Smart Art is a fine arts subscription service that sends a new project every month and all the supplies needed to complete it. My husband and I are both artists, so we were very happy to have the opportunity to try this box out!
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: Smart Art
The Cost: $49.99 per month with free shipping
COUPON: Use code MSA20 to save 20% off your first box
The Products: A fine arts project, complete with instructions and supplies
Ships to: US only
Good to know: It's a different project in a different media every month, using different techniques!
This is a little card attached to the inside lid of the box. Subscribers can upload a picture of their finished project to Smart Art's Facebook page for a chance to win a free box! That's really cool! On the other hand, our projects usually take forever, so we always seem to miss the boat on this contest.
This month's project was creating a charcoal gesture drawing in the style of Renoir! My husband jumped on this one - he loves to draw! This is the booklet that Smart Art sends every month. It includes art history related to the project, a list of the included supplies, project pointers, and instructions.
Here's a closer look at the instructions. My husband didn't mention anything about them, so I assume they were easy enough to follow. They usually are.
Renoir Sketch Book by Maruman - Value $18.95 (on sale for $4.99 at Jerry's Art-a-Rama)
What a beautiful, fancy sketch book! The cover and little side tie are beautiful, and the paper is nice and heavy.
Wood Figure Manikin - Value $16.50 (on sale at Jerry's for $10.39)
Creative Mark Willow Charcoal Mixed Diameter Box of 15 - Value $9.95 (on sale at Jerry's for $5.99)
My husband was thrilled to see these charcoals! He said they were really nice, and that he would have been overjoyed to have a fancy canister of charcoals like these when he was a kid.
Charcoal Holder - Value $10.50 (on sale at Jerry's for $4.19)
Heritage Arts Drawing Tools Set- Value $9.75
This is a fabulous set of tools to work with charcoal! These can also be used with graphite and pastels. I wish I had a set like this when I was in college.
This is my husband's completed drawing. I think it turned out pretty great for this project! It looks like he mastered gesture drawings long ago.
The Verdict: My husband and I love Smart Art! This project wasn't all that interesting to me, so I was glad my husband wanted to do it. With all arts and crafts "kit" style DIY subscriptions, there will always be months in which you don't love the project. My advice when that happens is to do it anyway because you never know, you may love your end product.
The retail values of all the supplies comes to about $65, but the sale values only reach about $36. That's fine with me, actually. Smart Art is really well curated and sends quality supplies, plus the background and instruction for the projects has enormous value to me, all of which makes this subscription more valuable. Moreover, it saves me so much time and effort (and usually money) than if I were to research and decide on a project myself, hunt down the supplies, etc. Smart Art is awesome!
What do you think of Smart Art?
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