Hello there everyone, I am back with a video for you today. I was recently contacted by Arteza and asked if I would do a review on their set of Arteza 48 Real Brush Pens. I have been very intrigued to try these pens for a long time now. As many of my regular readers will know, I always enjoy colouring with my Zigs, so was interested to see how the Arteza brush pens compared.
I do have a video review for you below, which also shows how I created the card, but I first want to talk about the pens themselves.
The Pens
The set that I was sent contains 48 Real Brush Pens. They come in trays of 12, so there are four trays within the box. There is also a nylon-tip waterbrush included. I did try the brush and did like it but I didn’t feel quite so comfortable with it, so I decided not to use it on my project today. You get very used to a waterbrush it seems! The pens themselves have a fine brush nib and are a water based marker so they blend with water. I did find, that as with all water based markers, you need to blend the pigment out pretty quickly after adding it to your cardstock. If you leave it too long, it is hard to move the pigment around and blend it. It becomes almost permanent when dry. As you will see in the video, I colour small sections with the marker and blend them out quickly before moving onto other areas of the image. The fine brush nib really does allow you to get into small areas well so that is very useful.
The barrel of the pen is black and round. It contains lots of general information about the markers, as well as the individual colour name and number of the pen which is always helpful when you are wanting to share that information with your readers. The pen also has a coloured cap on one end so that you get a visual reminder of the colour of the pigment within quite easily. As with all pens, I did swatch mine so I have that as a reference tool. The back of the packaging also has a colour chart, so that is another reference point but swatches are always the best method of really seeing the colour on the cardstocks that you are going to use.
The packs can be purchased in sets of 12, 24, 48 and 96. I do not believe you can buy single colour replacements but it does seem like you can buy a pack of 4 of one colour. So that is useful, but hopefully Arteza will sell them as individual pens in the future. The price of the pens is favourable to other similar markers and my view is that they work just as well, and are a similar quality as my Zigs. I wasn’t able to compare with other markers as I only own Zigs. I felt that there was a good variety of all colours within the 48 set and they are a very fair price point for that amount.
Cardstock
For my project I used Arteza Premium Watercolor cardstock. This is a cold press paper, 300gsm (140lb) and it worked well with the markers. I did heat emboss my image on the cardstock which meant I had very little bleeding but I did try the image without heat embossing and this was also successful. Even though I used more water than I would normally with a smooth cardstock, I didn’t experience hardly any pilling.
My swatch chart was created using Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock. The markers blended very well on this to. This would normally be my go-to cardstock for watercolour markers but I did really like using the Arteza watercolor cardstock and think that they texture of it creates a different look. Definitely a cardstock I would use with them again.
My Project
Here is the video review and colouring but please read on it you want a written description.
I started by stamping the MFT Floral Focus image onto Arteza Watercolor Premium cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I did use the MISTI and did double stamp to make sure I got a good impression as the cardstock is textured. I then began colouring the petals using my lightest colour (Bubblegum Pink) first, and then adding some depth with my mid tone colour (Rouge Pink) and even more depth with my darkest colour (Wine Red). I did the same with the leaves but my three colours were Arctic Blue (lightest), Teal (mid tone), Turtle Green (darkest shade). I used Crocodile Green for my stems and the smaller flowers
With all my watercolouring I worked in small areas with my lightest colour first so that the pigment did not dry before I had a chance to blend it out. I then added layers, working in the exact same way. The cardstock took the colour blending well and because it is a watercolor carstock, I was able to use more water to blend out than I would have normally if I had used Strathmore Bristol Smooth. So that was a definite plus point of the Arteza cardstock.
Once the panel was dry, I stamped a greeting from MFT Bitty Thanks & Gratitude onto it, again using Versafine Onyx Black ink. It was trimmed and mounted onto some SSS Ivory Cardstock with double sided tape.
In summary, I was really pleased to try these pens out. I loved the colours in the 48 pack, I thought there was a good variety and you can always create your own blends by blending colours together. The price point is excellent for this number of pens, they are good quality and I will definitely be using them again.
Discount Code
Arteza have kindly provided me with a coupon code for you to use for any products on their website. This is valid until 31st October 2019. The code is LisaTilson1.
Michelle Short says
Great review, Lisa and I love your card. It’s so pretty! Great colouring. So happy that you like the pens too xx
Debbie P says
Beautiful card. Thank you for the great tips.