Sandra Strait

Tangle All Around the World is Book 6 in Alice Hendon’s Artangleology Series.  The previous books have been activity books and planners, but this time around she has collected 453 tangle patterns created by a total of 50 different tangle artists.  About a year ago, Alice asked the members of her Facebook group Tangle All Around to submit tangle patterns to […]

Let me start this review by saying the MIYA Solid Water Colors Palette is a watercolor kit created for children.  As someone who by-passed adulthood, going directly from childhood to second childhood – I love it.  That said, at less than $20 USD, it has features that make it appealing from a practical standpoint as well. Miya Arts was looking […]

Recently, Wet Paint: Artists’ Materials & Framing reached out to me and asked if I wanted to review one of their watercolor paper sampler packs.  I was up to my chin in promised reviews already, but wanted to do the review.  So, my response sort of went ‘Yes, yes, yes! But ACK! I don’t know when I can do it!” […]

Every day my hubby goes to work, I slip a postcard, that I’ve painted or drawn, into his lunch bag.  I’ve been using rough Hahnemühle postcards in a metal tin since I began.  Last year, Hahnemühle introduced a cold-pressed postcard that has quickly become a favorite of mine.   This year, two new padded sets are now available in the […]

Kyanite du Népal is the third fountain pen ink from Jacques Herbin’s 1798 line, meant to commemorate the end of the French Revolution and the company’s relocation and expansion that year. The 1798 inks are notable for their lovely sheen and silver shimmer. They are formulated to resemble the colors of mineral gemstones.  The first year’s was “Amethyste de l’Oural”, the […]

Planning on traveling? Got a small space to work in? We visited Neskowin Beach on the Oregon Coast for my hubby’s birthday, and I was fortunate because Princeton Artist Brush Co. recently sent me their two Princeton travel brush sets for this review.  These brush sets contain the travel version of the Neptune synthetic squirrel brushes and the Aqua Elite […]

Bang for the buck – a phrase that means getting the most value for the price you pay.  It’s a phrase that I often repeat when talking about Princeton brushes. Princeton Artists Brush company sent me five of their Aqua Elite™ brushes 4850​ Series ​and a Round Travel Neptune Size 8 for the purposes of a World Watercolor Month review.  […]

Have you ever used iridescent color, whether pen or paint or marker, and ended up with something that is hard to see?  Literally.  Light hitting iridescent color is much like light hitting a mirror.  You can end up with one big shine that baffles the eye. It is easy to avoid this, and I’m going to show you three projects that […]

Feathers to the left! Feathers to the right! How do you figure out where all the feathers go? If you look at this rooster, you may well go ‘EEP! So much going on here! I can’t handle it.’  So let’s break it down into chunks that any brain can handle.    

Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress Black is the first 100% cotton black watercolor paper: I was curious. The words ‘Black’ and ‘Watercolor’ are not ones that I would have used together.  Recently, I’ve been using some fine black papers for my art. I’m not an artist that assumes that cotton paper is always superior, so I wondered what the benefit might be.  Would […]

Oh, there must be 1000 ways to write and illustrate a storybook.  I’m here to share my method.  Because I’m a great, talented, and experienced author, right?  Uh.  No.  I’ve written a few stories, mostly for friends and family. That’s the reason why my methods might help a person write a story just for fun.  This isn’t Story Writing 101.  […]

Accordion? Concertina? Fanfold? Leporello fold? We’re talking watercolor books here, so what do those words mean?  Except for that cool elastic band across the corner, the new Hahnemühle ZigZag book looks like any other sketch book, right? What it means is that the Hahnemühle ZigZag has one long single sheet of paper, glued at each end to a hard cover, and […]