Scrapbooks as sketchbooks

Morning!

I bought a new scrap book at the weekend, which I wanted to try out as a sketchbook - the paper inside is so beautifully smooth, that I find it perfect for pencil sketches, dip pen and fountain pen drawing.

There is no texture to the paper - which is something I would normally actively seek when creating products - but I love the smoothness of this thick paper/thin card for when I'm doing carefree doodling, in order to wind down of an evening, or to warm up my hands before working on a commission.

The other joy of this particular book, is that it is so very beautiful!
Just look at the cut out detail on the cover! And birds! I do love a bird or two.

The pencil sketches were drawn with my Pentel 120 A3DX propelling pencil, using 0.3mm lead. I love how delicate the lines look, and how much detail you can get with such a fine line.

The fabulous turquoise pencil is just there to look pretty ;)

I also wanted to test how well the paper would stand up to ink, so I got out all my pink inks (acrylic and bombay) and had a play - not one came through the back of the paper - and I also tested liquid watercolours as well as high flow acrylics. Same result.

Now I'm not suggesting we all ditch our traditional sketchbooks, I'm just saying that it's worth keeping an eye out for scrap books and photo albums in the sales, as often they have really good quality paper/card in them, which is perfect for doodling on.

This bird design was purchased from a Paperchase outlet shop for £5 - half it's original price of £10 -but it is available HERE on the Paperchase site for £7.50 in the sale.
The hard back cover is very sturdy (and gorgeous) and made up of the deep turquoise hard back inner, sandwiched between two layers of kraft card.
Spiral bound, so I can work on it with the spirals at the top, which stops them getting in the way whilst I draw.

It also has a beautiful ribbon to tie it up, which protects the inner sheets from getting marked or damaged.
There are 40 sheets to work on, and honestly, the paper is of such good quality that I could work on both sides if I so wished - I tend not to do this though, as you can get pencil and pen marks rubbing off on to the page below if you do that.

I've been using scrapbooks as sketchbooks for a while now - my first one had black paper pages inside it, and is fantastic for practicing with all sorts of different pens to get new, fun results. But that's a post for another day!

Materials used:
Vintage dip pen - these can be found quite easily on eBay
Birds scrapbook
Pentel pencil
FW ink pearlescent pink
FW ink fluorescent pink
Liquitex acrylic ink magenta
Dr.PH Martins Hydrus watercolours magenta
Golden High Flow Acrylics magenta
Dr PH Martin's Bombay inks
Caran D'ache Grafik HB pencil
The links are just for reference, so that you can have a look at the materials online...they will be available from other shops, so it's always worth looking around to find a price that suits!


Sarah
♡