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A lovely gift of a grey S&B Nova sketch book and 5 tubes of gouache to play with
so even though it’s a grim, grey, grizzly day here I thought I’d see how I got on with the limited palette and the new book.A quick sketch of 60’s architecture across a grassy square, twisted winter branches and ivy growing up a tree trunk, glowing crab apples and a blackbird who kindly posed for me.
Loving the underlying grey to unite and add atmosphere.
Not a great painting but it got me thinking about how I’ll use this book. I may keep it for urban sketching as it so lends itself to that. A friend has started a local urban sketchers group, with plans to affiliate it to the international group in time.
It would work well with Paynes grey and white acrylic inks, charcoal, pastel ….all sorts
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
Thanks Eve
It’s much more robust Sandra. It’s 150gsm and a tougher surface that will take much more working on it. That’s the same weight as their alpha, which is lovely even though I like the heavier Beta even more.
I’ve been playing a bit with different media in it this morning (when I should be doing a lot of other things!)
Charcoal, gouache and inks work beautifully on it. Pastel pencils are good as long as you don’t want to build lots of layers – you wouldn’t expect to be able to on a paper like this, but it holds well for touches of colour used alongside drawing. Coloured pencils are ok, I’ve only tested with Coloursoft so far but expect the Polychromos (out in my car at the moment, along with my watercoloiurs) to show much more vibrantly. Biro, pencil, tinted charcoal etc are good. The gold ink actually works well but the scanner doesn’t show that.
The grain is finer than Strathmore, the paper much stronger, not disintegrating with too much water or bleeding through to the next page. The binding is strong so it will stand up to being crammed into bags to take out etc. The way that S&B prime the paper leaves a lovely surface to work on.
I always do tester scribbles like this with new paper to see what I can/can’t do with it before discovering in the middle of a sketch that I’ve spent time on!
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
I’ve only just got it and won’t take it out in the field much until the weather warms a little – it’s VERY cold at the moment. I plan to use it for uban sketching mostly I think.
Because of the soft cover it’s lighter to carry or hold when sketching but the binding is really strong so should be just as good.
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
Looks like this could be an exciting sketchbook, Vivien.
thank you all
I’m looking forward to using it plein air but the temperatures have plummeted and snow is on the way and my arthritis doesn’t like that! soi not until it warms up a little
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
and a snowy one with the same limited palette – a grey grey day. the only glowing colour is the few crab apples left on the tree
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
I enjoy how the white pops on the grey page
-- EP
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