A small Strathmore sketchbook slathered with stickers I come across
I finally killed off a small Strathmore sketchbook that was lying around the house. It was picked up years ago while it was most likely on sale. The price was probably too good to resist. I honestly don’t remember. It had some notes scratched in it along with arithmetic, but it was mostly blank and I figured waste not, want not. It was my pick for next small format sketchbook that had to be finished off before starting another. That was a mistake. It was a slog to get through. It would have been more useful as a scratchpad kept by the phone.
I’m not sure why some sketchbooks contain magical properties and are a joy to work within while others fight me tooth and nail. The Strathmore 400 Series is fairly decent paper meant for dry media, but I’ve used much cheaper sketchbooks with all sorts of media and have been much happier with the results.
When I’m not working on assignments or Drawer Cards, I doodle for fun. I think the good drawings I do are mainly the result of happy accidents, and for some reason, the cheap sketchbooks are more prone to those type of accidents.
Below is a gallery of some of the drawings I actually liked from this sad sketchbook. I post them for my own reference. It’s a lot easier to find a particular doodle on this website than it is flipping through the dozens of spent sketchbooks in my studio. It also helps me keep an informal chronology of my work. If readers enjoy these sketchbook scratchings, I am grateful for the appreciation! Feel free to leave a comment below.
From here I have moved on to a larger Canson XL multimedia sketchbook which is not exorbitant, but it’s not cheap. I want to work a paper that will take color and wet media better. I’ll share the results on these pages.
