Crawford and Black Bus Drawing

You know, it has recently struck me how, when you get into a challenge you can become so single minded about it that you don’t realise that the challenge has led you off in different directions that weren’t actually part of your initial intentions for it.

When I began the challenge it was just about concentrating on finishing my unfinished sketchbooks and that was quickly formalised into using up as many A5 sketchbooks as I can in 12 months. It then made sense to try out and compare as many different brands as I could. After all, by the time yu’ve filled a sketchbook you should have a really good appreciations of its strengths and weaknesses

With hindsight I can see a new element coming into the challenge when I started buying cheapy cheap own brand sketching journals. In one way this is a little bit of an exercise in masochism. When I was coming to the end of my Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbook I was faced with the fact that I had one more proprietary brand left – the Nassau  - before I would have to choose between going back to an unfinished Moleskine – already having filled one Moleskine during the challenge, or starting on the own brands. Obviously I was going t have to go with the own brands and this is why I came up with the two books running concurrently idea (see earlier posts).

Now, the Nassau book is not, frankly, top quality, but the Crawford and Black really does not have good quality paper in it at all. But I made a sketch in it yesterday. I spent a couple of hours on it and frankly I found myself becoming absorbed in the effort to make it the best sketch in it that I could. Here’s a sketch I would have been pleased to make in any of my sketchbooks.

Crawford and Back sketchbook 

Though I do say so I’m pretty pleased with this drawing. The paper in the Crawford and Black is not an enjoyable surface on which to sketch, but you can get decent results on it if you’re prepared to have patience and persevere. Here’s a couple of my other bus and tram pictures to compare it with:-

Amazon Basics sketchbook

Amazon Basics Sketchbook

Royal Talens Art Creations Sketchbook

Royal Talens Art Creations Sketchbook

Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

Derwent Academy Sketchbook

Leuchtturm 1917 Sketchbook

Moleskine Sketchbook

Seawhite Sketchbook