Favourite Art Supplies of 2025 and The Ones I Regret

Hello everyone, Leah here and in today's video I'm going to share with you my best and most favorite art supplies of 2025 as well as a few of my regrets. It's been a couple years since I've done this so let's just dive right in with my most used and favorite sketchbook brand of 2025 which are the Royal Talens art creation sketchbooks. I know that they're super popular amongst a lot of artists and when I first tried it I was like well you know what's so great about it but then I tried it and I was like oh boy I can see why these are great and my reasoning for loving them is the fact that they have a nice reasonable price. You can usually get them for around 12 to 15 dollars depending on the art supply store and the paper is a nice smooth cream texture that can take a lot of different materials. Like here I use watercolor markers and colored pencils. This here is a Derwin Inktense. These are markers again and I even use some gouache, some ink, some line like um uh I'm drawing a blank on the name of type of pen I was using. Oh no. Anyways the point is they can take quite a bit of different materials. I wouldn't say these are a watercolor like watercolors are safe in here. You can use a minimal like a minimal amount of water but you can still do a little bit of everything in here and because of its low price bracket I feel this low pressure like I can create anything in here. It can be ugly, it can be pretty, it could be something that I'm doing to reduce anxiety that I have, it could just be me exploring ideas and textures. I even have these square ones here that I use for color exploration and just exploring so many different things. Now I know that this is an easy sketchbook for me to get a hold of here in Canada so it might not be the same for everyone everywhere but yeah I just I really love this sketchbook a lot and these are my two favorite sizes. Um I do have one sketchbook though that I regret buying and it's a Royal Talens and it's this big one right here. See here's the thing, even though I love the paper in it and I love that I can paint with it and draw on it and do so many things, I discovered that I never reach for this gigantic one here. As you can see it only has a few pages used and I've tried painting in it, I've used my inktense, I've explored a bunch of stuff but it's just too big. I just don't enjoy using it, it's so heavy, I just I don't know, I don't gravitate to it. However, this ginormous 9x12 from Fab, uh from Faber-Castell, no sorry Fabriano, jeez Louise. I got it back in 2024 and I used it for exploring like ideas and concepts and then I used it for exploring colors and products because I, I liked the paper but I wasn't too sure really how to use it. It's, it's big and I was just like I don't know man, doing all these little studies in it just isn't working. But this summer I decided to use it. It was a really big surface, I sat on my front porch and I just started to play around with my materials. I sat outside, I tested using acrylic gouache outside and it still bothered my lungs so I was like oh nope, can't use that. Um but yeah, I just started to really enjoy this sketchbook. I enjoyed using my markers in it, I enjoyed using my inktense and I think the main difference between this ginormous one and the uh art creations one is just the texture of the paper. With it being so big and the fact that it lays flat and I feel like I can just use whatever I want in it. I can use a lot of water in it and not really worry about buckling or anything like that. It just made it that little extra enjoyable. I enjoyed using this outside and I still have quite a few pages to go but yeah, I just, I don't know what the difference is between the two but I did enjoy that one more. As for watercolor sketchbooks, this here is a Hanamule and I have really enjoyed using it. The only thing is that I started to create things and treat it like it's a precious sketchbook and that's something that I find I do a lot with when it comes to watercolor sketchbooks. Like I feel like everything in here needs to be beautiful but I loved how it can take everything I was throwing at it. My watercolors, my gouache and oh this is also a good time to mention the fact that these two tapes are so far my favorite tapes to use in watercolor sketchbooks because look at this. I'm going to peel it off and this tape has been on this sketchbook for quite some time. I just kind of left it there after putting the material down to make the pink background and I can still peel it off and get a crisp line and it doesn't rip the paper. So yeah, I only have a couple of pages left in this and I've been really enjoying it. The sketchbook itself is I believe cellulose paper like so no cotton paper. This one here from Etcher is 100% cotton paper and it's hot press instead of cold press. I first bought it at the beginning you know in 2025. I really enjoyed using it but then I started to treat it like it was precious and then I stopped using it because I don't want to be precious in my sketchbooks. I want to be able to explore ideas and things like that. So once I was able to relax and actually just explore ideas, make ugly art and just have fun, that's when I start to really enjoy it more. So yes, I find I enjoy sketchbooks more when I get to just like be messy in them. And one of my favorite supplies that I really enjoyed using this year was my gouache. And I've tried a lot of brands this year and of all the brands I've enjoyed them all. They all have their pros and cons I think but what of the two brands like of the brands that I have the two that I gravitate towards the most are Holbein and Shinhan. Those two brands I don't know what it is about them but I just gravitate to them the most. It could also just be the colors that I have in them but I I have several as you can see and I do plan on eventually doing reviews of each brand I've tried. But I really just want to get comfortable with this material because it's still new to me. I want to find my artistic voice with it before I do that kind of thing. But I have way too many gouache colors but these are the ones that I tend to grab the most so I keep them in this little bucket here. But uh yeah this has been by far my favorite painting material all year. I have also learned that if I store them upside down like this I have less pigment separation for some reason because there have been some instances instances I don't know why I can't talk today. I am not stopping this recording and trying again. Um that uh that they just flow better like I get more out of it when I do it like this. Okay and of my watercolors these are the two sets that I've used the most this year. So my everyday palette which has a mixture of all my brights and favorite colors and then my Scottish Isles palette where I have a curated set of colors that are nice and moody and stuff. So this is the Scottish Isles and the colors that are in it. Look how nice they are granulating beautiful. If you're interested in knowing more about the type of watercolor palettes I have and the different looks of the paints that I have in general I do have a swatching video where I swatch all of my sets so I'll link to that. Um I just love having curated sets it makes creating a lot fun a lot more fun for me. Now this here is neocolor twos so they're the water soluble ones. I have both the neocolor ones and the twos but of them I gravitate mostly to these ones here. I absolutely love using them for mark making with my within my sketchbooks for doing color explorations in my royal talons. I don't know I just I also like that they have more color options than the one because you just have a wider range of colors. I don't have any of the new ones that came out this year for their 50th anniversary celebration but when I want to sharpen them oh yeah I I use this sharpener and use put it in the biggest hole that's just like my only tip that I have here for these guys is that they don't fit in normal sharpeners. I've also been using a lot of colored pencils. Now in this cup here you're gonna see some new ones so the Derwent drawing and the Derwent intense. Now I've enjoyed them so far since I've had them but they're new to me whereas the colors that I'm trying to find in this cup are the ones that I gravitated towards the most this year and I know that because they are the teeny tiny ones and they're getting smaller and smaller and smaller the more I use them. I know there's more and I know I'm going to go searching for them in a few minutes but these are the colors I really gravitated towards and the brands. So I have Holbein colored pencils, Luminance and Prismacolor. Of the three, Prismacolor is by far the most affordable here in Canada for me. The other two are quite expensive but I really enjoy the textures that I get from them, their coverage that I get as well and just the color options within them. So while I was recording this there was just so much noise going on in the background I was like I I'm just gonna do a voiceover that's my only option so I can't even remember what I was saying at this point in time when I was searching for them but basically I'm just looking for the colors that have gotten the smallest and that I've replaced and you know still keep getting down really small and as you can see they are these ones right here. I mean that's the easiest way to know if you've used something and at this point I'm gonna switch over to just pencils like what I'm using to sketch ideas or explore things. I had been using that that HB pencil but then I went and started using an Inktense pencil instead so that way instead of shading and doing things like that I was able to water it down and yeah I just I used it for so many different things with all these different drawings I found it far more enjoyable. Now I do want to point out that this year in 2025 I used markers almost every single day and I have Tombow, Faber-Castell, Ecoline. I was doing a lot of shape exploration, color exploration. I spent a lot of time doing exercises to help with reducing anxiety because I've been doing dealing with a lot of chronic health issues this year and they were just the easiest supplies for me to use while sitting on the couch or laying in bed. Markers have become this saving grace of an art supply for me and during the year I noticed that I have certain colors that I just constantly kept having to replace and it was these four from Tombow. I didn't even realize that these were my go-to colors like they I just naturally use them in larger quantities than my pinks and my blues which is weird because I love pink and blues but this year this was these were the colors there is one blue I don't know why I don't have in my hand oh here we go I'm putting it in my hand now this one from Faber-Castell's pit line but these are the colors that I use the most out of everything and you'll find that if you're having to rebuy colors or your pencils are getting really small then those are your most used most precious items that you have now of my paint brushes I did want to just quickly note that because I've been spending a lot of oops yeah I'm using I've been enjoying using that uh catalyst like wedge brush thing but because I've been spending a lot of time sitting on the couch or sitting outside these water brushes I have used them far more than I've used any of my other paint brushes this year now I don't even know if Arteza still exists or if they still sell these I've had them for years and they just sat unused in my studio but this year I went and got them out and I've loved them so much I do want to just show you some of my favorite shaped pen like paint brushes whenever I am using paint and I'm sitting at a desk or anything I'm using square like these flat ones the square edges I just prefer it it feels more free I can be looser with them versus more detail oriented that doesn't mean I don't have some rounds or interesting shapes like this dagger brush here that lets me do some really interesting like leaf text like shapes and lines and things and of my rounds these are the two that I've been using now this one here is technically new to me but I have been enjoying it because it holds so much water but um yeah I've been sitting at a dining room table creating a lot of my artwork and this little compact water cup that I've been holding my brushes in I love it because I can make it really small when I'm taking my art supplies outside with me in the summer and it's really light so it's easy to carry around a lot of my supplies that I've been using this year have been things that have been easy for me to take with me as I go I also forgot I wanted to mention I've been using these um jelly pens for my white accenting details which now leads me into some supplies that I regret now this white brush here I thought it'd be really cool to have because it's white ink it should be really thick and I know it looks thick when I just brushed it on my finger here but when I use it in my sketchbook it either looks quite diluted and not like a solid white or when I get the solid white and there's a lot of it there it cracks when it dries so it flakes off of the sketchbook page and I just don't like that I also really did not enjoy this faber-castell um pip one because it's supposed to be white but it's like dry it doesn't even come out right I don't know I just regretted it I also regretted buying this full set of pencils I started the year off with doing a lot of my sketching with just a regular HB pencil and I wanted to explore using shading darker areas and doing things and I really liked it like you know it got pretty small so I went and bought a full set and uh the problem is a few weeks later I discovered the inktense and I started using that instead so all I had to have was one item on and a water brush and that's all I needed was those two things versus having to carry all these colored all these pencils in this tin so I kind of regret having it I know technically I'll probably find a use for it down the road but yeah now of my gouache I have some regrets this here this rose color from um shenhan I regret buying this one because I was unaware that these pigments when used together frequently produce a smell and that smell is not uncommon according to the manufacturer they are trying to find a way to reduce the smell but it's so gross I couldn't use it now this bright red I just didn't like this color I tried to love it because it swatches nicely but I do not like using it in paint and then Daniel Smith I love Daniel Smith watercolors but when I use this pigment just like just all the binder and stuff came out it was not solid it was like I I got a bad batch and it was super expensive which made me regret buying it but it's something that you also can't know until you use it so it's kind of like just something I didn't like buying and I just want to share that with you because there are just moments where you won't know until you know same thing with this book here it's beautiful it's full of so many amazing colors and when I use it I enjoy using it but I bought it I used it for about a month and then it went on my shelf and I never touched it again I'm sure in the future I will use it when I want to do something but it was really hard to use this outside of a digital aspect because there are instances where you might not have the right color so you need to mix it and then you get stressful about mixing that color that you see in the swatch this one here uh I had high hopes um but it's a stay wet palette it's supposed to keep everything you know nice and juicy and moist um but it didn't all my gouache dried and I frequently would go in every few days and spritz it to keep it wet but I would go in there and two days later and it'd be dry and um I had taken an online class for how to do gouache so I can learn how to use it and they were using something like this now it wasn't the same brand I doubt she didn't ever mention the instructor what brand she was using but with this one it feels like the airtight sealant just isn't big enough like it doesn't actually create an airtight um seal yeah so it created everything to dry and when it cracks it flakes because it's gouache and I really disliked it's a regret it's a it's a huge regret all righty we have reached the end I fumbled a lot of words but at least I got through my list yes I really enjoyed reflecting on the supplies that I used this year the last time I did it I was a completely different artist using a lot of different supplies I hope this inspires you to look back on the things that you enjoyed to use and maybe even inspire to use some supplies that you have that you haven't touched this year if you have any comments or questions please let me know in the comment section below this video is most likely going to be my last one for 2025 so I hope you all have a great holiday season and a happy new year if you have any requests for the new year please also include that in the section below all right once again thank you so much and until next time stay magical