Sketch Material Wish List for 2024

 

My favorite A6-size Hahnemuhle sketchbook would be so much lighter and slimmer
with a soft cover and fewer pages like the Field Notes Signature above it.

Ah, yes, one of my favorite year-end posts: the one in which I describe the sketch materials that I would ask Santa for – if only they existed! The first item is easy:

Softcover Hahnemühle:

Hahnemühle sketchbooks, especially the 100 percent cotton series, top my Tops list this year. The fabulous paper – which has weight, sizing and texture ideal for the way I like to work – combined with the A6 size makes my favorite option for my daily-carry, slimmed-down bag. What could possibly make it even better? If the A6 size came in a softcover version. The hard covers on Hahnemühle books are sturdy and substantial, but I use my books gently, and I don’t want that extra bulk and weight. I’d like a variation with fewer pages, making it slimmer, and with thinner, lightweight covers.

Ideal would be the thickness of a Field Notes Signature sketchbook (sadly, no longer in production), which has a perfect binding. Hahnemühle 100 percent cotton paper is substantially thicker, but I think a perfect binding could handle it.

I even bought a block of Hahnemühle paper with the intention of hand binding an A6-ish size booklet. That would bring me back full circle to my many years of bookbinding, which I haven’t done since 2019. Hand binding is economical as well as the one way to get exactly what I want. Hmmm… maybe a winter project.

The Viarco-made, L. Cornelissen-branded bi-grade pencil

Bi-grade graphite pencils (or more options for them):

In last July’s 12 Pencil Questions, I answered question No. 3, “What’s the pencil you wish existed?” with an answer that belongs here on my wishlist: A bi-grade graphite pencil like the Viking Verso. Portuguese pencil maker Viarco has the right idea with the pencil it apparently made especially for the London art supply store L. Cornelissen & Son (which I was lucky enough to visit in 2016). With 2B on one end and 6B on the other, it’s an OK combo, but ideal for me would be pairing a Japanese H with a Japanese 4B – like Mitsubishi Hi-Unis. Or how about a Blackwing with extra firm on one end and extra soft on the other (a useful idea that would be far better than its recent Lab 11-24-23 release of “misfit” factory seconds sold at a premium price and pitched as a “small-batch” innovation)? I think it would be super-handy to have two such grades of good graphite – a harder one for initial blocking, a softer one for shading – in one convenient stick. 

Just a millimeter or two of additional girth makes 
pencils more comfortable to use, especially with time-
consuming drawings. (Vintage Hardtmuth Koh-i-Noor, left,
compared with contemporary Mitsubishi Hi-Uni.)

A full range of mini-jumbo size pencils:

During Pencilvember, I tried a vintage Hardtmuth Koh-i-Noor 1500 graphite pencil that had good 6B graphite, but what made it especially pleasurable to use was its “mini-jumbo” size. With a barrel about 8mm in diameter (standard pencils are about 7mm), its bit of extra girth makes it more comfortable to hold. Even better is the 9mm Gekkoso. I’d love to see Mitsubishi or Tombow make a full range of graphite grades, all with a larger mini-jumbo barrel. (Of course, they’d have to come out with a corresponding sharpener, too.)

A modest list, don’t you think?

Wish lists from previous years:

2022
2021
2020
2019