Art glove for Drawabox exercises - yes or no?

8:53 PM, Friday September 15th 2023

I noticed it's a lot easier to draw straight lines with an art glove (for context - https://imgur.com/a/0I7Vtr6 - the very last page of the last L1 exercise is done with a glove) - should I avoid it to "properly" learn and work with the irregular texture of my hand (as one won't always have it available, plein air, travel etc.), or will both (with and without a glove) become easier no matter which method I use? Thank you in advance and hope my ADHD-driven parentheses aren't too confusing haha.

2 users agree
11:27 PM, Friday September 15th 2023

There is nothing wrong with using an art glove. If you feel it is beneficial in some way (for example, some students with sensory issues find it helps alleviate the discomfort of their hand rubbing against the page), then feel free to use it.

10:56 AM, Saturday September 16th 2023

That's a relief haha, thank you! That is one of the reasons, though in my case of ADHD it's more about the differentiating texture being distracting. For example, when a "stroke-to-be" is too close to the edge of the paper, my hand has to go from the surface of the paper to the desk (or any other surface, basically) and change the hovering/stroke-making speed to align with that of the paper.

The art glove is also very effective at keeping hand sweat/oil from ruining the paper (which I struggle with a lot as it prevents ink or any art tool from sticking to the paper, and smoothens the paper texture as well), so to anyone with a similar problem, I really recommend this.

0 users agree
2:40 PM, Friday November 17th 2023

I personally have to use one of those gloves because my hands are so sticky I sometimes wonder if I'm Spider-woman ????

2:40 PM, Monday November 27th 2023

Hahaha same here, when trying to be extra clean (like with the 250 Boxes), I use the combo of the glove for my dominant hand and a piece of recycled paper for my other hand, and even that piece of paper had to be changed 4-5 times during the challenge lol. I also have to keep track of my body temperature as it's not very regular in general, and the desk lamp I have is heater-level-hot when on which makes me start sweating around the middle of a Drawabox session so I have to open the window even though it's winter here, otherwise I'd be liquified.

Though it can veeery occassionally be an advantage when not using a glove, as it forces one to do quick strokes so as not to touch the paper too much, which comes in handy when life sketching or plein-air, which are one of my favorite art activities. But the glove does help regulate how slippery the paper gets, with my hand alone it jumps from waterslide mode to an abrupt stop quite often, especially when using a graphic tablet, very funky.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.

Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.

These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.

We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.

Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.