Shoplog | art supplies I bought in 2020 so far

I was looking through my older blogposts and came by a blog I wrote when I just moved into our new apartment in Brussels where I had my very first art studio. It was a shoplog of all the stuff I bought, like furniture and art supplies. And here I am, almost four years later, living in Ghent and realizing I haven't wrote a shoplog in ages! So here it is, some of the art supplies I bought in 2020. It's not everything, cause I buy a lot (one can never have too many art supplies) and I can not remember every little thing. 

drawing paper

Well, I don't have anything interesting to say about this, it's just paper... 
I always need a minimum of 200 g/m² because I work with different materials, such as watercolor, coloured pencil, water, ink, acrylics etc. and it just needs to be of good quality. I bought these, for around 10 to 20 euro's each I think, at Lucas Creativ. 

sketchbook and supplies for on-the-go

It's a simple sketchbook, graphite pencils from 4H to 4B, a sharper and an eraser (it's gone on the picture, I know...). I always bring it with me when I travel by train or when I know I will have to wait a while. I bought it for around 2 or 3 euro's in the Action. 

A sort of smartphone projector

Yeah, well, I bought this on AliExpress and I don't remember what it was called. But it's a plastic thing that you put together as a smarthphone holder and there is a plastic transparant thingy that reflects the image you have on your smartphone and so you can trace the image. It cost me around 2 or 3 euro's and I haven't really used it, because I usually make much larger drawings. But I'm still happy to have it. It can come in handy some day. 

Dual tip brush pens

This is also something I bought on AliExpress. I really don't remember how much I paid for it, but it must have been between 5 and 12 euro's I guess. 

two watercolor sets

I didn't actually need this, but you literally can't have enough art supplies, right? I recently bought these two watercolor sets on AliExpress, I think they were between 12 and 17 euro's each. The first is from the brand SeamiArt and the second is from Superior (I'm not really sure...). They both came with a brush containing a water reservoir and a sponge to clean the brushes (perfect for painting on-the-go!). The SeamiArt also has a flat brush and a color card. I will write a review on these once I used them on illustrations. 

Make-up sponges

Yep. To blend, add water, clean brushes.
​Haven't used them yet but it will be awesome.
I bought a bag full of different shapes for approximately 2 euro's and one fake beauty-blender (with the marble print on it) also for 2 euro's in the Action. 

Body Kun female action figure

It's an extremely movable doll that comes with accessories, like a sword, a laptop, smartphone, cellphone, tablet, pen and a gun. It has a holder, but can also be used without. It's very good for drawing certain poses! I bought it for around 15 euro's on AliExpress. 

Pencil extenders

I really don't know why I haven't had these all my life already. These come in very very handy. When I have a pencil that's way too short to properly hold, I can just put it in there. Love it. Bought it for around 1 or 2 euro's (can't really remember) on AliExpress. 

Pencil sharpENER

This is just great! You can easily clamp it on your drawing table like I did and the surface is very rough, so you can scratch your pencil on it, sideways, to make it sharper. It can make it really really really sharp! And there are no risks, like there are when using a regular sharpener. It is two sided, so when you are lefthanded you can put it on the left of the drawing table, and when you are righthanded (like me), you put it on the right. As you can see, it also has a tray at the bottom. I bought it for around 5 euro's I think at AliExpress. 

Faber-Castell polychromos 120 in wooden case

Last but certainly not least. I think this was on my list for like 5 or 6 years or so. I wanted it só badly! A few years ago I bought the 36 set for like 70 euro's, and I was very satisfied and happy with it. Now I recently (finally!) bought ALL THE 120 COLORS in the wooden case. I love having so many colors to work with. I used to blend it with odourless white spirit, but because it's not very healthy to work with, I recently started blending it with almond oil. I want to try to work with baby oil as well, but the almond oil works great!  I'm so in love! This wooden case with 120 pieces cost me approximately 290 euro's at Lucas Creativ. 

If you are an artist yourself, what did you buy in the past few months? Let me know in the comments below! 

​Love,
​Iris