Na(net)ta's Sketchbooks.

Hi! Thank you! :D Instagram is just easier to post to, and I get much more likes and feedback there. On tumblr I always felt that since I’m not into fandoms, nobody is interested in my stuff here. Х)

As to the inks, I actually mostly use normal fountain pen inks that have some water resistance. So they bleed when water is used on top of them, but not disappear completely. My favorite brown ink, which I use alone and with watercolor as well, is J.Herbin Lie de The. It’s tea-colored, and when water is used on top of it, it bleeds with a rusty orange color, and the gray line is still visible. I love this effect and use it.  

This is what I’m talking about:

https://www.instagram.com/p/5dMV9LA2lt/?taken-by=vorona.nanetta

https://www.instagram.com/p/8Tp_4dA2us/?taken-by=vorona.nanetta

I use other inks this way too. Lamy black is my favorite black for this technique. My favorite “normal black” J.Herbin Perle Noire is too concentrated for this. So, I love such inks for what they are. If they were completely water resistant, they wouldn’t be half as fun for me. :D What I don’t like is the inks that dissolve completely without a trace, and that’s the majority of fountain pen inks. :))) I try to avoid them, but they are just too nice sometimes (like Montblanc Toffee). :3

As to completely water-resistant fountain pen inks, there are two types: the ones that become water-resistant on paper, and pigmented inks. The first category is many of the Noodlers inks (like Noodlers Black, Lexington Grey and others in different colors). If you can order them from USA, I suggest you google them and try Noodlers Black at least (it’s very popular among sketchers, and lightfast as well). I’m far from USA and ordering is pretty expensive, so I tried only Lexington Gray. It was really completely water resistant, but I just didn’t like the color, and my Safari didn’t like the ink, started skipping soon. 

As to pigmented inks, in general they are bad for fountain pens, but there are some that are produced specifically for fountain pens. They can be used normally (maybe not in your most precious pens), but you should clean the pens more often and not let the ink dry in the pen (!!!). I actually let some De Atramentis Dokumenten inks dry in my Safaris and Al-Stars, and it was a pain to clean (and I can still see some lighter inks in Al-Stars’ transparent feed), but all my pens write normally after that. But they are Safaris, it’s almost impossible to kill a Safari. :))) I didn’t use my pigmented inks in any other pens for fear of ruining them. So, other than De Atramentis Document (Dokumenten) line, there’s also Platinum Carbon Black and Sepia, some Sailor inks, Montblanc Permanent Black and Permanent Blue, Rohrer and Klingner Dokumentus, and some others that I don’t remember. The thing about pigmented inks is that they mostly feather very much (the lines are thicker and sometimes hairy) and they often look flat and opaque compared to normal dye-based inks. But some are better than others, do your research if you are interested! Here is the best place to search that I know of: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/140-inks-inc/  I personally use De Atramentis Dokumenten Brown, and it’s very well-behaved warm reddish brown, although not as beautiful for me as some of my dye-based browns. And a fairly recent addition is Sailor Storia Lion, it’s a Quin Gold color and pretty nice and transparent, my Safari also likes it so far. :)  Here Sailor Lion is on the foreground: https://www.instagram.com/p/BHXt4Yvjjbk/?taken-by=vorona.nanetta

(There are also iron gall inks, they are very water-resistant but strange, they become gray with time (like, months) in complete darkness as well, because of the oxygen in the air. My iron gall inks shade too much for drawing, the color change is unpredictable, and they are very non-lightfast, so I don’t recommend them for drawing.)

I’m sorry for the long text, but it was quite a big question. :)) I hope you find it useful! 

Hi Anon! :) I was inspired to sketch more, and also from life, by the sketchbooks of animation students. :) After that video I started to give numbers to finished sketchbooks: https://youtu.be/bqPZZnZFPTk  I thought that I could draw on this level when I reach my 99th sketchbook too. :))) I always loved sketching in bound books, but this was the moment I was really inspired to take it seriously and fill these sketchbooks! This channel has many videos of students’ sketchbooks, and I’ve seen them all. Most are amateurish, but some of them I really like and re-watch for inspiration.

I also like to search for “calarts sketchbook” on youtube. These are the sketchbooks that potential students need to show to get accepted to Calarts. The skill level is usually high, especially for the accepted ones. They are very specific sketchbooks filled with what the school wants to see, but I love watching those videos nonetheless. Even rejected ones are wonderful sometimes, just not “in the desired format”. :) And you can feel they are filled pretty quick and there’s a huge amount of work and experimentation behind them.

Maybe they will inspire you too! :) I absolutely love Norway by the way, our family’s friends live there, and we visit them sometimes. :)

Hi! :) Thank you for your kind words, I’m glad I could inspire you with my videos. 

I use almost all I could find, if the paper and the covers are nice to the touch and it opens flat. :)) And I like to change sketchbooks and paper depending on my mood, and have 2-4 of them going at once. Generally I have sketchbooks I always have with me to draw everywhere (pocket size or A5, sturdy moleskine-like cover preferred) and sketchbooks for home use only, also cheap sketchbooks with many pages in which I can scribble my quick ideas with a ballpoint pen or just warm up, and the ones with nicer thicker paper suitable for watercolor or markers. I also much prefer acid-free sketchbooks (it’s usually written somewhere on the cover), so the paper doesn’t yellow of become brittle with age.

But what I can recommend is going to a real brick and mortar store for artists and just feel the sketchbooks they have, what’s the paper, how’s the color and the tooth, how much see-through you get, does the cover looks sturdy, does it open flat and so on, and buy a couple you like most. Because most of these qualities is a matter of taste. Maybe you like the spiral-bound sketchbooks, or bright white paper, of tinted tan taper, or very smooth - only you can choose it for yourself. The materials that are supposed to work well of that specific paper are usually listed on the cover.  

If you are interested in sketchbooks that work well with watercolor, it depends on where you are. In US Stillman&Birn, Pentalic and Handbook seem popular, but I never tried them because they are not sold where I live. In Europe we don’t have especially wonderful watercolor sketchbooks, but the ones that are OK for watercolor sketching are Boesner watercolor sketchbooks (home brand of the huge store chain Boesner), Fabriano Venezia, Kunst&Papier watercolor books and some others (just look for or ask for watercolor sketchbooks). The most readily available everywhere are Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks (with a rose-colored band), they are also OK, although rather expensive and all my exemplars had problems with sizing (patches on the paper like blotting paper where the watercolors bled through). 

Just try something that you like! :) And fill it. Then you’ll know better what your next sketchbooks should be like. :)

Hello and thank you! :) I’m using Winsor&Newton and Daniel Smith paints. What I really _use_ (not what just sits there untouched because it’s nice, but I don’t really need it after all) is DS Quin Gold, W&N Green Gold, DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange, DS Quin Rose, W&N Cerulean Blue, Winsor Blue GS, W&N French Ultramarine, W&N Burnt Sienna, DS Neutral Tint. It’s really a matter of taste, and tastes change. I don’t have “normal” yellows or bright warm red now (but I constantly used New Gamboge and Cadmium Scarlet a couple of years ago), for example. It’s not a well-balanced palette someone would recommend to you. It’s just my currently favorite colors and textures, that work together for me. :) Of all my watercolor paints, my favorite is Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Gold. If you didn’t try it, I recommend you do. :)) I can replace most other paints, but I suffer without this one.