Moleskine books get second life

Moleskine books get second life, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I got a few cahiers moleskine books (3.5 x 5.5) at some point - I carry one with me all the time in little waist pouch. I sketch in it if my main sketchbook is unavailable or if I need to be more discreet. And then I tear pages and post them in my main sketchbok as continuity of my sketchbook notes is rather important for me. I liked the size and simplicity of the paper - nothing intimidating :) Easy to share with kids around :) But I use a lot of them and they are pricy... So I decided to try this: use their inconspicuous cover (with a little pocket), put some plain, cheap paper inside, bind as simply as possible and see if these will work in the same way.
I filled first book rather quickly and now I am thinking about gluing it as a whole in my main sketchbook - it's basically filled with one story - I drew in it while on the chair lift during recent skiing trip :)
So I need more experiments to see if my hand-made moleskines-alike books would work in the same way as pricy ones :)
I made a few more today for myself and my sketching companion :)
If you ask me why not use just simply separate pages - I tried - but the feeling of the book in my hand is so much better :)

March 2012: New Sketchbook Trial

March 2012: School Yard, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

This time I am trying XL Mix Media sketchbook from Canson. This was the very first page and you can see that one watercolor layer made this paper buckle and so far I was not able to lift anything when painting with watercolors in this sketchbook: everything is absorbed immediately.One layer works great - but as soon as you do more - it turns grainy. I tried color pencils and different pens and they worked great so far. More scans so come :)

When is the ink really dry?

March 2012: Treasures, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

The ink was dry... It looked like dry ink everywhere but in one spot - where my pen made a blot earlier. I even tried it with my finger (though gently as on this paper Noodler's ink smudges easily).
But when I used my spray bottle.... i got THIS! :)

(this is the same Pen and Ink sketchbook I was complaining about earlier this month)

Three Experiments

March 2012: Experiments, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I tried three things this month: watercolor book from Pen&Ink and Hero fountain pen (Hero M86 Calligraphy Pen) with Noodlers Lexington Gray Booletproof ink. The combination of all three is a major failure...

Pen& Ink paper is not taking watercolors well and all Lexington Gray is blotching ugly. Even the thinnest line in a few seconds becomes a lichen-covered stick. And no booletproof ink is waterproof or water resistant on this paper. It's not even smudge proof! So I am very disappointed with this sketchbook and will not use this paper again. Though ballpoint works great on it :)

Hero pen is something I need to learn how to use - but it's a lot of fun to experiment with! Variety of lines is amazing!

I do not have anything to say about Lexington ink as I am waiting for a better paper to try it on :) My previous experiments included watering down black inks to get some gray and they worked fine - but this might be more consistent in the long run.

Watercolor Paper and Ball Point Pen

Re-posting form my blog:


My last couple of sketchbooks were a little odd - craft paper or thin dry media paper (though I gave it quite a lot of watercolor and gouache coverings:) And I longed for a good old white sturdy watercolor surface to work with. When the time came quick review of the "reserve" box showed that I have this watercolor "Pen and Ink" horizontal book stored - COOL! I splashed some color right on the first spread!
However most of the pens in my "usual rotation" were bleeding, scratching, and overall misbehaving. While running some tests I picked up bic ball point and... what can I say - 1/3 of the book is filled now and most of it is black and white, done with the same bic ballpoint... see below :)

January 2011: Evening Apples and Pen Experiment

January 2011: Evening Apples and Pen Experiment, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

Actually there were some pears in this glass bowl too :)

I recently acquired a new pen: it's a gel pen form Pilot and it 's called Frixion - you can erase it. But wait - the most interesting thing is that if you freeze the paper with some lines erased, they COME BACK! It was a major hit among my sketching pals this holiday season - our freezer was filled with notes to each other, Santa, martians and neighbor's cats.

But for me the lure was in it's not-so-black color and I wanted to see how it will work with watercolors, especially how erased lines would work with watercolors :)

So here is my experiment: the pen is waterproof and has a varied density of ink as you make lines (which might be frustrating but I like these little surprises). It can be erased from under watercolors too - but little trace of empty paper stays as I expected (see the area in the shadow right under the bowl). I am not sure how it will survive exposure to light and time I am not planning on using it constantly (imagine all the lines you ever erased coming back if you sketchbook travels with you to Norway) but it's a fun thing to play with and now

Publish Post

I am ready to make a treasure map - even on a very short notice!

The end of my sketchbook #60

Blogged at: http://apple-pine.blogspot.com/2012/01/sketchbok-60-looking-back.html

January 2012: Small, Short Interval Sketches.

January 2012: Snapshots form the park, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I've been forced to draw quickly many times but lately I find it hard to isolate long enough time even to finish a blind contour in the park - somehow I find it very hard to concentrate on my sketch and become easily distracted lately. So I decided to give this a try: I pick something to draw (my shoe, tree, bench) and make a blind contour. Then I keep hatching it, looking at my object and drawing - and nothing else. So far I've done several pages of these and mostly it's crap - but I think it's slowly allowing me to block distractions and concentrate for longer periods of time.
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See more at:
www.apple-pine.com
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December 2011: Evening Apples

December 2011: Evening Apples, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

December is a wonderful month, but it is also a very stressful and full one. When I am stressed I find it very helpful to draw the most mundane objects, first things that I see in front of me. So this month I have lots of holiday objects and apples among my scribbles here and there.

Early Morning Again

November 2011: Early Morning, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

Mornings are getting darker and darker and in this semi-darkness I cannot seem to find my sketchbook or pen in the place where I left them the night before. So I grab whatever was on the table - to note first visitors to our home-made bird feeder and neighbor's cat out for a hunt. And later I glue or tape these little notes in my sketchbook - if I can find them of course in a day light ;)

Sketching Early in the Morning

October 2011l: Early Morning, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

It's getting darker and darker with every morning - even by the window with a whole bunch of street light coming through blinds I can hardly see anything but shadows - but this rose smelled gorgeous, in the dark perhaps even more than during light hours :)
And it was fun to look at the resulting sketch when it was time to turn on the light and start my breakfast :)

October 2011: Enhancing my Watercolor Kit

October 2011: Enhancing my Watercolor Kit, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I love this small watercolor set from Winsor & Newton. I get much done with it - somehow it's not intimidating me - or people around me. But I was spoiled by some additional colors I got to play with recently. Carry another box? Too much...

I recently learned about sugru - which is basically a play-dough for lasting inventions. It's as easy to use as play-dough, sticks to almost anything and when dry is waterproof, ready for cold or hot, flexible, strong - basically you can make your custom whatever from silicone. And you can remove it with a knife and some rubbing when you want to change things :) Their motto is "hack things better" %)

So - looked at my watercolor box and notices this wonderful place for brush that came with the set (original brush is long since drowned in some river and the space is too small for any brush I like ;) And I made some partitions :) That's it - now I have some colors I use rarely but enjoy having for a special mix or accent. I might play with the sizes of the wells at some point - but this is what I have today.

Experiencing Stillman and Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

I heard about new sketchbook maker and all comments were quite good. The name kept popping up  and eventually I did a google search, found Stillman and Birn web-site and then found them on facebook too. I wrote and e-mail to the manufacturer trying to see if any local shops carry these books  and made a note to order one sooner or later online - but then received an e-mail that a wonderful gift is coming my way! It was Alpha Series sketchbook, hardbound, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 - it became my sketchbook #59 and I spent about 6 weeks with it in my bag. Long story short - it's a great sketchbook to work with - my main adjustment would be the size - it seems that I enjoy larger books lately :)

Cover withstood some vigorous activities, was subjected to kids running over it (by accident), heavy and not so heavy rain, kitchen table and sandbox adventures, sticker attack, not to mention normal wear and tear and now that I am about to deposit it on the shelve - it looks great - not a scratch.

Paper worked very well with dry - and water media - I worked with watercolors, acrylics, multiple inks and gouache and in all cases buckling was well within expected amount for this weight of the paper (100 lb).  I used markers, all kinds of pens, some collage as well. Paper was reasonably responsive to lifting and multiple applications though in some cases uneven in the way pigment settled in: I would do a single brushstroke wash, try to lift something and see that part of the edge is still editable where another part is not. It adds some personality to the page and can be incorporated nicely - you just need to be ready sometimes.

My problems were surprising: waterproof inks (and permanent watercolors for that matter) were not exactly waterproof unless I waited for ink to settle for a long time. And during first 1-1.5 minutes even the most waterproof and smudge-proof ink was smudging badly. It happened with Uniball pens, Pentel Pocket Brush pen, dip pen with Noodlers ink, pitt pens and brush-pens - the only pen that was working without a glitch was the cheap ballpoint I love so much :) So - some smudging and some not-so-waterproof adjustment was needed - and for someone drawing quickly it took me some time - but I had a lot of fun in the process:

(these are obviously not all 124 pages I filled - lots of private notes and experiments took place there - but you still can see some results ;)

September 2011: New Scanner

September 2011: Grass, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I just got a new scanner (Canon 9000F) and trying this automatic gutter correction feature - so far I'd say it looks good :) And color is very close to a real sketch - nothing corrected. I'll try to sketch in watercolor tomorrow to test and report on results.

September 2011: Sketching while Waiting

September 2011: Sketching while Waiting, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I am not always comfortable drawing in unsuspecting crowd so I decided to use the simplest of tools - ballpoint pen. It's less of a give-away than watercolor set or my dip pen and I can put it away quickly ;)

Interview # 14--Meet Nina Khashchina!

Hi all!  This interview's been derailed a couple of times...both Nina and I have been busy, and she traveled in between there!  Believe me, it was worth waiting for...

Let's jump right in and let Nina speak for herself!

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I started drawing very early and had a lot of support from my parents - until I stopped. I also kept a diary of sorts since I was a little child - but never consistently. There was a period in my life when I did not draw at all, I became a graphic designer and got completely computerized. Drawings were on little post-it notes, napkins, separate pieces of paper. And then the whole hand-made painting and drawing thing came back and I discovered a pleasure of keeping it all in one place - my sketch book.

Since summer 2005 I filled 57 journals - large and small, some I made myself (my favorite kind of
journal). Some I love for the paper, some for the cover. Some journals were filled in one breath, others took a long time, some became my friends as we went through life together, others I conquered with time :)

Another of Nina's wonderful sketches of her little boy in the park...

I draw in the park while my son unwinds after a day in preschool, while taking a breather when hiking, when chewing my lunch, while cooling down after the jog, in doctor's office, waiting in long line, waking up before everyone else does - the perfect time is right now :)


I seldom have time to finish things to the perfection or even correct mistakes but I enjoy the process – mistakes and all. This way I see time, I feel alive, feel the changes and notice beauty everywhere.
Drawing things helps me understand, slow down and see what's important for me and make choices. I think about sketching as a way of life. Way to travel. Way to think. Way to explain.

The purple ink makes a wonderful, colorful vibration in many of Nina's sketches.

It would be impossible for me to choose one medium as my favorite, mostly because they change a lot. Anything works if I NEED to draw, but I often have cravings for certain things to try. Just like with food - you can stop the hunger with ... WHATEVER but some food combinations work better with each other and a little variety always is an adventure ;) Right now I am a lot into a purple ball point pen and a diluted ink in Niji waterbrush plus some dip pen experiments.

Little watercolor set and brush pen are always in my backpack :)

I just came back from the Roatan island in Honduras. This trip came when I was in the middle of a power struggle with a sketchbook I liked at first sight and hated later. Store purchased 8.5 x 11 soft cover spiral bound book with some glossy paper. Surface very much like illustration board – smooth and slick. Pens and Markers were fine.

Paper was refusing color pencil after just two layers of application.
And working in watercolor was very frustrating since there was no chance for color to flow – only paint with brushstrokes and color was changing dramatically between the moment of application and when dry.

My first thought was to take different sketchbook but after some consideration I took this situation as a sign to try different things and it worked out great! 

First – I decided to take more supplies with me than I usually do (the good thing is I can share it with my son – so it does not look like I took THAT much:)

Here are examples of what I usually take:

This time, I took a nice large palette of watercolors with a couple of real brushes, a tiny set with gouache with 2 waterbrushes, about 20 color and watercolor pencils and 10 Pitt color brush pens, plus my regular pens (purple ballpoint, Pentel Brush Pen, UniBall Vision Micro pen and Niji waterbrush filled with the diluted black ink). Plus tiny spray bottle, scotch tape and an old film container. This all fitted within a small first aid bag :) In retrospect I think I could have done without pencils and markers – but my son used them a lot – so I think this was the right choice!

Second thing I did to conquer this sketchbook was to take some small cold press 100 lb watercolor sheets, place them in an envelope on the back of the book and try to incorporate them whenever I could. This allowed me to work on several pages at once (humidity is very high on Roatan so there was a lot of waiting) and gave me a break when I wanted to enjoy real watercolor washes.

Third thing was that I had a little Moleskine Cahier book with me almost at all times – I was drawing at any opportune moment – while waiting for dinner, waiting for boat to load, sandcastle to be finished… This provided me with sketching time without interrupting activities of other company members. And every night I was tearing filled pages and posting them in my main book with some comments if needed. This way my tiny book was almost always empty and I was free to take it with me even when I knew it might get wet: I’d put one pen, gray waterbrush and my book in zip-lock bag and be ready for anything :)

Many of my pages are scanned and can be found here:

One of the projects I am working on continuously is a Badger Log.

Both the idea and inspiration came from my wonderful family and they support this log from the very first thought till today’s drawings.

Badger Log is about my interactions with a little badger I know, who happens to be related to me - how he is looking at the world and how I look at things because of him. I keep it as a sort-of a diary but only a few drawings so far made it to the scanner – so I am thinking about collecting a whole bunch together and making this log more public - how - I'll tell you later! :)

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Nina, thanks much for this wonderful, useful interview!  Can't wait to see more of the badger's adventures--and yours!

Watch for Interview #14--it's Nina Khashchina!

Our upcoming interview is with Nina Khashchina, and you are going to LOVE it.  Nina is "an Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Nature and Urban Sketcher, Art Teacher and Guerilla Artist, residing in San Francisco Bay Area"--she sketches on the spot frequently, often including quick, lively gesture sketches of your young son, kids at the playground, and animals that make you feel as if you were right there with her.

Her clear-eyed, energetic sketches and her dedication to recording things around her with appreciation and curiosity are an inspiration to anyone who keeps a journal or sketchbook!

Here, Nina's created a page view of one whole sketchbook, as an overview.  What a great idea!

Nina uses her sketches as a learning tool, and a tool for exploration, as in the page view above.  Her self-portraits are a delight, and I especially enjoy her travel sketches, for inspiration and immediacy.

And what about that adorable badger!  We'll learn more about him...

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In the meantime, check out Nina's website, at http://www.apple-pine.com/ 

Her blog...

And her Flickr albums!

Strawflowers: two more sketches and original

August 2011: Strawflowers, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I finally took photo of the original ;)

And did two more takes:
Grayscale.

Liquid watercolors.


And here links to two previous blog posts about how it all started:
http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/08/strawflowers-and-paper-challenges.html

http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/08/strawflowers-and-paper-challenges.html

Strawflowers and Paper Challenges - Update.

August 2011: Strawflowers, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I think what is the most challenging thing for me is how much colors change when they dry on this paper... This is watercolor version, and below are gouache and marker versions.

August 2011: Straw Flowers and Paper Challenges

August 2011: Straw Flowers, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

This is one of the most colorful flower arrangements I've ever had - very fiery and very strong! I wanted to paint it very much.
But current sketchbook is giving me hard times with colors in it... And since I am in the mood to accept this challenge of 30 definitely not perfect pages, I decided to do several takes on the same subject. This is strictly black and white version. But I will try all sorts of alternatives in search for the best portrait of this fire and best technique with this slick and buckling paper. Stay tuned :)