art supplies: Etched sketchbooks

[eye_of_toad]

I'll post more about these when I finally get around to using them. (I have at least four sketchbooks "in process" right now and I don't dare start another.) But I had to test out the first page to see if it really lived up to the no-bleed-through claim. And it did! However, in the process, the cover came unglued. Oops. For the record, the actual stitched part of the binding looks fine, I don't think there's any danger of the pages falling out. But this is the most expensive sketchbook I ever bought so I snapped this picture and sent it in to the company. I didn't even explicitly ask for anything. I just let them know the cover came unglued on the first day. And they've already sent me a replacement.



The Zoe Hong sketchbook is a present to my inner child. I certainly didn't need it and I no longer have fantasies of being a fashion designer. Did anyone else fantasize about being a fashion designer as a kid? I couldn't afford the ... I think they were called Fashion Plates? that were a big toy when I was a kid ... but I used to trace over the same body repeatedly so I could draw different dresses. And skin. And ears or antennae. I was big on drawing aliens. So a lot of my figures had cat ears or blue skin or robot faces.

I didn't really have any ideas for my first test page, so I went with something simple.



Given the distorted fashion proportions, these women all look a bit alien, so I imagine there will be more antennae in my future. (Zoe Hong had an interesting video where she explained why the calves are more distorted than the rest of the body. To stretch the figure out in the fashion tradition of making models inhumanely tall and thin, fashion designers still need to keep the torso semi-realistic since you're trying to design real clothes. So all that extra length comes from the calves where you don't have to be as fussy about the fit.)

If you don't know her, Zoe Hong is a YouTuber who teaches fashion design. Here are some examples of some of the blank pages.




This second one is on the reverse of that swatch page. If you look carefully, you can see the shadow of the other side, but there's no actual bleed through. Which is pretty amazing for alcohol markers on paper this thin.

And even though I 100% do not need ANY more sketchbook (I could go YEARS without buying any more sketchbooks), I couldn't help myself from also buying a blank Etched sketchbook, which I have also confirmed that you can draw on with alcohol markers without any bleed through. I'm feeling optimistic about these despite the issue with the glue not holding on the first one.

But again ... I'm now tucking these away with all of my other blank sketchbooks so I can focus on finishing the ones I've already started.

Comments

[amberdreams]

Etched are one of the stone paper guys, aren't they. I've got one of theirs but haven't started it yet, but I've also got a different stone paper book (Ogami) which feels pretty much the same and I've used it with markers, pencil and wash, and oil paints. What I found with pencil was that if you use a fairly hard lead (HB or similar) or have the pencil quite sharp, it indents/scratches the surface and leaves impressions, which could be fun to play with but wasn't really good for the kind of drawing I was trying.

sketchbooks

[eye_of_toad]

Yup, "stone paper". Agreed, they don't look like pencils will be the best choice for them. Fortunately for the Zoe Hong ones, I think markers lend themselves best to fashion drawings. But I'll have to remember to avoid pointy pencils when I get around to working on the blank one.

I've decided to focus on filling up sketchbook #14 as my immediate goal. (It's the one where I like the paper, but hate the binding on the cover so I'm always fighting with it and will be glad when it's filled up and done.)

My favorite all-around sketchbook so far is the little Talens Art Creations travel-size sketchbook that someone bought me as a gift. And I've bought myself a slightly larger version that I haven't started yet. But that one isn't great for markers. I don't think there's a sketchbook that works well for everything so I expect to be perpetually switching back and forth for different uses.