Currently Browsing: Commercially Bound Journals
Hahnemühle Watercolor Sketchbook Review: Part 3
Today is the final part of my three-part review on the Hahnemühle Watercolor Sketchbook. See Part One of the review here. See Part Two of the review here In today’s post I wanted to write about the book structure itself. I’ll then wrap up with a final comment about the paper quality. Binding and Covering […]
Hahnemühle Watercolor Sketchbook Review: Part 2
This is part two of a three part series on the Hahnemühle Watercolor sketchbook. Please click on this link to read part 1. Today I am going to look at two aspects of paper response in this watercolor sketchbook. These techniques are important to me and therefore I select books containing paper which can handle […]
Hahnemühle Watercolor Sketchbook Review: Part 1
Today I’m going to begin a three part review of the Hahnemühle Watercolor Sketchbook. I suggest that you read all three parts before purchasing. I will write more about this in a moment. This sketchbook was released in 2017. I purchased two in the summer of 2017 but was unable to work in them until […]
In Context: Dirty Brushes
In general I like to start a work session with clean brushes. Which means you want to end a session by cleaning your brushes. Sometimes when I’m sketching out and about there isn’t enough water in my water brush to flush out the bristles. I find that I would rather paint something than worry too […]
Another Look at the Handbook Watercolor Journal
Things change over time. It’s a fact when you use art materials. Papers may be made for 400 years at a mill, but over your lifetime any paper you change will have subtle if not significant changes. The same is true for paints, and brushes. Some ingredients for paints might become scarce or no longer […]
What’s on the Table?—The Curl of the Paper
I just love working in my favorite Japanese Lined Journals from APICA. The paper loves the Pentel Brush Pen. Sometimes I work in gouache on this paper, but sometimes I leave the sketch as is and turn the page. Other times I put in an acrylic marker background. I used an orange 15mm wide Montana […]
Part Four: Working in the Smooth Zeta Soft-bound Journal from Stillman & Birn
Today is part four of a multi-part series on the Stillman & Birn (S&B) smooth surface Zeta journals. You can read part one here. This post deals with some mix-media approaches and some pros and cons I discovered about this paper. You can read part two here. In this post I write a bit more […]
Part Three: Working in the Smooth Zeta Soft-bound Journal from Stillman & Birn
This is part three of a multi-part review of the smooth Zeta soft-bound journals from Stillman & Birn (S&B). You can see part one here. Yesterday I posted part two here. Working in Watercolor on the Smooth Zeta Paper I think it’s fair to say that most of my blog readers work with wet media—most […]
Part Two: Working in the Smooth Zeta Soft-bound Journal from Stillman & Birn
This is part two of a multi-part review of the Stillman & Birn (SB) Smooth Zeta Soft-bound journal. You can see part one here. Today I wanted to look at two approaches for which the smooth heavyweight Zeta is suited. Mixed Media Because of its weight the paper is particularly suited to collage and mixed […]
Working in the Smooth Zeta Soft-bound Journal from Stillman & Birn
A couple months ago I picked up a Stillman & Birn Soft Cover Zeta Book. I don’t use Stillman & Birn books. I don’t care for the way they make their hardcover books and their papers are either too lightweight, or in other ways not responsive to the way I work. With so many other […]