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Art and Stationary Faves

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I'm trying to only list things here that I managed to find in actual stores in Germany (with a few exceptions like Japanese stationary I bought while in Japan or some Indie stuff) bc I want to support local stores and avoid buying from the big A as much as possible.
All the main links will be to german retailers but I will also try to add some US links when I find them!
Also I use a lot of office supplies/ stationary as art supplies, hence them being listed here, too.

Shachihata Stamp Ink:
This is one of the reasons for me breaking the rule for local stores because these are just so fucking good... (if you know a german retailer that carries them please tell me!)
I bought three whole pads from them back when I lived in Japan and nothing comes close to how crisp these are. The colour selection is also really good too!

Royal Talens Ecoline Brush Pens:
These are so fucking good. I only bought one set all the way back in 2019 (the pastel set) and they still hold up (I didn't use them religiously mind you, but they still work after almost over 7 years).
Their ink is very smooth and goes on paper really nicely snd are super juicy without being too juicy. The colours are all really pretty and I just adore them so much. I'm thinking of purchasing the purple set next time I'm out art supply shopping!
I have to try their ink pot watercolours but from what I've seen, they are also really nice and vibrant!
Best part is you can refill the markers!

Royal Talens Art Creations Sketchbook:
Similar to the Sakura Dotted Book below.
Nice paper, although I do not like the formats as much. Fairly decent for mixed media but especially nice on the wallet!

Sakura Dotted Book:
I got this because, 1, I adore square format for sketchbooks/ journals and 2, because it has 140gsm.
The paper is super similar to the Art Creations Sketchbook (since Sakura is Royal Talens) and even has the creamy paper (which I adore). It takes on different paints and markers slightly differently than the art creations, but its super similar over all. It takes gouache fairly well (as long as I give it enough time to dry between layers and don't use too much water) and works with all my stationary. I haven't tried out fountain pens on it though, so I can't say much there.
I use it as a bullet journal/ scrap book/ sketchbook hybrid, and for that purpose it works really well.

Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Pencil:
I used to love mechanical pencils a lot. They are precise, don't need constant sharpening and are just so neat. I kinda moved away from them around 2017 as I started sketching and drawing more in colour and finding myself disliking graphite more and more.
So imagine me finding out about these bad boys from some (former) friends and then rushing to find a retailer that carries them where I live (which took me a surprisingly long time).
They come in 8 different colours (with the red being my fave), are erasable (lighter colours being easier of course) AND are water soluble (this can be a pro or a con, it's a bit of a con in my book because I don't want my sketch to smudge when I do a quick base wash over them).
Some colours feel more waxy than others I have found, and it feels like you're drawing less with a graphite pencil and more with a slightly waxy coloured pencil.

Farber Castell Polychromos:
I never owned a full set of these (and probably never will), but I love them for sketching!
I basically exclusively sketched with colours 142, 128, 162, 152 and of course 249 from 2017 - 2021.
They are incredibly smooth, have excellent pigment and forced me to be more confident in my sketches, as they are less erasable.
And while I personally do not have a lot of experience rendering full pieces with them, I did get to try as a friend owned the big set with all the colours (insane!). It was a fun experience, and if you are into coloured pencils I'd highly recommend them!
These are completely non water soluble, so they will hold under paint very well (I used them all the time with my water colours).
A single pen costs around 2-3€ at stores, but I found them for around 2€ at Gerstaecker online if you are more on a budget.

BIC 4-Colour Multipen Fun:
Bic ballpoint pens in general are some of my favourite art supplies in general. I randomly found one of the cheap af ones in the clear hexagonal case on the floor at my school and then started using them as my main writing utensil back in school.
And then, when I wanted to repurchase that pen, I found they had those fun 4 colour pens, but with bright and fun inks (pink, purple, cyan and poison green). So I got it and started using it religiously as a sketching tool.
The colours layer wonderfully and are super bright and fun to look at. I also find that BIC ballpoint pens aren't too juicy and therefore don't smudge a lot, which is great for sketching.
Sketching in ballpoint pen is great in general, as I find it forces you to become more confident in your strokes and accept imperfections more. Also, the pens just have such a wonderful texture on paper in general, its so lovely.

Zebra Clickart:
I don't know what it is about Japanese pens but they are always so good...\ I picked these up back when I lived in Japan and they still all work (one of them seemed like it was dying but randomly started being juicy again??). They are basically just bullet felt tip pens that work like ball point pens... which seems like they will dry out but they haven't in the 3 years I owned them for.
The colours are nice and they aren't too expensive really. I would not repurchase them if I hadn't actually found them in a local store though. But for planners and bullet journaling they are fire!

Zebra Midliners:
Another Zebra supply, another banger.
Just a dual tip textmarker (one chisel tip, one bullet) in a huge variety of colours. There is a lot of different sets of these but you can also purchase them open stock.

田丸印房 - Tamaru Inbou Stamps:
We found this store while in Kyoto and... all these stamps are handcarved and so detailed (they also make custom name stamps and a lot of the temple stamps in the area!).
They have a small physical store in Kyoto where I bought all the stamps I have of theirs (I own 7...) and all of them are fantastic!
They do have an online store where you can order internationally, but I have never done that so I cannot say much.
But if you're super into stamps and find yourself in the area, consider checking out there store. We also talked to the owner for a bit and he is super nice!

Digital

iPad Pro 11' 2nd Gen + Apple Pencil 2nd Gen + Procreate:
Had this bad boy since 2021 and it's singlehandedly the device that got me to actually enjoy drawing digitally.
I only use Procreate (I do not like CSP at all) and nothing has ever felt so natural and responsive for me, it's criminal.
Procreate is lacking some important features, but it being so responsive and natural feeling beats all the fancy shiny tools some other programs offer.
It being so portable is another huge benefit, I bring my tablet to work all the time and scribble during work break (which basically means I manage to draw every day despite being too tired after work a lot of the time).

XP Pen Artist Pro 22 2nd Gen:
Technically I don't use it regularly enough because I just love drawing/ sketching on my iPad, but it is a very neat device so I do want to talk about it here.
The resolution is fantastic, the stand it comes with is really good (and one of the factors for me purchasing this model) and it even comes with a shortcut remote!
It is very large at a 22 inch diagonal but I have a massive table to its not a problem for me. The biggest advantage of the size is the screen real estate which really makes using more complicated programs much easier (since the UI doesn't shrink or takes up too much space).
It also makes for an excellent third screen for my desktop when Im not doing art (lol).
If I had to purchase one now I'd probably go for a smaller one, maybe a 16 or 19 inch one.

Krita:
Open source and so neat. Actually works and has great performance (unlike CSP), and highly customisable thanks to the large community creating so many cool plugins.
I currently don't have a proper custom setup, but once I do I will share it here too!
While it has some features that are worse than certain payed options, the fact that it's completely free (but you can donate), is open source and has pretty good performance really sells me on this thing all the time. (Also, the brush engine is really good and people do insane things with it! I'm just too stupid to make my own custom brushes work)

Procreate Brushes

Sweat Treat Brush Set:
This brushset is everything!!!! All my art is made using the Chaiand Toffee brushes from this set... (I made a few custom variations of them, like changing pressure or smth, but not much)
I also recreated both of them in CSP (when I tried using it) and am still working on getting them into Krita (alas the custom brushes confuse me there).
I use Chai both to sketch and to render and Toffee to render!
Chai is a very cloudy brush that behaves slightly differently depending on it going on an empty layer or some other colour. On small sizes it can look like coloured pencil too!
Toffee is a square paint brush with subtle colour jitter and a lovely texture. On light application it looks a bit like water colour on heavy grain paper and on thick application it's between gainsai and gouache!

Narinder Pencil:
The Narinder Pencil from the Classic Library (in the sketching category) is genuinely such a treat. I modified it slightly (so the maximum size is bigger and added just a bit of colour taper and some stabiliser, and I usually use it at around 85% opacity), but it is just my favourite pencil procreate has to offer. I usually DO NOT enjoy most digital pencils because digital taper always feels... off. Narinder's taper starts much later in the stroke and is a lot less drastic, making it feel a lot more realistic and natural (imo). The texture is also lovely!
I primarily used it as my sketching pen for years, and now mainly use it for writing.

DIYs/ Tutorials

DIY Wet Pallette:
Wet Pallettes are great if you paint with any sort of paint that dries quickly and cannot be reactivated (like acrylics). You can usually buy premade wet pallettes at Mini painting suppliers or regular art suppliers. But I'm cheap and making one yourself is easy and cheap!

Coptic Stitch Book Binding:
Have a favourite paper or want to make a sketchbook with a lot of different paper types?\ Coptic stitch binding is super easy and doesn't require and fancy book binding tools like glue or book presses. I made my first DIY sketchbook back when I was 15 using a Daler Rowney "Fine grain heavy-weight paper (200gsm)" in A2.
I simply took the cardboard backing as my cover and the pages of the pad with some wax coated thread and bound it into an A4 sketchbook using this exact tutorial.