Sketchbooks
Overheard Conversations: Doobries & Chuffers
Sketching other people's conversations.
“She got arrested on her 21st birthday.”
“And this one’ll be in Doobrie before he’s eleven.”
“That’s why I’m on these. She can’t nick me fags now can she? It’s better on these cuffers.”
1. Doobrie n also dooberry, doobry, dubry — Anything for which one cannot recall the name.
2. Chuffer — Disposible cigarette.
Daniel Meadows at The Northern Eye Photography Festival 2023
A tad dark for drawing but popped out my sketchbook during the Q&A.
On the 50th anniversary of his ‘Free Photographic Omnibus’, documentary photographer and storyteller, Daniel Meadows spoke about his work at this year’s Northern Eye Photography Festival.
“You can’t pretend you are other than you are.”
“Documentary photography is too good to be relegated to art.”
Monoprint Street Sketching
The line produced by a monoprint is unique and I like it.
Mark making is important, the quality of a line in a sketch adds character and feeling. The line produced by a monoprint is unique and I like it.
Work, Rest & Play.
Sketching Bea at work, rest and play. Beavering about, pottering around, building stone mounds, playing with the dog or just chillin’ with a good film. Observational drawing records daily life and captures memories.
Observational Drawing
Observational drawing, picking up on small details.
Observational drawing, picking up on small details. Hands clasped behind the back, trousers tucked into the back of shoes, quietly taking in surrounding, flat caps, creased beige clothing, solitude.
Stitching Sketchbooks
I don’t buy sketchbooks. I make my own.
I don’t buy sketchbooks, I make my own. Sketchbooks with half decent paper are costly. I’m lucky to have access to a vast range of beautiful papers in various weights, shades and surfaces.
The pages of this sketchbook are 118gsm Strathmore Writing Wove. Strathmore Writing paper was introduced in 1920 as written correspondence was booming. It contains 25% cotton, originally sourced from trimmings reclaimed from textile mills.
Strathmore is a beautiful paper for sketching. With pen or pencil but with a soft crayon it simply glides with enough tooth for exquisite texture to the mark making.
My process for making my sketchbooks is simple. I take the sheets, add a heavy weight outer sheet and hand stitch them all together with a ruddy big needle. The following shows an A5 sketchbook made from Fedrigoni inner sheets hand stitched to a 540gsm Colorplan cover.
