Scrawlrbox June 2020

OOOO I love this box! although I feel we've just had a watersoluble box (april) so I didnt think we would get one again so soon. But I dont care as I love watercolours!!!!!!

Excited by the colours and prompt for this box and I already have an idea for it (and its not a skull hehe)

Oh and I must get on and do something with Mays charcoal box, I got a bit distracted with my idea for that and never went back to it. Charcoal is messy....

Artful box 2

So during this lockdown I've been looking for new things to try without leaving the house. I thought about getting another Artsnacks box but it seemed that everyone else had that idea too and they were all sold out and I think there was a waiting list. I remembered a box that my friend had recommended to me some months back but I was put off as it was only a quarterly box, however it was close to the deadline for box 2. So thats what I went for, it is rather expensive for a box £30 including shipping, but they had a code that gives you £10 off so I only spent £20 on this box. I thought that given the price and the fact that the box is only one every 3 months that there would be a lot of supplies in it to keep us busy. I was disapointed.

It looks like the majority of the money goes towards printing the hefty magazine that comes with it, as I do not feel the supplies make up the price. 

Faber Castell Polychromos: Hobbycraft price £1.90, Amazon £3.49

Faber Castell Pencils: Hobbycraft £1.60, Amazon £2.16

Faber Castell Mechanical Pencil: Amazon £4.52

Faber Castell Sketch Pad A5: Craftstash £5.49

Faber Castell Rubber: Amazon a box of 40! £2.18 so 5p each?

Sharpener: Amazon a box of 50 £1.99 so 3p each

So a total of £20.29 if you shop around. 

I don't understand why we've been given a white pencil when there is no coloured paper to use it on, we have a white sketch pad and white cards so making that pencil useless. 

My overall impression of the box is its not worth the money nor the wait, yes I will use the supplies (and I have been) as they are good quality and the pencils/sharpeners and rubbers will always be useful, but I like subscription boxes to challenge me and make me think outside my comfort zone. 

Shop reopened

Just a little post to say that I have reopened my shop on Etsy with some changes as to how and when I post orders. As it usually takes about an hour to get into my local post office (queuing) I only want to go to the post office with a decent amount of orders and not one order as and when they come in, so I will be taking all orders received over a week to post on Monday. I have updated my announcements and shipping profiles to reflect this time frame. 

May 2020 ScrawlrBox

A Pastel/Charcoal themed box with the prompt 'Carbon Heroes' and I'm pretty sure I'm going to draw another skull....

Dungeons and Dragons Homebrew World

I've been a Dungeon master for my friends for about a year now, and a few of my previous posts may have included some d&d stuff relating to this (I also have a blog featuring minis that I've been painting), but a month ago I decided to create my own Homebrew world as I felt it would be easier as a storyteller to create my own tale instead of using Faerun and the Sword coast (which was fine but I felt a bit restricted with what I could do with the players and the locations of people and places) 

So here is their 'starting' island, Gladras:

Currently Gladras features 1 city, 2 towns, docks, forests, a marsh and some mountains. The players have started at level 1 and I wanted to create a small island with low level threats to not kill them.... yet.

Adventures with EVA foam.

Now I am not a cosplayer nor do I make props but for some reason when Kamui Cosplay posted a PDF of how to make skulls with EVA foam I just HAD to do it. 

But I dont have any EVA foam or experience with the stuff....

So after a little bit of research I found where I could get some foam in the UK, along with the foam clay that I wanted to use on the skull: Poly props. I also got some contact adhesive from amazon.

Now I dont have a printer so I thought I could trace the pdf pattern from my monitor if the image was scaled to 100%, it wasn't until I had completed one side of the skull that I realised it was too big. So I popped the pdf on a usb stick and found a photocopier to print the pieces the right size lol.

After working my first attempt, (which wasnt really a failure as I got to practice with the glue on the foam) I started with the face plate part of the skull to be sure it was scaled correctly this time. A few hours later and I had completed the whole top of the skull, the jaw i'm still confused about how it attaches.

Anyway here is its current state:

Next I need to test primers and paints on the scrap bits of foam and also play around with the foam clay as I have never used the stuff before.

I'm using 5mm white foam as I plan on painting this skull as realistic as possible so I thought that a white base would be eaiser to paint instead of black and trying to get it white. Watch this space.....

2020 Scrawlrboxes so far

 Februarys box

March's Box

I loved April's box so much that I did multiples, including a self portait.

Then I aslo bought an old box from the shop which I think was Jan 2017, and I LOVE how my drawing came out!