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| 11/29/21 Green Lake neighborhood (Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils in Hahnemühle sketchbook) |
After I made the decision to explore color temperature for a
while with soft, non-soluble colored pencils, I nixed plans to start
using a new Hahnemühle sketchbook because I thought its tooth would
be too strong (though I know I would love it with water-soluble pencils). The
first time I went out with my Tombow “pencil sandwich,” I took a Stillman
& Birn Zeta sketchbook (below), which usually makes me very happy with
soft colored pencils. However, I missed the texture, especially when drawing
foliage, and the Zeta seemed too smooth. Since I typically avoid detailed work
when I’m urban sketching anyway, maybe a rougher texture would be fine for these
color experiments . . . ?
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| 11/26/21 S&B Zeta... too smooth? |
Arrgh. I love using mixed media and switching around color and drawing materials, but I hate dithering about paper. I want to put one book in my bag and leave it there until it’s full.
Two years ago on my wish list of fantasy products that don’t (yet) exist, I included a Stillman & Birn edition that contains a mix of toothy Beta and smooth Zeta, both in one book. I still want it!
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ReplyDeleteTotally with you. That's why I make my own mixed media sketchbook. But the paper in it is too nice for random doodles so I now also carry a cheap sketchbook 🤣
ReplyDeleteI always carry a little pocket-size notebook for those random doodles, too! ;-)
DeleteHave you looked at the Alpha series, Tina? It's supposed to be just a thinner version of the Beta series but I've always found it just a wee bit smoother than Beta. My one major stint with watercolor pencils was a museum winter and I used Alpha that entire season. In fact, I've drawn more in Alpha than any other. I switched to Beta only because I wanted to use more water in my watercolors. But for watercolor pencils, Alpha is dandy and you get more pages :-)
ReplyDeleteI use Alpha quite a bit at home for still lives and such, but I haven't noticed that it's smoother than Beta... I'll take another look! Thanks for the suggestion.
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