Hey Eric here with 30 by 40 Design Workshop I've just started in on a new project and
with that a new sketchbook and because I always keep one with me in today's video I thought
I'd give you a peek at my sketchbook and talk about some of my favorite sketching supplies
that I'm using in the studio right now.
Everything is linked up below in the description and in the cards so if you're interested in
picking up any of these that's where you'll find them.
So this is my current favorite and it's been my favorite for quite a while it's made by
Muji it's good quality it's inexpensive and it's super portable and it has a couple of
features that I think make it then near perfect sketchbook for an architect.
The first is the dot grid which is really subtle so it doesn't dominate your sketches
but I like that it helps to organize my thoughts on the page.
I use it to frame out sketches develop perspectives and as a guide for my grids.
If you're new to sketching or even lettering the dots are kind of like a safety net they'll
help improve your confidence in drawing those sketchy but semi-straight lines.
It fits in the hand and it's portable enough to take almost anywhere but it's also not
so big that I'm lost on the pages when I'm drawing.
At around 70 pages you can dedicate one or more to a single project and at that length
they don't actually take that long to fill up.
The low page count also means that they're thin enough to prevent that cliff effect where
your hand will slip off the edge as you're sketching and that's important because if
you're uncomfortable sketching in a sketchbook for whatever reason just recycle it because
you'll never use it and that's the most important thing about a sketchbook is that you fill
it with your ideas.
Now I know some people find the wire binding a problem but I prefer it to the perfect-style
binding because it lays flat and I'm not one who's ever like to draw across pages in the
binding so it doesn't really bother me.
The wire binding also allows you to tear out pages and it's reversible so it's good for
both righties and lefties.
The elastic page keeper keeps your place while you're using it and it prevents the pages
from flipping open in your bag when you're traveling.
If you choose inexpensive sketchbooks like this you won't be afraid to use them and as
you're practicing new techniques and making mistakes you can just kind of flip the page
and move on.
Sometimes I'll use cover-ups if I absolutely can't stand looking at a sketch I've made
but that's sort of unusual for me.
Sketchbooks are made for fleshing out ideas and that means they're bound to capture both
good and bad ones along the way.
Because I use ink and pencil for most of my sketching the lightweight paper here works
fine but if you like to use watercolor or do a lot of inking you may want to look for
a heavier weight or mixed media paper.
Markers will definitely bleed through on these pages so be conscious of that especially if
you work on both sides of the page and let's say you're going back to tune-up an earlier
sketch you might ruin the work on the following page.
I use a slip sheet to prevent bleed-through from ruining several pages if I'm doing a
lot of marker work.
Another option is to keep your sketchbooks separate let's say you might have one for
pen and ink and another for marker one for colored pencil you get the idea.
The important thing to pay attention to with paper type is how it feels when you're drawing
how does the pen or pencil drag does it bleed through or soak in?
And honestly this just comes down to personal preference so before you go out and buy ten
of these you should definitely test out a few and see which ones you like.
I have this thing about Strathmore heavy weight paper for sketching it's just too slow for
me and the way pens and pencils sound on it - kind of makes my skin crawl.
But if you look at someone like Lebbeus Woods’ drawings that's all he used and the tooth
on the paper was really a part of his sketching style.
Another one I like right now are these recycled Kraft paper notebooks.
Using any kind of toned paper allows you to experiment with white linework whether that's
pencils or white ink and it's kind of like swapping the figure for the ground and it
can sometimes help to view your work from an inverted perspective.
I used to use this terrible Pentel mechanical pencil because I thought it had some kind
of special mojo to it.
I can admittedly be kind of superstitious about things but I am fully smitten with the
Kuru Toga now.
It has this super nice weight and hand feel and it rotates the lead as you draw so the
point is always razor sharp.
HB lead is the mid-range of the hardness and softness scale so if you prefer darker drawings
you could go up to 2B or 4B but it'll definitely smudge in your sketchbook.
If you want to keep your sketches all graphite I'd also add a point three millimeter and
a point seven millimeter mechanical pencil to the mix otherwise you'll find quick results
for heavier lineweights using ink.
So for that I like to use the pilot precise v7 for me it's just better than the v5 and
you can see the sketches I've done in the past with the v5 they were just too crispy.
I found the pen kind of cut into the page.
The v7 has a rounded tip and that gives it just the right amount of drag on the paper.
Now I should also add here that I love Sign pens and Sharpie ultra fines especially on
trace but I find they're just too harsh for my Muji sketchbooks.
The ink dries fairly quickly on the Muji sketchbooks but because the paper has this kind of slight
eggshell finish to it I find it does smudge if you're too quick behind fresh ink.
My current technique with the Muji sketchbooks is to line things out in pencil and then go
over the sketches with darker more confident graphite strokes and then finish things out
with the v7 to darken areas and punch up the perimeter line weights.
The other pen I've been using a lot lately has been the Signo white gel pen the ball
isn't perfect on these and they do tend to dry out once you begin using them so I like
to buy them in a five pack and then I always have a fresh one to move on to if they start
becoming kind of problematic.
I like white linework for plan sketches and creating really graphic imagery say diagrams
or perspective details.
Now for markers I've moved on from Prismacolors which are water-based to a small collection
of Copics which are alcohol-based and I just find they blend better but they also bleed
through on the Muji paper.
I tend to grab the sketching grays and the tans and yellows most often.
The grays are great for adding shading and creating contrasting fields or washes which
really help your sketches to pop they can also be used to quickly kind of block out
a sketch or to emphasize subtle textures and lately I've been laying down these kind of
dark fields or washes and then using the Signo gel pens for white line work on top of that.
I think they also look pretty fantastic on Kraft paper.
Okay for colored pencils I end up borrowing pencils from my kids as their collection I
don't know somehow seems to proliferate.
But if I'm buying new ones I like Prismacolors or Koh-i-noor pretty well.
So I have warm and cool grays for light shading I use those for stone work and weathered wood.
I have a few blues for sky and water occasionally glass.
Tans and yellows I use for wood tones all the way from pine and cedar to mahogany and
walnut.
The bright yellow I use for Sun and sometimes like sort of dusk lighting or interior lighting
and then of course white is essential for adding highlights and accents and then I have
a few greens.
There's some starter kits out there that can get you set up with a complimentary range
of colors to work with but if you're choosing ones just from scratch to kind of make up
your sketching palette I'd choose a limited family of colors at first and build contrasts.
So yellow and gray is a good starting point teal and orange cool grays and warm browns
these can represent common material choices in your area or you know what you like to
use.
Just have a look around you and choose colors based on your environment.
Now just a few other essentials.
I have two pencil cases that I used regularly one is for colored pencils and one is for
pens and mechanical pencils this way you can grab your favorites and kind of throw them
into a bag or bring them with you to wherever you'll be working.
The Muji ones are solid and translucent so I can see what's inside but I've also found
glasses cases can work pretty well they're just a little shorter so if you’re buying
new colored pencils the long ones don't always fit.
Now I've both an electric pencil sharpener and a small brass manual sharpener.
I've used a lot of erasers and for a long time I defaulted to the white Staedler Mars
plastic erasers but I found the Muji black erasers they're just my current favorite because
they don't streak they don't rip the paper and they're pretty effective for most pencil
work.
It's actually kind of silly to wax poetic about erasers but having good tools is part
of what makes sketching enjoyable.
For finer erasing I like this clickable eraser pen which uses small white plastic erasers.
On the, “nice to have but not totally essential” list are things like this portable dustpan
and brush by, alright you guessed it: Muji.
It's just nice for keeping your desk clean.
And I have this chop stamp with my logo on it.
It's always nice to kind of date your sketches and I find it just kind of cleans up what
can be kind of a rough or a messy sketch in a way.
And a straightedge.
Having a small scale or triangles helpful when you need to add some precision or to
clean a sketch up.
Find one with a beveled edge so you can pick it off the page easily and move it or just
add a small little tape tab as a handle.
Now to be honest I don't use these very often when I'm sketching because I find it just
helps me to move more quickly and get out ideas onto the page.
If I need to sketch to scale I just use the dot grid in the sketch book.
For a long time I had a very fixed view of what a sketch book was but in recent years
that's changed and I just view it as a tool to elicit my best ideas.
It's a necessary part of my own creative process and it's something I use to practice drawing
with on a daily basis.
For a closer look at my sketchbook be sure to follow me on Instagram.
We'll see you again next time, cheers my friends!