Handbound Hahnemühle

 

I stickered up the cover with Notegeist Bindery's stickers!

When I use wet media, my hands-down favorite sketchbook for more than a year has been Hahnemühle with 100 percent cotton paper. The A6 size has been the most portable and actually the only practical size with my everyday-carry mini-size Rickshaw bag. My only complaint with the otherwise excellent edition is that it only comes hardbound, and the sturdy covers add to the weight and bulk.

My favorite A6-size Hahnemühle that is, unfortunately, available only in hardcover.

When I discovered that Hahnemühle offers the same paper in watercolor blocks, I started thinking about hand binding again. (For those coming late to my blog, I used to hand-bind my sketchbooks for many years. This tag will take you to all the posts related to my bookbinding; this post explains why I stopped bookbinding.) Cut the 9-by-12-inch paper in half, fold, and stitch or staple into thinner, lighter A6-ish books – it seemed like an ideal solution.

The price, too, was appealing: An A6 Hahnemühle works out to be about $0.26 per page (I’ve found the best prices at St. Louis Art Supply). Making my own books from blocks of paper would be about $0.18 a page. Last spring I bought and cut a block of paper with this intention, but then good outdoor-sketching weather happened. Around the same time, I had become focused on making on-location comics in Uglybooks. In any case, I never got around to binding.

Hahnemühle at left compared to Uglybook

I was chatting about all this with a friend one day – a friend who had recently started a notebook-making business. Gary thought it would be an interesting opportunity to try some custom prototypes with different binding styles. I provided the paper, and he got to work.

An immediate issue he discovered was the paper’s thickness. I realized a long time ago that this is probably the reason softbound sketchbooks with heavy paper are rare – Stillman & Birn is the only one I can think of (and I loved and used them for many years). Glue bindings are often insufficient for thick pages (as we found out from one of the prototypes), and even stapling can be difficult.

Hand-stitching, which would have been my only option if I had done it myself, turned out to be the best solution after all. I’m now using the first prototype, and it’s working out beautifully. With 24 pages, it’s about the same size and thickness as an Uglybook, half the thickness of a hardcover Hahnemühle and much lighter in weight, too. This single-signature form is so simple that I may just have to go back to binding my own after all.

By the way, if you’d like to see some of the handmade notebooks Gary sells in his shop, check out Notegeist Bindery. (Mine, however, were made just for me!)

Commemorative note: Thirteen years ago today, I started drawing. Usually on the anniversary of that date, I write a retrospective or introspective post about practice, process, learning and other thoughts about drawing and creativity. Last year’s post on Murphy’s Laws of Urban Sketching is one of my favorites. Drawing has become such an integral part of my life that I can’t think of anything new to say about why this daily practice is so much more to me than a hobby. Today I’ll just say, Happy drawing anniversary to me! I’m happy that I started 13 years ago, and even happier that I kept going.

The same as my favorite Hahnemühle but lighter and thinner

First Green Lake Color (and Fresh Fall Palette)

 

9/16/24 Green Lake

As mentioned a few days ago, I have embraced the coming of fall, and what better way to do that than to check out my favorite sweet gums at Green Lake? They were only just beginning to show some yellow and orange at their very tops, and the mid-afternoon light caught them well. In another month, they’ll be at their peak.

Color notes: Also as mentioned previously, it was time to freshen my watercolor pencil palette, especially since I hadn’t been using it much with my minimal-color comics approach lately. Instead of the CYM triad I’ve been in love with the past couple of years, I chose a more traditional primary triad as well as a secondary triad with two greens – one warm, one cool. I don’t need to mix much with this complete rainbow, though I did mix the secondary triad to see what it’s like.

The pencils are all Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles plus a couple of Derwent Inktense. I had gotten a little too dependent on my go-to colors, so it was fun to shake things up by changing every watercolor pencil in my usual palette. I’m a little uncertain about the warm green I chose – Inktense Olivine (1340) – which isn’t as warm as my all-time favorite Museum 245. But it’s good to shake things up  – even in the more traditional direction!

New fall palette

Stronger than a Donut

 

9/13/24 Project 9 Brewing Co., Maple Leaf neighborhood

After a long week of home-improvement project delays, issues and inconveniences, I needed something stronger than a donut. I asked Ching if she would come out for an impromptu drink & draw at Project 9 Brewing Company. A little brew, a little sketching and a lot of good conversation will do wonders for one’s first world problems.

Thanks for listening to my first world problems, Ching!

This was the first time I sat in the brewery’s outdoor seating area during inclement weather, and we stayed dry and cozy under the heated shelter. We could have gone inside, but it’s much quieter outdoors (plus dogs to sketch). It also helped to eat a huge pile of stir-fried noodles from Tummy Yummy Thai’s food truck. The last time I had opted for a stir fry from Tummy’s, the temps were in the mid-80s that July day, and the steaming hot noodles, though delicious, were not a good choice. Last Friday, they were just right.

Sammich, the other food truck that used to vend regularly at Project 9, apparently closed abruptly last month. I’m going to miss their fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches.

Jack is Back

9/13/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Jack is back! Jack Skellington, that is – Maple Leaf’s celebrity pumpkin. A couple of years ago, the 969-pound pumpkin was featured on KING 5 Evening, a local variety TV show. Kate and I sketched him during the weighing-in event that turned out to be Maple Leaf’s highlight of the year. Last year I sketched Jack’s successor, who didn’t grow quite as large and eventually succumbed to too much love (sitting and touching by visitors).

Jack’s grower has been busy cultivating the next-gen Jack. When they were featured in our community newsletter, I knew it was time to sketch him. He was under 700 pounds at his most recent weigh-in, but he still has a lot of growing to do before Halloween. I’ll be ready.

Material notes: My annual season of denial is over, and I’ve fully embraced fall – which  means I’ve put color back into my bag! As much as I love making comics pages in Uglybooks, I’ve been jonesin’ for full color for a while now, so it wasn’t hard to do. Right now it’s the basic watercolor pencil palette I used last year, but as the fall color season progresses, I’ll probably shake things up. Although I’ll still be using an Uglybook for my daily journal sketches, I’m also daily-carrying my favorite 100 percent cotton Hahnemühle again – in a new form factor. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

Basement Stairway Construction

 

9/11/24 Metropolitan Market, Crown Hill neighborhood

Just like urban sketching reflects where we live and where we travel, the contents of sketch journals and diary comics reflect whatever is going on in our day-to-day lives. I’m probably stating the obvious: While I usually find it challenging to maintain a sketch journal when my life is ordinary, my pages are prolific on days when a lot is happening. Even when I’m so busy with the “lot happening” that I hardly have time to sketch, I always find time to document what I want to remember about the day. The visual elements don’t necessarily even illustrate the activities; instead, they indicate the break I took to record.

On this day, I was moving all my clothes and shoes from my closet to another room (where they were piled in a heap on the floor) so that the carpet could be removed and replaced with new flooring. Meanwhile, a contractor was noisily rebuilding our basement stairway. When he warned me that in a few moments he would be doing something that would sound like six gunshots, I decided it was time to leave for a lunch break.

(By the way, when all of this is done, I plan to make a post showing before/after photos of these home-improvement projects that have been occupying my time.)

Color note: As simple as it looks, that cup of coffee was a fun color-mixing challenge. I stopped carrying brown in any medium years ago, so if I need brown, I must mix it. Since the paper was green, all I needed was dark purple and orange – my all-purpose secondary triad.

Urban Sketchers on the Eastside Rail Line

 

9/14/24 Redmond Technology and Wilburton stations

Late last spring, Kate, Roy and I rode the new Link light rail line 2 from south Bellevue to Redmond. Getting off at each station, we sketched briefly before hopping back on. In addition to simply having fun, we were also scouting the route for a potential USk outing. Since most stations have enough sheltered areas that the outing could work during transitional seasons, we pushed it to fall.

As it turned out, Saturday’s drizzle didn’t faze any of the enthusiastic sketchers who showed up. In fact, I was impressed and surprised by the number of sketchers who did exactly what Kate, Roy and I did. Blitz-sketching at each station, they got right back on when the next train came and made it to the northern-most Redmond station in time for the throwdown!

Making one stop at Warburton Station to grab lunch at Whole Foods, I made a quick sketch of the light rail supports, which always make an interesting composition. After that, since I already did the whole tour in May, I saved most of my sketching time for Redmond Technology Station. Microsoft’s extensively landscaped pedestrian/bike overpass is challenging fun to sketch. (Both sketches above.)

Sketcher Jyoti works for Microsoft in one of the many buildings on the tech company’s main campus on the far end of the overpass. Walking with me, she noted key points of interest, such as the archway behind the colorful Microsoft “windows” (likely a good selfie spot for new employees and visitors). The triangular structure covered with foliage is a cave-like space where employees can take a break from all the glass and concrete. At lower left is a distant view of the pedestrian overpass. (Sketches below.)

Microsoft's main campus, Redmond

After the throwdown, most of us rode the train back to the southend park-and-ride lot, so I had time to sketch a few of my co-sketchers as well as other commuters. A fun day!

A green escape from glass and concrete

Blood Pressure Control

 

9/10/24 Sketched from live broadcast

Political debates can be difficult to view, and presidential ones are certainly among the worst. I find that it helps to calm me when I sketch from the live broadcast. I can still listen (though often I wish I couldn’t), but focusing on capturing the candidates’ likeness (or lack thereof!) keeps my blood pressure down.

Last week’s debate between Harris and Trump was the fourth presidential debate that I have sketched. I think my first (between Clinton and Trump in 2016) is still my most memorable due to my special viewing “seat.” I also sketched the 2020 debacle and the one a couple months ago.