I've been waiting to go to the Renn Faire all year. We had to postpone it a couple of times due to Covid and the weather, but I'm still hopeful we'll make it out this year.  I've already shared the printable coloring page for this to Backer Exclusive, and hope to have the tutorial out for yall Sunday!  

A Note of Thanks

I want to say that I really appreciate your support this year.  So many small businesses and creators are really struggling this year due to increased prices and decreased sales- and it's understandable!  People in general are really struggling to make ends meet! So I really appreciate your continued support this year- it has really helped me continue to review art supplies and create tutorials for you guys. I particularly appreciate your patience while I was sick with Covid.  I'm trying not to push myself too hard, as I don't want to get sick again, but hopefully we can see more Early Access in the upcoming weeks.

New to the Public:

Sunday, November 12th: MaiMeri Blu Professional Grade Watercolor Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkhBiOqmqE

Wednesday, November 15th: Trying out Dagger Brushes! And Stonehenge's Kraft Paper- David's Art Supply Haul- August 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqKB0me819I

Sunday, November 19th: Revisiting some Old Friends- Swatching Daniel Smith's Supergranulating Watercolors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_Qm_MCW1g&t=1s

Wednesday, November 22nd: Easily Influenced by Jenna Rainey- Reviewing Everyday Watercolor  & Her MaiMeriBlu Collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgrMBhXUzdA

Sunday, November 26th: Let's Make a Mushroom Crown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTkPlgsVrJI