March ScrawlrBox

ScrawlrBox is a monthly art supplies subscription based here in the UK, I recently subscribed and received the March ScrawlrBox as my first box. There was something very Christmas-morning-ish about receiving the branded cardboard box containing mystery tissue-paper wrapped art goodies! Here’s what I unwrapped (with a big grin on my face!):

• Featured Artist card (March’s artist is the amazing Carne Griffiths), ScrawlrBox sticker, card with information on all the included products and details of the ScrawlrBox challenge
• Derwent Graphik Line Painter (in Clockwork Orange)
• Derwent Graphik Line Maker (in Sepia)
• Parker Vector Fountain Pen
• Derwent Graphite Pencil (9B)
• Bockingford 300gsm CP White Paper
• Tetley Tea Bag and plastic tube
• Maoam Stripes sweet 🙂

Some of these supplies are very different to what I usually use. I generally use bright white, very smooth paper. And no pencil softer than a 2B. And black ink rather than sepia or blue. So, I was rather intimidated to begin with, but also excited to try out some new materials and techniques! I started playing around just drawing some shapes with the various pens and found myself doodling a carrot with the Line Painter (it was Easter weekend!) which inspired me to try my hand at drawing some Easter kawaii style characters with the contents of my box.

The challenge prompt for the month was “Spontaneous” – a prompt very open to interpretation! The “spontaneous” part of the challenge here for me was drawing in a totally new style and going straight in with the ink rather than sketching out the design in pencil before inking up. It was scary, but fun! I started with the chick in the egg at the bottom and worked upwards and sideways from there, hoping I wasn’t going to run out of room along the way!

I also made another drawing based on the Spontaneous prompt, this time using all the contents of the box including the Bockingford paper and the tea (the brown shapes here are drops of tea!). I brewed a nice strong cup of tea, watered down the inks from the fountain pen and paint pen and dropped the liquids across the paper, using the plastic straw to blow them around into whatever randomly shapes they ended up forming. It reminded me of the sort of arty messes I used to make as a child! I then doodled over the top with the sepia marker and pencil.

ScrawlrBox costs £15 a month for a month-to-month subscription with shipping included within the UK. They also ship internationally for an additional £5. I really liked the materials and the inclusion of the featured artist information, and monthly challenge was really fun! The ScrawlrBox team work with the featured artist to choose the materials to include each month so the contents of the box and the challenge reflect the style of each month’s artist. I am looking forward to my next box, new art supplies and new challenge!