Art Snacks Subscription Box Review – April 2015
Art Snacks is a monthly subscription service that provides artists with new, curated, top-of-the-line supplies. Art Snacks is the brainchild of siblings Lee and Sarah Rubenstein, founders of eatsleepdraw.com, a user-submitted art site.
The Subscription Box: Art Snacks
The Cost: $20 a month, with savings on 6- and 12-month subscriptions
The products: A selection of various curated new art supplies
Ships to: US for free, everywhere else for $10 per box
This is the information card that came in the package. It lists each item in the box with suggestions on how to use them. My husband is an artist, and he was completely excited to play with all these new toys!
Pentel Medium Aquash Brush – Value $4.50
This was by far my husband’s favorite discovery in the box! He didn’t even know such things existed! When using solid pigments like watercolor pencils, he has always dipped his brush in plain water to get the watercolor effect. This brush allows you to skip the dipping and squeeze water straight out of the brush handle!
(The values of these items are not listed on the info card, so I used values from Amazon and Google to get estimates.)
All the other supplies were wrapped in this little bundle. I always appreciate nice, safe packaging.
Pentalic Watercolor Pencils – Value $0.50 each
These are watercolor pencils! My husband has used them before, but I didn’t know about these. You draw with these pencils, and then use the aquash brush to apply water and get the watercolor effect.
ZIG Millennium Fine Point Pen – Value $2
Le Plume II Dual-Tipped Marker – Value $2
Chartpak AD Marker – $3
The colors of the brown and lilac markers were both very saturated and true to the color on the packaging. All three of these items were wins for my husband!
Art Snacks also threw in this sticker and bubble gum. My seven-year-old was the most excited about these items!
My husband drew this little CD cover with all the supplies from this month’s Art Snacks. It’s nothing too fancy, but it gives an idea of what the products look like in use. And yes, we still make mixtapes (CD’s) for each other and our friends like teenagers!
Verdict: This is a tough call to make. On the one hand, my husband loved everything in the box and said that it was all good quality products. On the other hand, the value of the items in the box adds up to only about $12.50, and the box cost $20 shipped. Then again, it looks like the watercolor pencils only come in sets, and that might be true of some of the markers as well, so it wouldn’t be possible to only spend 50 cents on one pencil, you would have to spend about $24 to get 13 or so. If you got them and didn’t like them, that would be more money wasted. I think this subscription is more about trying different items, and items that are curated to work well together. If you don’t mind paying a little more to sample a larger variety of high-quality art supplies, then I would definitely recommend this subscription.
What do you think of Art Snacks?
Written by Anna Rodriguez
Thanks for the review. Do you know if all boxes are the same? My April box looked nothing like this, and I would have loved these products….especially the aquash!!
Thanks
I enjoyed reading the review. I love using watercolor pencils.
I’ve been subscribing to Artsnacks for several months now and love it! I love art and crafts and dabble in all sorts of things so I am always excited to get this box every month. I can understand for those that do more particular types of art won’t find this box useful. The value of each month is different, some months are more than others, obviously. I really believe that the overall value is great over a few boxes. I know I have gotten Copic markers (retail from $6-8) and Krink markers (retail $8-10) and even a pencil set! I live in NYC so I do have access to great art stores but I love getting a surprise each month on my doorstep and then going to the art store and buying what I like!
I am so excited so one it reviewing this!!! I wish there were more boxes geared towards fine artists like myself. I tried art snacks a couple months and although I love the idea and the materials I got, the value wasn’t good. And being a poor visual artist, I prefer to go to an art store and get a bunch of random stuff to try for $20.
I will say if anyone is looking for a fine art material box, try Pigment & Pallette. I’ve had them for 6 months and the value is better than art snack, usually. Their boxes are $18 and the materials come is an awesome black box with a magnetic closure! The box is one of my favorite parts! Great for saving for organizing materials.
Their boxes usually contain about the value of what you paid. But I really wish there was a fine art supply box out there, where you would get materials at a much higher value than what you paid.
Edit…I am so excited some one is reviewing this (sorry typing on my iPod touch)
Also you can get those pencils and markers as singles at art supplies stores. Atleast I’m able to here in ny. But if you don’t have one near by and have to order online, it is a good way to discover products. For me it’s just not practical because I can sample these items inside the art supply store I shop at before even buying them.
Good to know! Thanks Melody!
Thanks for the heads up Melody! Was considering getting this sub as a gift for an artsy friend but I think I’ll look into Pigment & Palette now. I agree, Artsnacks seems cool but I don’t really see the value…
I got this subscription for my daughter for several months, and she really liked the quality of the items. I unsubscribed, however, because it contains supplies for all sorts of art genres, and she really prefers to draw, not paint, so we were essentially wasting money on a too-expensive box.