My new sketchbook, which uses the cover of Shivers by William Schoell. The cover features a painting of a gargoyle on a roof done in a warm grey palette. A green mist winds around the gargoyle and down to the bottom of the cover. The title is printed in large gold foiled lettering behind the gargoyle.
I love making book covers out of things that otherwise would have ended up in the trash, so I couldn't pass on one of these handmade book-sketchbooks from Arsenik Press. I don't have the time or energy to bind a new sketchbook right now, so I was happy to buy this one because it's still handmade and (importantly) it looks cool.
I love the ridiculousness of 80s book covers: the typography, the painting style, the corny catchphrases, the whole thing. The jacket synopsis is as follows:
Deep beneath the city streets lurks a creature hideous beyond description, powerful beyond imagining, a creature so dangerous that it can destroy its victims by the virulence of its thoughts.
The emanations of its computer-like brain invade every sanctuary, searching for those it would destroy. It is remorseless, cunning and inhuman. The pitiful human weaklings it has chosen as prey shudder with terror and disgust, but there is no escape from the ultimate torture that is far worse than death, unless...
The first spread of the new book. I've drawn some of my supplies on the first page. The book also came with an informational insert, which I taped to the endpaper.
Transcript of insert
Cover Shivers
William Schoell 1985
Cover artist Uncredited
Paper Fabriano 1264 Watercolor 140lb
I stole the idea to draw/paint an overview of my current favorite supplies on the first page from Apple Pine. I always struggle with what to put on the first page of a sketchbook, so I like this exercise. There's no pressure to make a masterpiece, and it helps give the sketchbook... context? I guess? My previous big sketchbook was a little more clinical because I was still relearning how to use one, but I'm hoping future books will be a bit more diary-esque.
My current supply rotation includes some stuff that I haven't found the time to talk about yet, so I'll merge that into this post while it's relevant.
The pen I commissioned from Rubato. It's a clear demonstrator with plants embedded in the resin and a green grip section.
I've been enamored with Rubato Pens for a while now and finally took the plunge on commissioning a pen a few weeks ago. And now it is here!
Rubato is operated by one woman, Emi, who makes fountain pens, nib holders, and other trinkets. Her pens are made of resin with decorative inclusions that give them a distinctive look (plants, glitter, charms). They're beautiful little art pieces in of themselves, but I was primarily drawn to their functionality. They take dip nibs!
I've been trying to come up with something with the appropriate amount of gravitas to say for my first post of the year. This has been unsuccessful, so now I'm just going to say something and move on.
This year, the main goal is to stop thinking about shit so much and instead make like Shia LeBeouf and just do it. This is particularly pertinent to my art — I made some progress in overcoming my aversion to "wasting" sketchbook paper last year, but I've noticed I'm still not immune to the pressure to find the perfect scene or reference to draw. This eats up a lot of time that could be spent doing literally anything else.
At some point in the future, I might be mentally stable enough to do something more measurable like daily drawings. As it is, I'm a completionist, and having any concrete evidence of days that I've failed to do [x] thing only makes me more likely not to continue doing [x] thing because I've already gone and fucked up my record anyway. For now, I'll just do what I can when I can (and make an active effort to find the time).
On the topic of finding the time, I've started pulling out my sketchbook and drawing something around me whenever I feel the impulse to check my phone. Most of the time, that "something" is a mundane man-made object, so I can't waste time looking for something photogenic. Also, sometimes it sucks. It's fine!
Spontaneous travel sketches done in green pen (Platinum Preppy 03 inked with Diamine Evergreen). Left: A sketch of traffic done while waiting in traffic. Right: A sketch of a table at a mall coffee shop.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm feeding into the online sketchbook consumption problem by posting pages, even bad ones, here, but this is a shitty unserious blog that I don't really expect anyone to look at. If it stops being that, I'm dead and have been replaced by a body double. Happy new year!
Two drawings of sunflower bouquets in brown ink and alcohol marker. The marker was used in single-colored rectangles surrounding each of the flowers. The drawing on the right features black eyed susans and uses yellow, light and dark green, and orange. The drawing on the left features lilies and uses yellow, pink, orange, and peach. The author is bad at flower identification and can't tell you much about the rest of the flowers.
I've been faffing around with a Sailor fude nib I bought a few weeks ago. Fude nibs are bent upwards so they provide line variation as you change your pen angle, similar to a brush or brush pen. I'm still pretty bad at using the nib intentionally, but it does cool stuff if you mindlessly draw with it. You can block in color really fast with it, which is awesome but also requires frequent dipping, even with the built-in feed it comes with, because that is a fuckton of ink.
I think fude lines are bold enough to stand on their own, but I plonked the marker on top to make things more fun!
I've been thinking about my sketchbook in terms of "how" instead of "what": I pick a medium or color palette I want to experiment with or improve at and dedicate the entire spread to that. It's helped me avoid succumbing to perfectionism-induced decision paralysis because I just think about cool stuff I want to try instead of getting stuck on making a pretty picture.
Drawings using one ink and water. Left: A coffee cup drawn with Diamine Pick Me Up, a brown ink, and Diamine Safari, an olive green ink, used to draw its own bottle. Right: A tree drawn with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün, another olive green ink.
