If it hadn't been for the rain, I would probably never have found Atelier Sun Ho. I noticed a small…read moreprinted sign advertising fine art materials in a dark stairwell at the bottom of a tiny building on Aberdeen Street whilst sheltering from the weather and made a note to come back and explore, which I did. The address is actually on Wellington Street, but as mentioned above, the entrance is at the bottom of Aberdeen Street. Just follow the signs up and you'll arrive at a quaint door with a sign rather appropriately painted on an artist's paint palette. When I visited a small class was taking place with the students all working on individual projects. The level of ability in the class seemed relatively undeveloped so it seems that beginner's are very welcome at Atelier Sun Ho. I was hoping to find an art store closer to home than my usual shop of choice, Artland, but was a little disappointed by the tiny range of materials available. I also did not recognise any of the brands but was assured that they were of top quality despite being made in China. The small range of metallics paints (acrylic) caught my eye but I couldn't think of anything to use them for so resisted the urge to buy. There were a number of pre-stretched canvases available but no sketch books or watercolour pads. Individual pages of watercolour paper was on sale for $15/pc which works out marginally cheaper per page than the Daeler Rowney pads I usually purchase. I ended up only buying two rather charming pots of various charcoal sticks which were packaged in cardboard and decorated with a Chinese ink painting design. At only $22 a set, they are considerably cheaper than the Daeler Rowney sets I've used in the past and just as effective to use. All in all, Atelier Sun Ho is a cute little art shop for basic staples but is lacking in supply. The cash only policy is inconvenient given the nearest HSBC is on Queens Road Central but the goods are generally inexpensive compared to more prominent art supply stores.

At night it's always easier to spot shops located in high rises around Hong Kong. Whether it's the…read morelights or the quietness that makes you look up, it's a cool way to discover places that you wouldn't have noticed at day time. I had walked past this area of Queen's Road East possibly every single day and never checked out this place. Last night I finally did. I came into the building (and had to wait for the lift for about 15 minutes...) and got up to the second floor. It was late and the place was about to close, but a very friendly guy welcomed me in. I had picked up a leaflet downstairs and knew they were about art classes but I wasn't sure they also run classes for adults as well as kids (8 months to 5 years) and juniors (6 to 10 years). The studio is ample enough to accommodate for big groups (maybe ten people on one side and 10 other on the other) and it doesn't lack decoration. Indeed, the pieces of art by the students made for a great deco. There are also nice small fish pictures made by one of the teachers who later showed me some of his works and he's a real artist. What a talent. He explained to me how classes work: you go for a trial lesson (normally they last for two hours) and pay half the normal price (360HKD) and you pick the canvas, use their materials and apron and get all the guidance from them (there's another teacher). They would help you with painting techniques, perspectives and so on...They have only been operating in this studio since January but the place already got that character that makes artisty spaces so authentic. If you are planning on develop your creative skills or you simply want to let loose your imagination you may want to try them!

I visited What Cheer Studio with a few of my friends for a pottery class after seeing a deal on…read moreGroupon for it. There was a total of eight of us, so we were a pretty big group. I've done pottery in art class at school before, and I really enjoyed it. However, our teacher never had us finish the job - after forming the shape of our containers, we moved on to a different unit - sketching - and never got to paint our creations. My friends and I joked how doing this would be some form of 'closure' for not being able to finish what we started back in art class a few years ago. I made an appointment with them to come at 6pm. We all met up at the station at around 5:50, but we took some time to find the place. It actually is not that far from exit B of Jordan MTR station, but we walked right past it and had to turn back so we took a while. We were about ten minutes late coming up, and it was clear that the teachers at the studio weren't very happy about it. I mean, yes it's our fault that we were late, and we're fine with having our time cut short, but they kept bringing up the fact that we weren't on time. Anyway, the teachers did do a pretty good job of explaining everything and it was more complicated than I thought it would be. We had a little less than two hours to complete it and towards the end, we were all rushing. A few weeks later, we came back to paint our pots. Not all of us did as some of my friends were going back to the UK to study, so in total, 2 of the pots didn't need to be painted and could be fired right away. When the remaining six of us returned, we found that they had accidentally fired one of my friend's pots. They apologized and told him that he could still paint over the fired surface, but since the surface was now glazed, the paint that went on was very watery and light. It was a shame - he had done a very good job creating a cute little seaside habitat with turtles running across it on his pot, and now it wouldn't turn out as nice after being painted because of that. Overall, I thought the studio was quite professional and clean. We all had a good time working on our little project and I was glad that I had seen this on Groupon and bought the deal. I would knock a star off though because of their mistake in firing my friend's pot though!

This isn't the most extensive art shop I've been to, but this is Hong Kong and space is limited so…read morebottom line- it gets the job done if you're on HK island. Artland seems to focus more on supplies for painters or drawing artists. I noticed a good supply of paints, water colours, markers, and coloured pencils. If you're into Crayola products, they have a decent selection. You can find things like embroidery wool, but the cross stitch patterns they offer are limited to subjects like floral bouquets and landscapes. Same with clothing; you could find a few things like fabric paints or markers for t-shirts, but it's not that plentiful. They did have a sizeable section dedicated to art books, though. In the end, I got what I needed- coloured pencils to fuel my new short-term hobby before my baby arrives: adult colouring books! :)

This place was alright. However, this is coming from someone who grew up with CN Stationary and has…read moreshopped at Michaels (In the US) for the past 5-6 years. With the limited space in Hong Kong, I understand that it's hard to stuff thousands of products into a 2000sq ft shop. There's really a lot of different types of products, however, the brand selection is rather limited. A lot of Staedtler, Primarily Daler-Rowney, I guess that's how Hong Kong art stores are? There's various high end products for professional artists too. One thing I didn't like about the store was I also found some products to be a bit scattered. Like they had a calligraphy section by the counter but also at another aisle, and Chinese calligraphy in another aisle. Many products like paints were organised by brands rather than by type. Yet many products were organised by products too. I also found the store to be slightly overpriced. The Pilot Parallel pen was $95 and it is only at $85 the Commercial Press in CWB, and $80 in CN. OH well. Their student level water colour is also quite expensive, Daler-Rowney Aquafine at $455. I can practically buy the artist colours at that price (On amazon at least) Paper and sketchbooks were nearly all Daler-Rowney as well. I just wished there's more variety in brands. However, this place is probably the best on Hong Kong Island and it will do the job if you need anything for your art supplies/project, etc. They also opened a mini gallery of a photographer's work. Also the hours aren't very friendly. Closed on Sundays, closed 5pm on Saturdays and 7pm on weekdays. Better rush here after work/school or come on a Saturday. *** Favourites: Convenient, just on Lockhart & Tonnochy Rd. Meh: a bit overpriced. Mostly Daler-Rowney. hours are not long, but it's alright. catered to students Last words: Has all your art supplies if you don't care about brand and price