FAVORITE SKETCHBOOK TOOLS

The search never ends for new and exciting mediums. You just have to tour my studio for proof of that. I guess I get bored easily and really, who doesn’t love to try out new art supplies? Here are a few of the new goodies I have recently tried and enjoyed. More to come, no doubt!

The links to products are not always where I buy them. Do some price checking.

*I have no affiliate links nor do I earn a commission on anything I list here. These are simply products I have tested and used myself.

SKETCHBOOKS

A little about paper. Currently I enjoy a hot press paper over a cold press paper. Hot press is smooth and cold press can include a variety of rough textured paper. It’s most suitable for watercolors although I do enjoy watercolor on a hot press paper as well. It’s not as absorbent as cold press so the colors tend to sit on the top and maintain their vibrancy. I recommend you try them both.

Here are my current favorite sketchbooks:

• Dylusions Creative Journals These books are hard bound with a little pouch in the front for ephemera. They open flat so you can easily do a double spread. The paper is smooth and strong and accepts quite a bit of abuse. Water media, acrylics, crayons, markers - pretty much anything goes. The paper is not as white as usually like for straight-on watercolors but for mixed media I don’t mind it. I have a small pocket sized one that’s lighter weight and easy to tuck in my purse for quick sketching on location and one that’s a larger square format. So far loving these for mixed media expressive sketching.

• Hand Book trav.e.logue These are equally strong and as fun to work in. The paper is cold press and I love it for watercolor and mixed media. I enjoy taping off a neat border and covering it with gesso for different effects. I love the really small square one - perfect size to grab and go.

• Strathmore Mixed Media series 500- These are soft cover books so they are lightweight for travel and have really nice, sturdy paper - not completely either cold or hot press, just a nice surface that stands up to mixed media.

PAINTS & MEDIUMS

• Paints - I use a variety of acrylics for my fine art painting practice. Golden, Nova, Liquitex- anything goes. But for sketchbooking I like the Liquitex soft bodied acrylics (a little more matte than regular acrylics) and gouache acrylic - very matte, yet liquid so easier to use than the gouache in tubes. Both of these are not water soluble. You can manipulate them when wet but once they dry you are free to work over them with other mediums and they won’t move.

• Watercolors- I have a metal watercolor palette that I use at home filled with my favorite tube colors but it’s heavy. For practical reasons, I’ve become quite fond of the Derwent Travel Watercolor Sets. I have the Line & Wash. The Inktense and the Graphitint. They are small and lightweight. I love them all but if I can only take one with me it’s going to be the Line & Wash along with a small tube of Titanium White or Mixing White Gouache - any brand will do. This will make your watercolors a little more opaque and also can be used on it’s own for white accents on your drawings.

• Water Soluble Crayons- Neocolor II - I have actually owned a set of about 30 for several years and have just started really enjoying using them. They offer the best of both worlds - drawing and painting. I’m wishing I had bought the whole set but for now what I have is working. Maybe some day.

• Oil Pastels- This is probably another subject for another time. If you follow me or know my work you know I am all about Oil Pastels. I love them! My favorite brands are Mungyo, Holbein and of course the creme de’la creme, Sennelier. I’ve recently become aware of some larger sticks that are handmade and would love to get my hands on a set of Kawachi Big Oil Babies. Rather pricey and shipping from China - eek - but I see a set of these chunky glorious colors in my near future for my larger work. I digress- Back to sketchbook tools… As a rule I do not use oil pastels in my sketchbooks because they need to be fixed. Unlike Oil Sticks, Oil pastels never dry and without fixative they tend to make a mess in sketchbooks. If you really want to use them you can put glassine pages between your sketchbook pages . Maybe you wouldn’t mind but for me there are enough other less messy mediums I prefer to use in my sketchbooks.

• Water Soluble Pencils & Sticks- Inktense Water Soluble Pencils & Sticks- Can’t leave home without them. Dip them in water, or draw with them dry and put water over them for a wash effect. Simply glorious! Treat yourself to a set even if it’s just the small set of pencils. I have, at times, found Amazon to be less expensive with these. There are many brands of watercolor pencils on the market. I use the ones I have which are Derwent Watercolor Pencils. I don’t use them much but it’s fun to add yet another texture to the page now and then.

• Charcoal - Again I don’t use these in my sketchbooks very often because they are messy and need to be fixed but I do love sketching with Charcoal and I will often sketch with ArtGraff Taylor’s Chalk then wash over it with either Matte Medium (for a smooth finish) or Clear Gesso (for a more textured finish. These will set the charcoal (for the most part) and allow you to work further on the drawing without it moving or smearing. Beware- a little goes a long way. Your whole page can get very black very fast with this method but I love going over it with either paint or oil pastels for a finished piece. If you want to use these in your sketchbook, just put papers between the pages and when you get home give the pages a good spray of fixative - outside!

•Sketch Pencils- If I’m drawing for a watercolor sketch that I want to erase after it’s been painted, I’ll use my mechanical pencil with an HB lead. For more expressive sketching with pencil, I love the Wolff’s Carbon Pencil - I have H but any softness is probably worth a try. I also love Faber Castell Pitt Oil Base pencil -extra soft Schwarz black. These will smudge but not quite as much as charcoal or the carbon pencil. Love working with both!

• Mediums & Fixatives- My all-time favorite is Liquitex Clear Gesso. I generally get this at Michaels simply because it’s an art supply they carry and I use a coupon or watch for a sale because I use a lot of it. If you don’t like the grit, Matte Medium will do the same with a smoother finish. For Oil Pastels only Sennelier Oil Pastel Fixative will do. It’s expensive and you do need several coats to keep it from smudging but it works the best or you can frame with a mat under glass and skip the fix. For Charcoal, pencil and other mediums that smear, Krylon Fine Art or Krylon Workable Fixative both work great. You must use these in a well ventilated area - preferably outside.

• Brushes- A HUGE subject all by itself but let’s talk sketchbook brushes. For travel and economy and to get the point down quickly and easily I like the travel brushes that you fill with water. No fuss, no muss, no need for a separate water container unless you are planning huge swaths of color. If you get one of those Derwent Watercolor sets a small one comes right in the kit. For a serious watercolor travel brush try this one by DaVinci. It has a cap for safe storage. I also enjoy this Artist Loft Scrumbler available in different sizes. It’s a rough brush which gives you a looser look. I’ve used it with acrylics, gouache and even watercolors - great for getting un-fussy in the sketchbook.

• Pens & Markers- This is an area where I’m not the most experienced but I’m wide open for exploration. I do have a set of Arteza Brush Pens that I use on occasion. They have both a brush tip and a solid point tip so that’s nice if you’re into using markers. I find they don’t move as much as I’d like them to. Once they hit the paper, they are down which can also have a fun layering affect. I would like to try Ecoline Watercolor Brush Pens which are like intense watercolor inks and get great reviews from other artists. Maybe somewhere down the road. For now if I want a wash of color I just use my watercolor paint set. I also have a set of Artist’s Loft Acrylic Paint Markers that I haven’t experimented with too much. I can see where the white could come in handy and I’d like to try the small tip rather than the medium tip ones.

• Travel Kits- This is so personal and there are thousands of options. I’ve reviewed many ideas by other artist who are much more seasoned at painting on location. I plan to delve deeper into the whole idea of painting outside once the Florida weather gets cool enough to stay out for longer than a nano second but for now, I just toss the essentials into a case that I already had. I try not to take too much. I just don’t want to be bogged down with too much stuff.

Here’s a peek of my current grab and go kit - ever changing, of course!

INSPIRATIONAL SKETCHBOOK ARTISTS

Let’s face it, nothing is new. I scroll Instagram every morning with my coffee and I pin so many images on my Pinterest Board. Masters and contemporaries -we can all learn so much from each other.

This list will evolve but for now these are the sketchbook artists that keep me inspired:

Sandi Hester- I don’t know how or when I first discovered Sandi but she really got the ball rolling for me. Her adorable, bubbly personality will grab you the first time you tune into her YouTube channel, “Bits of an Artist’s life”. She attacks each page with reckless abandon - something I long for and fear I will probably never fully achieve. She shares so much on her channel and truly wants everyone to be as happy an artist as she is. I encourage you to grab a cuppa something good, watch a couple of her videos and learn all about Sandi. If she can’t excite you about getting into a sketching habit, you might as well stop trying now!

Melanie Chadwick- Also adorable in a much more relaxed and quieter way. I love to escape with Melanie. Her YouTube channel is informative, relaxing and chock full of encouragement. She shares so much and I love getting lost following along as she wanders the beautiful paths along the rugged coastline near the fairytale village where she lives in the UK. Go ahead, indulge yourself and pick up a few tips and tricks for on location sketching with Melanie Chadwick.

Lena Moz- Lena is one of my most recent discoveries and has seemingly dedicated her entire art practice to sketchbooking. Her beautiful posts are so inspiring. Uh oh…there’s that word I wasn’t going to use with regards to sketchbooking but if I could create these pretty pages using the expressive tools I’m learning all about, well, I’m in! Aside from Instagram where her beautiful pages are designed to entice, she shares most of her journey via Patreon which is a paid subscription. From what I can see on her Instagram feed, this is something I will have no problem tapping in to. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Danny Greggory- I’d be amiss to not mention Danny. I came across his story when I first purchased his book, Art Before Breakfast many years ago. Danny became a sketcher while sitting with his wife who was dying of cancer in a hospital. A very inspiring story and a very inspiring man. If you need a kick in the butt or just a few encouraging words, I encourage you to subscribe to his newsletters or simply tune in to his YouTube channel and grab you some Danny! You won’t be disappointed. Also I should mention he started the long-time running Sketchbook Skool where you will find dozens of other inspiring sketchers.

Shari Blaukopf- Watercolor was my first love. I enjoyed many years as a commercial illustrator using watercolor and still love working with it. The many surprises and happy accidents never cease to amaze me. I get Shari’s posts directly into my email box and she does a new sketch almost every day. I have purchased a few of her classes which are so professional and enjoyable - and economical too. You get a good bang for your buck! I love her sketchbook style. She uses cold press a lot for her daily sketches and I love the way the paint just sits on that paper and maintains it’s vibrant color.

URBAN SKETCHERS

Do a Google Search in your area for Urban Sketch groups. This is something I plan to get more involved in. Here’s the link for the Orlando Area Sketchers.

If you want to explore the whole sketchbook craze further, just go to Instagram and search Urban Sketchers or search Sketchbooks on Pinterest. Here’s My Pinterest Board. There’s so much to learn and so much to share!

To be continued…Happy Sketching!