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Saturday, December 4, 2021

Paper Dithering Near Green Lake

 

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 . . . ?

11/26/21 S&B Zeta... too smooth?
When I went out a few days later, I thought I should at least give the Hahnemühle a chance (above). The texture is a bit coarse with soft pencils, but it’s not bad. I kept wanting to get out a waterbrush to smooth out some areas, though. Maybe I’d be better off with Beta, which has a tooth somewhere between Hahnemühle and Zeta . . . ?

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!

5 comments:

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  2. Totally 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 🤣

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    1. I always carry a little pocket-size notebook for those random doodles, too! ;-)

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  3. Have 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 :-)

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    1. I 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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