Favorite Products

Classes

Please visit my teaching site for a full list of classes, but for those wanting recommendations:

• Copic Jumpstart Class is the best place to get a major braindump of my Copic knowledge. It’s not only for beginners; it contains lots of instruction about color theory!
• Colored Pencil Jumpstart Class is an excellent primer for colored pencil artists: color theory, techniques, and more!
• Bible Journaling 101 is an inexpensive overview of Bibles, mediums, and a basic start….watch all the lessons prior to shopping and it might just save you a bundle. If you want to learn how to turn your ideas into visuals, Seeing the Scriptures is a great start.
• For all mediums: I highly recommend Drawing 101 prior to ANY intermediate level class. The class was designed to provide basic instruction on forms, perspective, and shading, and your art in future classes will be much more successful if you know a little about drawing first.
• Watercolor Jumpstart Class will be coming in Fall 2018!

Copics

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• Copic Marker blending recommendations are HERE.
• Copic Jumpstart Class is the best place to get a major braindump of my Copic knowledge.
• The stores I recommend, for price, customer service, or just plain awesomeness! These links take you to the Copic section of  the store: Ellen Hutson LLC | Blick Art Materials
• Storage: the big case that I use has been discontinued. Boo! But note that Copic (and most) markers can be stored horizontally or vertically.
• Cardstock for Copic coloring: Neenah; I most often use the  80# but occasionally the 110#
• Copic-friendly inks for stamping:
  • Lawn Fawn Jet Black (this one works with watercolor too!)
  • Memento Tuxedo Black
  • Avery Elle DYE New Moon (softer pad)
• Airbrush – see the Get Started post HERE.
• Colorless Blender for adding texture (apply with textured fabrics etc) or put into a Mini-mister and spritz.
• Copic Multliners – refillable or disposable (less expensive). They also come in colors. And sets of black: refillable or disposable

Colored Pencils

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• Hex charts:
  • Prismacolor Hex Chart
  • Polychromos Hex Chart
  • Luminance Hex Chart
• Three brands to recommend:
  • Prismacolor are the brand I’ve used since college and love them! Come in 150 c0lors.
  • Polychromos – excellent pigmentation and range of 120 markers.
  • Luminance – smaller range of colors (72), but very well pigmented
• My pencil technique is well-explained in Colored Pencil Jumpstart Class
• Sharpener: I’ve found THIS one and love it! For travel I use this one.
• Some folks like using Gamsol – but I like plain old baby oil better (if I use anything to blend it. I generally prefer the look of just the pencil.)
• I store pencils in cases – the small one for neutrals and large one for everything else. (Two of them accomodate the entire Prismacolor collection.)

Watercolor, brushes, & papers

There’s a LONG “Getting started with watercolor” post HERE – with info on papers, brushes and paints. Below is a quick list of favorites, Compensated affiliate links may used. Read more.

• Watercolor Jumpstart Class
•  Brushes:
  • Silver brushes – I tend to use 8 and 12 most; I recommend using the biggest brush you can for the job
  • DaVinci Cosmotop Spin Brush  for flat washes
• Tube paints:
  • Daniel Smith – Start with the set of 6 basics, or order one of my dot cards so you can test out a little of each of my colors. You really don’t need a lot of colors if you learn how to mix….stay tuned for a Watercolor Jumpstart Class coming in fall 2018.
  • I’ve put my paints into a palette – see more about how I set mine up HERE.
• Pan Paints:
  • Gansai Tambi. Great buy for crafters who don’t want aninvestment.
  • Good pans for travel and everyday use are the Koi. I took these and others to Europe with me in 2015 and they were the best for that trip!
  • Pricey small travel pan sets: W&N and Holbein – In all honesty I don’t use these much except if traveling.
• Liquid paints:
  • Dr PhMartin Hydrus – intense and delicious, my fave brand of these. They come in three sets of 12 bottles, no duplicates between them. They dry permanently – which means you can layer over them without “lifting” color you’ve already put down, as long as you wait til it’s completely dry. These are the best “deal” per ounce of liquid watercolors listed here.
  • These three are NOT permanent, but come in .5oz bottles:
    • Hero Arts – basic colors
    • Avery Elle – soft, interesting colors
    • Pinkfresh – best color selection out of these last three.
• Hardbord for taping down paper, though I do that less and less of late. Regular old masking tape.
• Grumbacher Masking Fluid is the one I recommend – other brands dried out on their own over time. Dip a yucky brush into dishwashing liquid to coat it before using masking fluid – makes it a lot easier to wash off right away.
• Three-tiered brush washer for dirty, less dirty, and clean water.
• Favorite papers for finished work (my absolute fave is the rough)

Watercolor Pencils

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• Pencils: the more you pay, as always, the better the quality. See comparison HERE. My recommendations:
  • Albrecht Durer pencils – Very nice artist quality pencils!  I have the full set. Yum.
  • Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils – Superb in quality, both intense color and application.
• Inktense pencils – these are an ink, so they dry permanently.
• I store pencils in cases like this one.
• Sharpener: I’ve found THIS one and love it!

Water-based Markers

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• There are so many water-based/water-soluble pens out there. Use what you have! Please don’t feel you “need” a new set just because it’s the latest rage. These are listed in price order, lowest to highest – and as always, the higher end markers tend to gain best results.
  • Marvy LePlume II – A mix of colors, more realistic than vibrant; easily soluble with water on watercolor paper. Brush nib plus a SUPER TINY bullet nib that I love. 108 colors.
  • Tombow – A mix of vibrant and dull colors; easily soluble with water on watercolor paper. Brush and bullet nibs. 96 colors.
  • Zig Clean Color – Very vibrant colors; single nib is an actual brush nib. Works on watercolor paper with water (they run quickly with water – and some change color entirely when mixed with water.) But these also color fairly well on some non-watercolor papers. Great for coloring books. 80 colors.
  • Ranger Distress Markers – Great for a variety of techniques, but not terribly soluble when applied directly to paper – palette use almost always helpful. 60(ish) colors and always being added to.
• Some watercolor techniques are best achieved with pens rather than brushes and a palette. But don’t forget you can apply watercolor markers direct to stamps as well as scribble on a palette!

Watercolor Powders

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Watercolor powders have been around for decades – and are so much fun! See this post for more info than you could stand on the powders – including some buying tips and comparisons to help you get started. Brusho is my preference – they’ve been around for over 25 years. It is artist quality pigment, comes in 34 colors (2 just added), and retains a beautiful granular quality.

Basic Card Making Tools

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• Trimmer – Guillotine is my favorite!
• Detail Scissors – Love these for detail work.
• Mats:
  • Craft Asssistant – the black shiny 12×12 metal plate you see in my videos. Cleans up great, and magnetic masking material sticks to it!
  • Tim Holtz Glass Mat – large, heavy, and has several areas for working, mixing, etc. Cleans up great – not magnetic.; but I haven’t decided if I’m ok with the black and white grid, it’s a little visually confusing to me.
• Adhesives – With the demise of my favorite tape runner, I now use ATG, Be Creative tape,  roll of dimensional adhesive, dimensional Power Tabs
• Corner Chomper (rounder)
• MISTI – awesome tool!!
• Acrylic blocks  love the soft curved edges on these for stamping and tiny block set for AI watercolor.
• Light box for transferring images

Stamps

Crazy huge category! Agh! #iloveallthestamps…here are just a few of my favorite companies. In alpha order so I don’t have to pick favorites, LOL! Compensated affiliate links may used. Read more.

• Altenew
• Art Impressions
• Avery Elle
• Hero Arts
• Lawn Fawn
• My Favorite Things
• Our Daily Bread Designs – great Scripture stamps
• Paper Smooches
• Purple Onion Designs, esp Stacey Yacula’s designs
• Reverse Confetti

Stamping Inks

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• Memento Tuxedo Black or Avery Elle DYE New Moon (softer pad) for Copic coloring
• Ranger Archival or Versafine for Watercolor
• Hero Arts dye inks
• Avery Elle Pigment Inks
• Versamark for embossing  – and it comes in a pen too
• Distress Inks – all the minis, in these cases

Bible Journaling

There’s an entire site for my book filled with info – look for the Buyers Guides for both Bibles and art supplies.

Broadcasting Technology

• Camera:  I shoot on a Canon EOS Rebel T5i.
• Editing software: I edit in Final Cut Pro.
• Tripod: I love the Mobile Grip 2 for my car, and Kitchen Desk Table Stand in the studio for live broadcasting – and with the ball adaptor, it works with my camera as well as my phone. Use coupon code sandyallnock to get 20% off any purchases at Arkon.