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Smart Art provides artists with diverse, high-quality materials that inspire and nourish creativity. Each month subscribers receive a new box featuring a different artist that highlights their time-period, 8-11 trial/full sized art supplies, a suggested project, and a detailed pamphlet introducing a new art medium.
Smart Art Box
Cost: $49.95/month.
Ships To: United States.
Coupon Code: N/A
Disclosure: This complimentary box was sent for review purposes. As always, all opinions are my own, and no compensation was received.
Smart Art ships via USPS and ships on or around the 1st of the month. If you sign up on or before the 28th of the month, you will get the box that will be released on the 1st of the following month. All orders processed after the 28th will ship the month after the following month. For example, a purchase made on or before February 28th will be shipped March 1st. A purchase made on March 1st will be shipped April 1st.
I never know what to expect from Smart Art or what project will be included! That’s what makes it fun though.
The April 2017 Smart Art explored Photograms. The instruction booklet gives a bit of background on the project and also Project Pointers – these are key!
The Materials
The box included:
~Solarfast Dye 4oz Purple ($5.99)
~Solarfast Wash 2oz (~$2)
~Solarfast Film 8.5″ x 5.5″ 10 Sheets (~$10)
~Jacquard Film Marker ($2.19)
~Ampersand Artist Panel Unprimed Basswood ($9.06)
~Royal Brush Wood Handle Foam Brush Set ($4.37)
Instructions
Smart Art always includes step-by-step instructions. You can choose to follow along exactly or branch out on your own if you are comfortable.
The Project
I used two sheets of film to draw my artwork. That’s a generous term for what I drew, but my 5-year-old was instructing me, so we kept it simple.
The next step was to apply the SolarFast Dye on the wood panel. Easy enough. I wiped off the excess with a paper towel and was feeling pretty good about this project.
This is where things went wrong. I should have known better, but I placed one of my sheets writing side down and one writing side up. The instructions didn’t specify, but I knew right away that writing side down was wrong. The black marker started to transfer on to the wood immediately. The instructions state it should sit in the sun for 20-30 minutes, but I left mine out longer because they did say it was better to overexpose than to underexpose.
The final step was to submerge the wooden panel in hot water and add SolarFast Wash to “set” your design. The top part (which I put writing side up) turned out “okay,” but the bottom which I put writing side down was a fail (my fault). I have leftover supplies, so I am going to try this again on some scrap wood. It’s possible I applied the Solar Fast Dye too thick which made the design hard to see?
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