Finished sketchbooks and some daily drawing

I'm a bit in a strange mood at the moment. I get easily annoyed and grumpy, and I just want to get home and have my peace and quiet. The weather isn't helping much either. For the past few weeks, it's been a constant mix of a few days of blazing hot temperatures followed by a few days of cooler weather with lots of rain. Both of which I'm not particularly fond of. I'm not feeling much like blogging, or even switching on my computer in the evening. I just want to watch tv and draw. The drawing bit, at least, is a good thing. And since I got a few pages filled in my sketchbook, I thought I'd might give it a try and put it all into a blog post after all.

I finished my sketchbooks last weekend, glueing on the covers and backs. I decided to restitch the one where I messed up the stitch, as it wasn't as tight as thought after all. I don't like the glueing part at all, but I do like how they turned out.

Thanks to the coptic stitch, they lie nice and flat on the table.

Two of the sketchbooks have 210g/qm paper, and two have 300g/qm, both Fabriano Disegno 5. I haven't used this paper before, but it's a watercolour paper, and not quite as expensive as the Artistico. They didn't have the smooth surface, so these have a bit of a tooth. I'm looking forward to see how it is to paint on it.

So far, I have only painted the colour charts of the two watercolour boxes I'm using at the moment in one of the sketchbooks. This is the one for which I used an old map for the covers. It's a map of an area in Sweden, and I'm thinking about taking it with me on my trip to Stockholm next month.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a quick drawing of my tea cup in the morning, and I got so annoyed with how it turned out. Such a simple shape, really, and yet, that oval shape just seems to be the most difficult thing to draw. It looked like a drawing of someone who had just drawn something for the first time in their life. So I decided to draw my tea cup every day for 2 weeks to try and get that shape into my hand. I missed a couple of days, but then on others, I drew more than one, so that's okay. I quite enjoyed drawing the different cups and using different pens, and discovering some tins of tea at the back of the cupboard that I haven't used in ages, like the "Hexenkräuter" (witch's herbs) tea, which is so delicious. The three women I quickly drew from a little table at the window in one of the buildings on the campus, a nice and quiet spot that I've been using a lot in my lunch breaks these past few weeks.

I also started a new Moleskine sketchbook, for lettering practice, and general drawing and doodling, and for all the pens that don't work in my Hahnemühle sketchbook. I meant to add some text to these bananas, but I haven't got round to it yet. But it's maybe a good thing I'm posting it now, as I might mess it up completely. Getting both the lettering AND the spelling right seems quite impossible at the moment.

I read this quote, or something like it, a few months back on the façade of a building here in town, and thought it was funny. And it was the only thing I could come up with for the prompt of a daily photography challenge this month. I forgot to post it in that group, actually, and I'm generally not doing a very good job with keeping up with the challenge. But I enjoyed the lettering. And sometimes I do manage to get the spelling right.

I went to a concert with my Mum last Tuesday. Well, actually, it wasn't a concert but an opera. Carmen. It was a sort of "half opera". It was in the old concert hall in the city, with the orchestra in its usual place in the middle and the choir behind. It did had all the characters too, and they were all dressed in beautiful Spanish costumes (gorgeous swooshy skirts), but it just didn't have the usual opera décor. It was very nice, but of course I had "one of those people" sitting in front of me. I didn't have my sketchbook with me, but I had the page already in my head, so I made sure to memorise the shape of her head, low hairline and very long neck.

I'm so glad it's Friday, and the weekend ahead. Peace and quiet and lots of time to myself. And at the moment, I'm especially looking forward to Friday evenings, as that means that I get to spend an hour with the Goethals. The Goethals are five sisters in the Belgian tv series The Out-Laws (Clan), one of which is married to Jean-Claude "De Kloot" (The Prick), an exceptionally nasty piece of work, whom the other four sister try to get rid of. He's such an unpleasant man that you just wish every time that their clever plans succeed at last, but he seems to have more lives than the proverbial cat. And then, ad the end of the episode, you are glad, after all, that he did get away yet again, because that means that there'll be another episode next week. It's hilarious, and just the thing you need when you're having a bit of a grumpy phase. 

A very happy and cheerful weekend to you!

Sketchbookbinding again

I meant to get my acrylic paints out again this weekend, as it's been far too long, but instead, I ended up cleaning the flat all Saturday, and then spending most of Sunday stitching together some new sketchbooks. Since it is so difficult to find sketchbooks with proper watercolour paper in a format that is not landscape, I decided to make my own. A big online art shop here has a special offer on Fabriano paper twice a year, so I ordered some paper in their summer sale last month. I have some beautiful Artistico paper in my stack, but decided to try out a less expensive paper for the sketchbooks. I ordered the Disegno 5 paper, eight 70x100cm sheets each, 210g/qm and 300g/qm. After an afternoon spent kneeling on the floor and folding and tearing up each sheet into 8 smaller sheets, you not only end up with aching knees and fingers, but also with 16 pages of a good sized 18.75x25cm for each large sheet. That makes two sketchbooks with 64 pages each for each batch (or rather 62 pages, as the first and last page will be glued down to the cover).

As I don't make sketchbooks very often (last time was here, here and, for the finished results here), it always takes me a while to get my head round the coptic stitch again. As you can see, I totally messed it up in my first (bottom) attempt. That's what happens if you stop reading the instructions properly halfway through and instead start watching a film on tv, because you think you've figured it out... It seems to be holding together, so I might just leave it. Or maybe I undo it and start again. I haven't decided yet. This weekend, I hope to find some cardboard in my stashes and do the covers.

I did do a quick sketch of an aubergine amidst all the dusting and hoovering and mopping on Saturday, though. It had to be quick, as I wanted to cook it. I used my new sword liner brush from Rosemary & Co. It has a funny shape and you don't really have a lot of control over it, which makes painting with it much looser.

And I've been trying to keep up my lunch time sketching up too, although this week, it's only been on two days, as I finally, after far too long a time, I managed to drag myself to yoga class Thursday lunchtime. And it did me a lot of good too. So not that much sketching this week, but I added a couple more ice lolly to this work in progress.

It was about time those two sketchbooks got finished

I finally got to finishing those two sketchbooks. I can't believe how long it took me, speak of putting things off... I stitched all three books together back in spring (after having had the paper lying around for a good few months) and finished the first of them. In August, I finally made and added the covers to the other two (and forgot to post the blog post I had prepared), and then, almost a month later, the spines have been glued on at last, and all three are now finished. I'm certainly not short of empty sketchbooks, which is probably why I didn't feel in a hurry to get them done, but it still annoys me a little bit that it took me so long to do them. I'll have to try and get organised a bit better, and get things done. No wonder I'm not getting anywhere, if I keep on working like this!

But anyway. Done they are now, and I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Preparing the spines. As with the first one, I left an extra bit on both sides, top and bottom, to fold over and glue down, to make it a bit sturdier.

Then carefully glueing them on to one side, trying to avoid to get the glue all over the fabric. Normally, when I use glue, usually with paper, I don't only apply the glue underneath, but also on top, to really get it stuck down properly. This also adds a protective coat to the paper for when it is the top coat (as with the covers), or a good base for when painting over it. With the fabric, however, you can't add glue on top without, so extra care is necessary.

And here are the last two finished sketchbooks.

And here's all three finished of them. The red one is slightly smaller, as the paper sheets were a different size. It's the same height as the others, but shorter in width.

The paper of the red one also has a different colour, a very light grey, and it has slightly less pages. The pages of other two have light cream colour.

With this kind of binding (coptic stitch), they open nice and flat, which is of course very useful to draw and paint in them. I don't really like spiral bound sketchbooks but prefer the hard bound ones, so it's important to make sure that they are bound in a way that allows them to open flat.

Now I just have to dare using them and start drawing and sketching in them...

Almost done - adding covers to the last two sketchbooks

I have left these two sketchbooks lying around far too long. I finished the first of my handbound sketchbooks, and stitched these two back in April, and since then, they've been waiting for their covers. I thought I didn't have any more cardboard boards that I could use, but looking again, I found the perfect ones. Two sheets, that were exactly twice the width of the sketchbooks. They needed very little cutting.

For the first one, I used an old discarded map (of a part of Norway) from my library. I liked the simple black and white design, with the blue lakes. This might make a travel sketchbook. For the second one, I used one of my favourite Japanese patterned papers. I love these delicate flowers on their green background.

After having covered the boards with the map and paper came the tricky bit - gluing the covers on to the sketchbook, and making sure they're all the right way up. I think I've now found a way that works well.

The last bit will be the spine. They would look alright without a spine too, I think, but the spine will help to keep them together, when the stitching might become a bit loose when they'll be used (if I'll ever dare using them...).

More stitching

I stitched another two sketchbooks over the Easter weekend, using the Coptic stitch. Once you remember and get the hang of it again, it really is quite straight forward. Back and forth, back and forth.

I used a green thread for these two and I want to make the covers and spine green too. Or maybe use an old map for the coversf or one of them. I've got two big bags full of old maps, which are always in my way. Time to start using some of them. The stitching is far from perfect, but it holds together nice and tightly.

These two are also a Fabriano Tiziano 160 g/m3 paper, but a different colour, Avorio, and size, 70x100cm. This paper size needed a bit more folding than the smaller one making the size of the sketchbooks 17x25cm. Same height as the other one, but slightly wider.

For this coming weekend, I'm planning to finally get the paint tubes and brushes out again, so these two will have to wait for a bit before getting finished.

Making your own sketchbook

I was really looking forward to this long Easter weekend, and after having most of the re-organising and importing into Lightroom of my old photos sorted, I was determined not to spend it all in front of the computer. For today, a misty, very rainy and cool perfect-to-stay-indoors day, I decided to do some bookbinding. There are loads and loads of sketchbooks available, in all kinds of formats and sizes, and and with different papers, but sometimes, the exact size and paper you want may just not exist. Making your own sketchbook allows you to choose exactly the size and paper that you want and it's fun to make (and actually not that difficult). And you can even cover it in some pretty paper.

I used some sheets of Fabriano Tiziano 160 g/m3 paper (colour: Perla), sized 50x65 cm, which I had cut in half and then folded. This makes the size of my sketchbook about 16.3x25cm. With all the cutting, folding and assembling the gatherings done, it was time for some punching, stitching and glueing.

First the punching. I finally got to try out my new Japanese screw punch. These seem to sell more quickly than the shops can stock them, and I had to wait several months until I finally managed to order one, together with some different sized punches. The one I used here is the 1.5mm.

Next the stitching. I have a whole pile of books on bookbinding, with different techniques and step by step instructions. I must admit that I have never been able to understand, let alone follow, any of them. So I always go back to the same method, the Coptic stitch. I found a PDF instruction that I more or less managed to make sense of on the internet some time ago, and I've been sticking to it ever since. I still get confused regularly, and usually have to go back and undo a few steps before getting the hang of it again. I just don't do it often enough. But usually, I manage to get it all stitched together in the end. If you haven't done any bookbinding before and would like to try it out, there are loads of resources available online, and I'm sure you'll find one that suits you, and that explains it much better than I ever could.

In addition to my gaterhings of sketchbook paper, I used a single sheet of folded paper as endpapers at the beginning and end of the body of the book. This allows you to glue the covers on to them without having to sacrifice a page of your good sketching paper.

With the gatherings all stitched together, I cut two pieces of cardboards to size and covered them with some pretty patterned paper for the covers.

Then comes the trickiest (I find) bit, glueing the covers on to the endpapers. I never know which one is the better way; to put the cover on the table and stick the body of the book on to it, or the other way round. You want the cover to sit straight, aligned with the spine, and with an even slight overlap around the other three sides. And the endpaper covering the folded over patterned paper, leaving an even margin on the tree sides. It's a bit of a fiddle, and everything being covered in glue, including your fingers, doesn't help. But you do have a bit of room for adjustment.

Last step is to cover the spine. I used a special bookcloth that I cut to size.

While cutting it out, I left an extra bit on both sides, the length of the spine and folded it over and glued it down, for enforcement. A very neat way, of course, would be to add a headband. I might put that on my shopping list for my next oder.

The last bit then is to put the bookcloth over your spine and glue it down on to the covers. Preferably without smearing glue on top of and staining the cloth. Which I find is pretty much impossible.

And there you have it. Your own, hand made sketchbook, ready to be filled. And with the Coptic stitching, you can open it completely flat on your table.