As all of you lovely readers know, I hit a bit of a wall at the start of the year. I have been doing everything that I can to get the creative juices flowing. One of the suggestions that other artists have for getting things going again is mini challenges. There are so many out there. There are Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest daily prompt accounts. There are “Draw this in your style” challenges, which I am going to look at next. There are challenges where you limit yourself somehow, either through time, number of colours, supplies you can use etc. One “tool” that I really enjoyed on this line last year was Sketchbox.

I fell down a crazy subscription box rabbit hole last fall. I quickly subscribed to a couple and immediately cut myself off haha. One of my favourites was Sketchbox. There are multiple ways to subscribe, one month, three months, six months, and there are basic and premium boxes available depending on your level of interest. There are also unboxing videos for each box which will show you all of the contents if you can’t wait for your box to arrive, but will also go through different ways to use the tools in your box. So, if you get something that you have never used before, be not afraid, there is guidance to show you how to start using everything.

When I signed up I bought three of the past boxes, and signed up for the six month subscription. Each box had a different medium collection in it. One was marker based (my favourite), chalk based, water colour based, mixed media. All kinds! I really like this because a lot of my art is mixed media, I rarely do something start to finish in just marker, or just digital, or just pencil crayon. I am always mixing something in and the more I have at my disposal, the more opportunities I have at my finger tips.

This is a great subscription box for anyone who is looking to learn a few new mediums, looking to expand their knowledge on mediums they are familiar with, and challenge their way of working. It has also been a great way to try tools I have been interested in, but didn’t want to commit to a full set of just yet, in case the tool wasn’t for me. Each box suggests that you create a piece using only the contents of the box. You can obviously do whatever you would like, but I tried that with my first few boxes and I came up with some really interesting projects.

Some of the great tools that I discovered with this subscription are:

• TCW Watercolour Sparx Powder
• Kuretake Zig Ink stick
• Edding Soft White Patel Pen
• Ecoline Watercolour Brush Pens
• Higgins India Ink Softliner Brush Pen
• Irodori Kobako Kit
• Molotow Liquid Chrome marker

I have all of my boxes now from my first round of the subscription. I did put my subscription on hold, but only because when I was in that creative rut earlier I didn’t create with the boxes, and they were starting to overwhelm me. Now that I have a clearer vision forward, I am going to pop each one open, one at a time, and start creating. Once I am caught up I will start my subscription again.

My next box is focused on ink, I am very excited for this one. Please keep an eye out for the finished piece on my Instagram and my Facebook pages.