In Art, Paper Is Everything

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Larry Marshall

Sarcastic sports nut standing behind a sketcher: “How far can you throw your book?”

Sketcher responds: “That depends on how bad the paper is.”

I’m here to report that I could throw my Clairefontaine sketchbook pretty darn far right now. Given that I’m old and likely to pull a muscle if I tried, I just slammed it shut and put it on a shelf.

When I started sketching I seemed to be buying a new sketchbook every week, searching for the right format, the right binding, and the right paper. It’s a problem for beginners because we don’t have the skills to modify our approach to suit the paper and don’t know how to evaluate whether it’s “us” or “the book.” Most of all, though, back then we didn’t have good choices.

Then Stillman & Birn released the Alpha series sketchbooks and my life changed. I filled one, then another, and another. I started buying them 3-4 at a time. Later they released the Beta series, which quickly became my favorite. Things got confusing for me only when they started releasing a bunch of different sizes. Nevertheless, I didn’t worry about paper quality.

But recently I had only one Beta series 8×10 softcover book available and these are my “go to” street sketching book. But with COVID lockdowns and such, I can’t do much street sketching these days, so while at the student-run coop associated with the art school here, I bought a Clairefontane sketchbook. It seemed nice enough, but that was deceptive. Contained within its covers was a pile of paper where one side was “ok” when exposed to water, the other side was less so. Neither were very good, at least when water was involved.

I struggled with it and had done about a dozen sketches in it, all on the “front” side of the paper. But yesterday I tried painting on the back side of one of the sheets (two of them had already fallen out of the book) and what a mess. For what it’s worth, others have reported problems with this sketchbook too. Here’s the results of my sketch.

These are part of our tomato crop this year and no, the tomatoes are not that red. My sketch got that way as the paper started pilling when I simply applied a bit of water to get my initial wash to flow. And every time I put paint to paper, there was more pilling. I chased it by letting it dry and adding more paint. Each time I had to go a bit darker to cover spots that formed as a result. It’s just impossible to work with crappy paper. The surface of this sketch feels like 80-grit sandpaper from all the pilling.

Artists constantly plead with students to use good paper. Students constantly say they don’t want to use good paper because they’re “just getting started.” I say throw the crappy stuff away and buy good paper. Use cheap paint, cheap brushes, cheap paper towels if you must, but don’t use crappy paper. BTW, this sketchbook cost me $20 so money isn’t always the object here. For the same money, though, I could have bought a good, Stillman & Birn sketchbook, but the coop doesn’t stock them.

Today, though, I wanted to redeem myself and grabbed my one blank S&B Beta sketchbook off the shelf and set up three tomatoes to draw. This was soooooo much more fun. Just for kicks I grabbed a cheap box of Munyo watercolors, a $4 Princeton synthetic brush and a napkin left over from a Subway sandwich from the day before. That’s what I used… with good paper. I was stuck with the same limited skill set I had the day before but the enjoyment and, I think, the results were much better. I’ll let you decide.

Is It New If It’s New To Me?

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Larry Marshall

I don’t do a lot of discussion of products here, but I was in the local COOP run by university art students (their way of getting quality stuff since our ~~art~~craft store doesn’t stock it) and I came across this little sketchbook.

Unlike the Cotman pads I’m used to seeing from Winsor & Newton, this one had 5×7 sheets of 100% cotton paper. I bought one and emailed W&N to ask if this was a new or old product. The response I got suggested that the guy writing to me didn’t know the product at all, though it is listed on their website. Wandering around the internet, however, suggested that somewhere around a year ago, W&N stopped making the Cotman books and started making “craftsman” and “professional” papers. This little gray book is part of their professional series. All of this is anecdotal but what I can say is that this is completely new to me.

I haven’t had much chance to try it out but the paper does seem very nice. In the hands of someone who understands watercolor, probably even more so (grin)

New Field Notes Format – Dime Novel Edition

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Larry Marshall

Some know Field Notes as a company that produces thin, 3.5×5.5 notepads in a series of ‘themes.’ Most of the time these notebooks come with lines, graph or dot-grid paper but once in a while they produce a series with blank pages and these are great for use as small quick-sketch notebooks. Most famous, thanks to Tina Koyama, is the Sweet Tooth series that had blank pages and came in red, yellow and blue paper books. Tina has done, by my count, a zillion or so sketches in the red ones.

A recent release by Field Notes may be the most useful notebook yet for sketchers. No, they won’t replace my Stillman & Birn books but for quick-sketches they’re just dandy. The release is called the Dime Novel Edition and reflects the format (4.25 x 6.5) of dime novels of the early 1900s. The paper is blank, except for a small page number in the upper right corner.

Instead of their typical staple-bound 48-page form, this book has three signatures (72pages) that are sewn together and then wrapped with a heavy cardboard cover. To sweeten the pot, Field Notes uses really nice 70# paper that has just enough tooth to make it nice for drawing pencils and great for fountain pen. I’ve only done a bit of testing but I saw no evidence of bleedthrough with this paper though there is a bit of ghosting.

I find the size ideal, mostly because it’s very thin – about 1/4″ thick, light and yet large enough that if you draw across the gutter you have a 6,5 x 8.5 page to work on. Oh…and if you go through it, pressing each page open (the book handles this quite easily), it will also lay flat.

The 70# paper does limit what you can do with water, but if you don’t slop on too much water, you can use watercolor as well. Watercolor pencils seem to work particularly well, but again, you need to keep the water applications light or you’ll get some buckling of the paper.

The books are sold as a 2-pack for $12.95. Page count here exceeds the total pages contained in the 3-packs of the 3×5 Moleskine books that many use for this purpose and the paper here is far superior so if you carry such a notebook with you, give these a look.

A Sneak Peak At Stillman & Birn Nova Paper

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Larry Marshall

Did you get excited when Stillman & Birn announced their new Nova series of sketchbooks? I sure did. Most people know that I’m a fan of S&B but, like everyone else, when I wanted to draw on toned paper, I was stuck with 60-80lb paper with little or no sizing. This stuff was ok for line sketching but any attempts at watercolor and the paper buckled, pigments dulled as they were sucked into the paper, and you couldn’t manipulate the watercolors the way you can on a better paper.

But one day I got a call from S&B, asking if I’d like to try out their new toned paper line. I pondered my answer carefully. Microseconds went by as I came up with my careful worded response. “Heck yeah! Bring it on.” And they sent me some single sheets of their tan, gray and black papers.

Which brings us to now. These papers will change the way watercolorists think about toned papers for two reasons, both having to do with the fact that physically these papers are like S&B Alpha white and cream papers.

They are much heavier than other toned papers. I don’t have any data on these papers, but they are the same thickness as Alpha paper, suggesting they are around 100lb (150gsm). In any case, the extreme buckling I’ve experienced from other toned papers just doesn’t happen.

The papers are properly sized, so you can actually work watercolors on them. Those who have experienced Alpha papers know that large-scale wet-n-wet is probably not the idea approach but these papers can handle a fair amount of water. The pigments can be moved around. You can charge into another color. You can lift pigments from these papers. The colorsl remain bright on these papers.

I started testing by doing what I typically do with toned papers, draw with pencil or fountain pen. Very quickly I realized that this was lots of fun but not really a challenge for these papers. They were almost screaming “put some water on me,” and so I did.

I’d like to provide a detailed, blow by blow on the process of getting used to these papers but, for me, it was like working on my typical Alpha and Beta papers. If anything, I might have used a slightly thicker mix to achieve the results you see but I’m not even sure that’s true.

Above you can see a bit of buckling. I soaked the area inside the building outline and applied the color wet-n-wet. Because the exterior remained dry this small amount of buckling took place. What I did here simply would not be possible with other toned papers I’ve used.

Stillman & Birn says that actual sketchbooks with Nova papers will be available sometime in August. I don’t know if that means softcover, hardcover, or both but I know I’m going to get in line to get some. Stillman & Birn will shake the world of toned papers with these sketchbooks. Thanks, S&B.

A Bright Idea From Bright Ideas

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Sometimes you just want to draw on colored paper. Maybe it comes from the days when we were kids and had piles of “construction paper” in all colors of the rainbow. Whatever its roots, sketchers like to shun the white and walk a bit on the wild side, if only once in a while.

A company called Bright Ideas has a solution and it’s called the Bright Ideas Journal. This is a 5×7 book with 408 pages. I suppose you could get away with very light applications of watercolor but the paper isn’t heavy enough for the serious watercolorist. As a substrate for pencil and/or ink drawings, however, this journal is pretty sweet.

It’s thick (about 1-inch) compared to most sketchbooks because of its 408 pages of paper in ten different colors but a big plus is that this book lays flat, very flat because of the open spine binding. Some may grumble because each page has the name of its section printed in the lower right corner. What purpose this could possibly serve is lost on me but I don’t find it objectionable for my ‘small sketches’ needs.

I haven’t had much chance to experiment with it but the paper takes ink very well, with no feathering, no bleedthrough and ghosting only if you hold up the sheet to the light. I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this book and I thank the Bright Ideas folks for their bright idea. I ran down to the local park and did this quick test sketch so I’d have at least one ‘test’ that isn’t a bunch of scribbles.