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 :)

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.

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!

Water containers for journaling on the spot...

I've been experimenting with our friend Richard Sheppard's great idea of using palette cups for travel sketching.  (If you haven't seen his Flickr, it's here--have fun!)

Richard is the author of The Artist on the Road: Impressions of Greece and if you love travel journals AND bright fresh watercolors, you'll enjoy this one as much as I did!  It's in my permanent collection now...

You can see that the cups, either single metal ones or double plastic, here, will clip to several types of palettes...

An added advantage here is that the clip itself raises the mixing area so that it's much flatter, when laid on a firm, flat surface (you still need to watch spilling if you're holding this in your hand by the loop on the back though...)

It will fit on my old folding plastic palette, too...very versatile!  Of course these don't hold much water, even the double ones, so if you're painting larger than, say, 7" x 10" you're going to want a source of more.  I like the doubles because I have a source for mixing and a source for rinsing my brush...if I remember which one to dip into!

I used the single metal cup and my small palette when doing this double spread in my current journal, and it worked great!  (Too bad I didn't remember to shoot my painting setup!)

Here's Richard's own kit, beautifully done in his signature style:

Thanks for the inspiration, Richard!

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 ;)

July 2011: Organizing

July 2011: Organizing, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I find it very interesting to look at your work at large and for that Flickr has some great tools! For example: I am reorganizing all my images and see that I am drawing some unexpected things much more than I thought :)

And I used to carry much less in my bad... Here is a link to my "Process and Tools" folder :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/sets/72157606244662915/

My Special Winter Gear

My name is Nina Khashchina, you might know me on Flickr or in Urban Sketching or Nature Sketching community as Apple-Pine. And I will do a proper introduction post later - when Kate has me scheduled :) but for now I wanted to share some of my winter gear secrets.

I live in one of the warmest winter climates out of all correspondents of this blog: Silicon Valley, California. Though I know what a real winter is: today thermometers showed 14F in the town where I grew up and it can get much much colder there. So Silicon Valley feels very warm to me in comparison. But sketching during winter is tricky nonetheless.

First thing I use and would recommend is fingerless gloves. Mine have a mitten attachment which warms up my fingers in between sketching :)

Second thing I find very useful is a baseball hat with light built in. Mine has white, bright white and - the most useful - green light. It gets very dark very early - these days many of my park adventures happen or end in darkness - and this hat allows me to a) be seen by my companions, bikers etc. b) Draw :) Green light is very soft on my eyes while they switch between the object and my sketchbook - though I do quite a bit of blind contours anyways. Too bad my hat is not very warm - I look pathetic with baseball hat over knitted beanie - good thing people around me see only my lights ;)

Here is a sketch of my gear:


And here is a couple of sketches done with my gear: