Saige's Painting Set Review, Part Uno

Hola! 

Today we have Part Uno of the Saige Painting Set Review in which we show you all of the parts to the set and give you our thoughts.

There are a lot shots in this post -- so don't expect brevity.

There are a lot of little pieces to this set.

DW Top Tip: If you want to see any of these shots larger, simply click on one and you will be brought to a larger slideshow that you can click through.

The set comes with this info sheet which tells you everything that is in the box...

1 easel (plastic made to look like wood and plastic)

Painting set on the easel so you can see how it works -- 

there is a groove in the front section to hold the art.

5 tubes of paint (solid plastic - not actual paints)

These are small -- you'll want to be careful with these around pets and 

wee children who like to eat things.

We like how they are all rolled and in different states of use.

(In reality, if these tubes were used they would be covered in paint smears.)

4 brushes (real, functioning tiny brushes)

Each has a different size, like an actual artist would have.

The red and blue brushes are round shape brushes, and the magenta and green brushes are Filbert-style shape brushes.

We like how they are different colors, but in reality a high-end artist's paintbrush would normally have a wooden handle, not plastic. At least the ferrules are metal, like in reality.

1 palette (all plastic, made to look like a wood palette with globs of fresh paint on there)

A fun piece. Wish we could actually get to stay on the doll's hand -- 

but it wasn't happening for us.

Also, in reality -- only a fresh palette would look like this.

A used palette would be much more of a mess.

Everything together

1 cup (plastic)

This fits into the notch in the front of the easel.

It is designed to hold the paintbrushes and can do that job well.

Can hold a tube of paint or two as well.

(Again, would be covered in paint in reality -- can you sense a theme?)

Also, in reality -- an artist would need additional cups or mason jars 

for cleaning his/her brushes.

5 paintings (printed onto canvas-like material and stuck onto a piece of board)

So these are not real paintings. But they look pretty darn close.

And the fabric feels like canvas would.

The printed fabric is wrapped around a piece of cardboard.

And then secured on the back with glue and this black sticker thing.

If it sounds flimsy, it's not. These would take some effort to take apart.

But the wrapping does mean that the paintings are not perfect rectangles.

Close, but you can see some of the corners are a little funky.

Horse painting is the largest, and I guess this is supposed to be Picasso?

(The horse, not the artist. :-P)

We put this cactus flower one horizontal at first.

And then figured it should be vertical...

1 portfolio (with two covers, closes around the sketches with elastic band)

More cactus flowers on this puppy.

That flower seems to be a strong theme in Saige's collection.

You lift the elastic band off and the two covers come apart.

Then inside are the 5 pencil sketches.

This is good protection for the sketches -- IF -- you keep it all together.

5 loose leaf pencil sketches are inside the portfolio.

They look totally real, however they are also printed onto the paper -- much like the paintings were printed onto the canvas.

So it would take some effort to erase these puppies.

But they are just on normal paper -- they can be written/drawn on and ripped, torn, gotten wet and ruined, etc. So be careful with these.

Also, the backs are blank and may tempt some little fingers to draw more on them.

"Emo" Horse

Farmhouse

Running Horsies

Cacti

Booties and a Hat

Being children at heart, we are totally tempted to color these puppies in.

So we will have to hide them from ourselves.

We recommend making new Saige-size pieces of sketch paper for your children/you to play with.

Just get a human-size sketchbook and cut the pages up into small squares.

And then keep these set aside, wrapped up, and hopefully unharmed.

1 sketch pad (real functioning pad with 20 blank sheets inside it)

Again, there are tempting blank pages in this puppy.

If you want to draw all over it -- go ahead.

But again, if you want to keep this pristine -- 

hide this sketchbook and make yourself some tiny doll sketch paper to play with. Haha.

Blank pages inside

Overall Review: Well Worth the Price.

Which is $48.

Yes, that is like 1/2 a doll and like 1.5 outfits.

But for a Saige collection, this is a key item.

And American Girl has not released a MyAG painting set since... well... it's been a really, really long time. This was long overdue.

We can remember one that was released in 1999 and gone by 2002.

Some of you might have been born in 2002.

(Gosh, we feel old now....)

(ETA: I guess there was one released in 2007 -- we didn't even notice it.

And it looks pretty darn cool.

Too bad we missed it.

It looks even better than the Saige set, fyi.)

The Saige set has a lot of pieces to it, and we think it could inspire a lot of playtime and fun.

For collectors, and those with dollhouses, this is a great display piece.

We honestly can't recommend this piece enough.

But it is a set for older kids, adult fans -- people who won't eat, chew on, rip apart the small, delicate pieces. ;-)

Side Recommendations:

Want mini blank canvases for your doll art projects?

Try Consumer Crafts:

http://www.consumercrafts.com/store/details/catalog/kids-art-canvas-and-easels/980-3x3

3 by 3 inches

http://www.consumercrafts.com/store/details/catalog/kids-art-canvas-and-easels/980-2x4

2 by 4 inches

They also carry mini easels, which would work as tabletop easels for the dolls.

http://www.consumercrafts.com/store/details/catalog/kids-art-canvas-and-easels/980-easel

Thank you for visiting us today!

Let us know if you have any questions about this set.

Part Dos will be CeCe with the set 

in her special artist apron.

Our Facebook Page
Check out our Facebook page for updates, previews of DW photos, and lots of exciting info about our sites as well as Etsy items and patterns for your dolls.