Tuesday, August 4, 2015

New Sketchbook Cover

It's always fun to paint the lettering on a new sketchbook cover. This one's called "Entrance Ramp" after the first painting in the book. I drew the guidelines with a white Supracolor Watercolor Pencil and a ballpoint pen.

I'm using One-Shot lettering paint (chrome yellow) on a Pentalic watercolor journal.
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Previously: Your sketchbook covers
Titles on sketchbook covers

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the Pentalic watercolor sketchbooks! Thank you for recommending them!

gyrusdentus said...

Enjoy your new sketchbook and cherish the crafting :)

Steve said...

Love the organic poetry of choosing the first sketch for the sketchbook title. It has led to some strangely evocative phrases.

Linking this to yesterday's post, I was struck by how many pages in Edelfelt's sketchbooks were far from completed drawings. It seemed sometimes he had ten minutes to give to something and then either had to abandon the sketch or simply didn't like what he'd done and had turned the page. These, of course, were interspersed with wonderful, more fully rendered drawings. It was reassuring to me to see the high percentage of false starts.

jeff jordan said...

Have you used sign painter quills? Nothing better to move 1-shot. Those are really fun brushes!

HNK said...

Great method! How do you still holding likeness of your book and, for example - you painted a picture in gouache. Do you wait for it to dry out or not? And how do you deal with gouache paintings that are «failures» and, stupid question, if i want to cover failed portrait with wc pencils that weren't dissolved, and when I cover it casein picks up color from the previous painting. How do you deal with that? My book is a mess, I draw ugly but I am still trying to get better, and mostly because of your blog.

Robb said...

I LOVE your sketchbook covers, Jim! I've got them all screen-captured whenever you show them on the blog or in videos! ha! I'm a little obsessed. My favorite is the "Report from Planet Earth" cover. Thanks for showing this one off – Such a beauty! -Robb

Tobias Gembalski said...

Hi James, I really like your idea to give your sketchbooks unique names!
Just a question, I started my first paint sketchbook (thanks to your blog) and I wonder if there is something to fix/seal gouache paintings?

James Gurney said...

Tobias, no need to fix the gouache if it's protected in a sketchbook. You could spray it with a clear finish, but test it first. It changes the surface and makes it no longer workable.

Thanks, Robb! Glad you're enjoing them. It's good to be obsessed.

HNK, if a sketch doesn't work out, I can always rub it out with a damp cloth and start again, or just turn the page.

Jeff, I haven't used the actual sign painter's quills. They're made of squirrel hair, right?

Steve, I hadn't heard the phrase "organic poetry." Did you coin that? Yes, Edelfelt's sketchbooks make him come alive as a person and an artist.

Thanks, Jennifer and Gyrus.