Going Tiny with Sketchbooks

Remember the "tiny" sketchbooks I designed this week? (see below)?  Well I decided to try one out yesterday while I waited for the food truck to prepare my husband's sandwich.  

We have a food truck show up in the community every Thursday evening 4-6 pm.  They have a pretty nice menu!  (not particularly good for Weight Watchers however). 

I am more and more discovering that the KIND of paper you are working on is more important than any other consideration, even size.  There are dozens of kinds of pens (and watercolors too) and the choices you make are quite dependent on the paper qualities. 

These little experimental books are done using Strathmore cold press 140# paper.  It has a tiny bit of tooth to it.  And it's weight is nice as you can paint on both sides and it doesn't bleed through.  

The size of the tiny sketchbooks necessitates that you decide on one object or one portion of an object or an unclose version of something.  It's also nice as it is surely not intimidating! 

Autumn says to remind everyone that there are different sizes and colors of spiral bindings you can use.  My machine is very inexpensive one and does not offer too many "kinds" of spiral binding.  And Office Depot only carried white and black but in different sizes that accommodate different amounts of paper.

You can, remember, take your pages down to Office Depot or other office supply stores and have them spiral bind it FOR YOU at a very nominal fee. And you can have a clear plastic cover put on the pages.  

I may make up a few of these and offer them for sale in my sketching class in March here in the Florida community.  I am booked to teach a class in WI in June and this would be a good way for me to try out the syllabus and see how much can be done in two hours!  

Here's a good quote about sketching from Danny Gregory:

Three facts to write in the inside cover of your sketchbook:

1. Never compare yourself to other artists. Don't compare your first drawing to their reproduction in a coffee table book. Let their progress inspire but not intimidate you. Compare you to you. That's all that counts.
2.  You're making more progress than you think. You may not see it but it's happening with every page. Guaranteed.
3. Everyone struggles at the beginning. Check out early van Gogh drawings. Awful. Struggle is normal, inevitable, a positive sign that you are working things through. Your early drawings are zero indication of what you will achieve in time. Zero.