CATH DONALDSON ILLUSTRATION
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Some notes on sketchbooks

13/4/2018

 
Picture
There's been a bit of trial and error in selecting the best way to draw onsite. In a perfect world I would have a beautiful set of matching sketchbooks, different sizes and paper, but in reality, different situations required different approaches and so I am left with a mixture.
I began with moleskins, A6 and A5. Light and transportable, they are excellent for carrying all the time. The drawback is the paper has a yellow cast and is slightly translucent, great for authenticity, but not so good for scanning.
Muji (the light brown and red-edged) make a really broad range of size and they are really thin, perfect for filling a sketchbook in a morning, so I thought I could make each one location specific. However the paper is absorbent and seems to suck up graphite and colour. It's hard to get a strong tonal contrast with them.
I tried A3 photocopy paper, which is actually excellent for scanning pencil drawings - who'd have thought, but obviously too thin for any rough treatment.
The white spiral bound book has no provenance I'm afraid, it's white paper is just a bit thicker than photocopy paper and it's great. Small enough to take out for serious drawing, it lays flat and scans beautifully.
The very best sketchbooks I have found, I bought in the London Graphic Centre (you can get them online too). These are  Leichturm1917 series. Flat, opaque white, smooth paper and the right thickness. I think they are just about perfect - I wish they made spiral bound versions.
​

working on the IPad

11/4/2018

 
Picture
Stall 51, the plant market. Procreate Ipad
It's sometimes necessary to work either swiftly or discreetly and I've discovered that recording colour with my IPad and Procreate is a really good way to get information down. There have been a couple of drawbacks however. The pencil, a '53', has a squashy tip, and although quite responsive, does feel like i'm drawing with my thumbs, so I don't think there is any subtlety of line. The other thing is that my colour palette is huge and so the work I have made digitally doesn't sit with my sketchbook drawing - paint and coloured pencils. To get round this, I have made a palette from existing work and sampled it into Procreate - an easy solution I hope.
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all copyright Cath Donaldson 2022
  • Home
  • Work
    • Mob Stories
    • Film drawings
    • Athens
    • Abu Dhabi Reportage
    • Atlas Obscura
    • Lost places
    • Dark History app
    • Diva
    • Embroidered sketchbook
    • Sketchbook
    • Royalty: Red Carnation Hotels
    • Warehouse 421 Exhibition
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • About