Current Sketchbook Formats

 

Clockwise from upper left: A5-size Uglybook, A6-size Uglybook (frog sticker by Kate Buike), 3.5" x 5.5" Stillman & Birn Zeta, 5.5" square Hahnemuhle. (I'd better up my sticker game... those front sketchbooks look naked!)

While I’ve been talking about my portable sketch kit media, I haven’t said much lately about my current sketchbooks for urban sketching (shown here are only the ones I take on location; I have many more that I use at home).

For the past several years now, my only daily-carry sketchbook has been an A6-size Uglybook, which serves as my daily sketch journal and a catch-all for random people, not-so-random people, sketches from fitness walks, and sketchwaiting. I love the thin format with heavy-duty paper so much that I might be carrying it daily even if the paper were white – but the colored pages also scratch my itch for fun tonal sketches. I never leave home without it (even when I’m only running a quick errand and know I won’t have time or opportunity to sketch – just in case).

Sometimes I miss having a book with white paper as my daily-carry, but it’s not often enough to make me switch. Besides, I can’t seem to find a pocket-size sketchbook thin and lightweight enough for my slim bag.

The same sketchbooks opened. No sketches yet in the small Zeta.

When I take an auxiliary tote bag to sketch outings, I have many more sketchbook options. Ever since I started making on-location comics a couple of years ago, the larger, landscape-format Uglybooks have been my favorite. Unlike my daily-carry A6 size, which I use only one at a time, I keep several colors of the larger format in rotation.

When I know I want to use water-soluble materials, I take either an A5-size Hahnemühle (the same 100 percent cotton paper as the A6 size) or, more recently, a 5 ½-inch square Hahnemühle.

If I could find a white sketchbook with decent paper that is as
slim and lightweight as an Uglybook, I would consider it for my daily-carry.
Both the square Hahnemuhle and the small Zeta fit in my bag, but they're
too bulky to carry daily.

Just lately, after re-falling in love with Derwent Drawing pencils, I’ve occasionally grabbed a 5 ½-by-8 ½-inch Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. I noticed, though, that I rarely make a sketch that large on location with dry colored pencils. Since my basic M.O. is to carry sketchbooks only as large and heavy as necessary, I started thinking about alternatives. Digging through my stash, I came upon a Zeta book in the 3 ½-by 5 ½-inch size, and in landscape format. I don’t recall what my intention was in buying it, since I don’t really care for landscape format unless I have a specific use for it, but I’m going to give it a try.

This is a good time to mention how much I’m enjoying the square-format Hahnemühle. For one thing, it’s a just-right in-between between an A5 and an A6. More than that, the versatile square is handy for both portrait and landscape compositions, and occasionally I sketch across the spread for vertical or horizontal panoramas. With all the benefits of a landscape-format book, it’s much easier to hold while standing.