Who the Hell is Alice? And why her?

I do keep coming back to Alice, don’t I? In the last 7 days I’ve purchased two new Royal Talens sketching journals, the first 9x13 and the second 21x13 and in both of them my first test sketches have been copies of Alice in Wonderland illustrations. What is it about the book?

I’m sure that I’ve explained how I first came into contact with the books before, but in case I haven’t or you missed it, here goes. My parents never had their own house so they, my two brothers and I all lived in my grandmother’s house. My grandfather died a few years before I was born. My parents didn’t keep a lot of books, but I remember that in the living room on a shelf above the bureau there were some red hardbacked copies of famous novels. There weren’t a huge number of them. I can remember there being David Copperfield, The Mill on the Floss, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Little Women and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (and Alice through the Looking Glass). There was also the copy of Great Expectations that my Mum had won in school, which belonged to a different set.

The photographs shows the set I'm talking about, although these aren't my grandfather's actual books, which are with my brother in Hillingdon now. Sadly I couldn't find a photo which showed Alice in Wonderland or any of the others that I remember. 

These books, the look of them with the gold lettering on their faded red cloth spines, fascinated me from a very early age. My grandfather had bought them. They were published by the Daily Express in 1933. My grandfather would have been 26 years old when they were published, so he could have bought them new. It was two years before he married my grandmother. It’s also possible he bought them second hand later – I just don’t know. I know that they were published in 1933 because I've just googled them, and pictures from sets being sold on ebay have just filled me with nostalgia. My Nan always reckoned that they’d had more of them at one time, but how many they’d had and what happened to the others I don’t recall asking. Too late to ask now.

So, as I said, I was fascinated by them. Time would eventually come when I would read all of them, except Little Women, which I’ve never read yet. Not a conscious choice not to, I just haven’t. I enjoyed all of them except Jane Eyre. But when I was first becoming interested in things around me, the only one I could even try to read was Alice. It helped that Alice had illustrations. At that tender age I didn’t really get much of the story, and some of Tenniel’s pictures frightened me. But then, kids do like to be frightened to an extent. Then, only a couple of years later, there was a kids’ TV series on – it may have been at lunchtimes – when an actor, who may well have been Aubrey Morris read out the stories in a series of short episodes while Tenniel’s illustrations were shown periodically. I was hooked on the stories. This was also when I developed a preference for Looking Glass over Wonderland.

So maybe this is it, that Alice has maintained my fascination because it at least helped to ignite a spark in me of two things which I would come to love very much – drawing and literature. Perhaps – it works as an explanation to me at any rate.

Royal Talens Art Creation - 21x13cm

Yeah, I know, this is getting a little out of hand. So, let’s recap. You know that I bought a Royal Talens Art Creations sketchbook – portrait 9x14cm which arrived on Wednesday? I did like it a lot, and I’ve already made half a dozen sketches in it, all copies of some of Mervyn Peake’s simpler illustrations from Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Okay.

Yesterday I fulfilled a very short notice commission. It was a one-off detailed pen and ink drawing for a birthday present and it involved five hours’ work. Thankfully the client was delighted – and let’s be honest, I was very pleased with myself as well. It capped off a great day. I mentioned in the previous post that I have recently retired from teaching. I’ll have my teacher’s pension, but in order to cushion the drop in income I’ve taken a temporary job, and yesterday I went in to meet the team I’ll be part of. They were great and I’ll be honest, I just can’t wait to start in a couple of weeks. So I’m sure you get the point – I was feeling happy and satisfied with myself yesterday evening.

Well, that can be a dangerous state to be in. In the couple of days I’ve had my Royal Talens book I’ve been thinking about buying the larger 21x13cm sketchbook. Last night, to reward myself I bought one from Amazon as a present. I did a little bit of research and found out that Royal Talens is a Dutch company, founded in Apeldoorn in 1899. They were just Talens then, until Queen Wilhelmina, obviously a fan, gave them the designation Royal in 1949.

Now, here’s a funny thing. A lot of travel sketchbook manufacturers seem to follow Henry Ford’s dictum of – you can have it any colour you like as long as it’s black.- He was talking about the Model T, which did eventually come in a range of colours, but you know what I mean. Well, not so Royal Talens. I was just about to click to buy a black one when I noticed that the coral-coloured book – exactly the same as the black one in every other way apart from the colour of the covers – was being sold for a pound less than Amazon were selling the black book. All I can guess is that the coral pink version does not sell as well as the black, light blue, green or yellow – which are other colours I’ve noticed that Royal Talens do. Well, look, I have never made a secret of the fact that I am a cheapskate of many years’ standing and my Scottish ancestors would never forgive me if I passed up the chance of saving a mickle in this way.

Royal Talens 21x13 Portrait sketchbook (left) alongside Moleskine equivalent. Spot the difference apart from the colour.

Actually it’s no hardship opting for this colour – it certainly marks it out as different from the Moleskine for example. I use Moleskine for comparison because in terms of physical dimensions this is very, very similar to a Moleskine. Even being a different colour these look very, very similar in most other ways. Even the matte finish of the covers feels similar – maybe the Royal Talens is smoother, but there’s nothing in it really. The paper inside, as we saw with my smaller RT sketchbook is of a very similar ivory tint to the Moleskine. It’s thinner, at 140 gsm to the Moleskine’s 165 gsm, but it’s hardly noticeable to the touch.

The most obvious difference between this Royal Talens sketching journal and other products competing for the same market like Moleskine and Seawhite is that there’s no document pocket at the back. I mean, this is not a huge thing. I like having the document pockets and they do come in handy when I’m travelling around. But it’s not really a deal breaker for me. If I wanted to I could glue a home-made pocket onto the back cover. But if the good people at Royal Talens were to ask me for my opinion I’d tell them it’s just a shame that this one omission makes their journal just slightly less appealing than it would have been.

This is not a review as such, since the new book only arrived this afternoon, and I’ve only had time to make 1 sketch in it. I haven’t tried watercolour on it yet, and I haven’t taken it out on the road yet either. Well, that’ll come and then we’ll be able to see where it ranks against Moleskine, Amazon Basics and Seawhite of Brighton.

Oh, that sketch? Right. Well, you know how I’ve returned to making my own copies of illustrations of Alice in Wonderland that I really like? I’ve made 6 copies of simpler Mervyn Peake illustrations in the little RT book, 1 copy of a simpler Mervyn Peake, 1 Ralph Steadman and 1 Charles Robinson in the Moleskine. In order to christen the new book I decided to have a go at one of Mervyn Peake’s much more complicated and detailed illustrations, which accompanies the chapter ‘Wool and Water’ in ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. It’s just the first sketch in the book, but I was pleased with the results. It’s a pleasant surface to draw on, just like the smaller RT book. There’s no show through on the other side at all.

Close up of the sketch

Like I said, this is not a definitive verdict yet, but I’ll post again about it when I’ve really put it through its paces.

I Don't Need Another Sketchbook . . . but . . .

Since Monday I’ve officially become a retired teacher. Never a teacher of Art, I hasten to add – I have no qualifications in Art, and I leave it to people to make up their own minds up whether I have any talent or not. I start work in a completely different field in just over a week. But still, having finished teaching a strange sense of wellbeing and pride overtook me at the weekend and I decided to reward myself. At the moment, I don’t need another sketchbook, and I don’t need to try out brands I’ve never used before. But I wanted to.

So this is why I bought my first Royal Talens Art Creations Sketchbook. I’m currently using two A5 or nearly A5 sketching journals so I decided to go with the 9x13cm format. It arrived yesterday. For comparison I have photographed it with the Moleskine large (slightly smaller than A5 (left) and the Winsor and Newton A6 (top right)

I was surprised just how small it is. It’s significantly smaller than the Winsor and Newton A6 sketchbook I bought a while ago. It’s an appealing object. Basically it’s just like a smaller Moleskine style portrait travel journal, complete with bookmark and elastic although it doesn’t have a little document wallet inside which is a bit of a shame. The paper is 140 gsm and the colour of the paper is very similar to the rather ivory hue of the Moleskine. I did a couple of copies of simpler Mervyn Peake illustrations from Alice, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I didn’t quite get the first sketch right in terms of proportions, possibly due to having to get used to using this smaller format. The white rabbit ad the dodo are  more faithful copies. But I have to say, after all the recent sketching since the mega trip where the sketches have been taking two or three hours each, I really enjoyed these.

It made me want to dig out the Winsor and Newton A6 book. I went off this book a bit. The reason why I bought it – apart from curiosity – was as a way of completing the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge in June. I was struggling to make watercolours pretty much for the first week of the month and I thought making quick watercolour sketches in this little book would enable me to catch up. Only, I just didn’t like the paintings very much. The colours all seemed washed out and I lost interest. For the first time since 2020 I did not complete the challenge. I put the book to one side and thought, I guess sketchbooks this small aren’t for me.

I did dig the book out. Instead of making a copy of a Mervyn Peake Alice illustration I made a copy of one of my other favourite Alice illustrators, Ralph Steadman. 

It was fun, but purely based on enjoyment I preferred working in the Royal Talens. The paper in the W&N book is 170 gsm which is all to the good, and it can certainly handle light watercolour without buckling. But it’s very white compared with the more ivory paper in the Royal Talens. The texture in the Royal Talens book is just slightly smoother and I prefer that too. I do like having perforated pages which is what you get in the W&N.

This doesn’t mean that I’m going to be using this smaller format extensively. But it’s fun and very handy to carry.

Why not use a little quality every day?

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done for months. Hey, you’re making up your own stories. No, I mean I made a drawing in my current Moleskine sketchbook.

What prompted it? Well, a combination of things really. But let’s backtrack a bit and look at why I haven’t used my current Moleskine. Since I received my first Moleskine travel sketching journal for Christmas 2019 a Moleskine – the size which is just a smidgeon smaller than A5 – has been an essential part of my travelling equipment. That is, until I bought a Seawhite A5 travel sketching journal earlier this year. Since then this Seawhite has gone everywhere with me. .  . and the Moleskine hasn’t.

I’ve always had a love of stationery. I will gladly browse through an office supplies outlet with the same kind of satisfaction that some of the members of my family experience in bag shops and shoe shops. My son in law Dan is the same when it comes to stationery. Since embracing my love of art and sketching in particular 9 years ago I’ve become more and more interested in the materials out there, and I love reading comparative reviews on artist’s and sketcher’s blogs. In the first half of this year I kept finding reviews of Seawhite of Brighton’s A5 travel sketching journals and the vast majority of the reviewers preferred the Seawhite to the Moleskine. So I bought a Seawhite, and took it with me on a visit to my mother in Worthing for a few days. And I have to say that I enjoyed using it a lot, and have been using it as my main travel journal since. And that has included my mega trip to Dublin and New York. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t like the Moleskine any more. It’s just that at the moment, I like the Seawhite just that little bit more.

You know, I’ve read a lot of reviews recently and it seems to me that Moleskine don’t get a lot of love from most reviewers. It’s all a matter of personal preference and choice. I personally think there’s not a huge amount in it between the Moleskine and the Seawhite. I like the way that the Seawhite takes colour and think it’s just a little better and more vibrant than the Moleskine. I also like that the Seawhite is a true A5- I like that it’s just that tiny bit wider. I will confess to being something of a cheapskate, so I’m also attracted to the Seawhite for being cheaper to buy than the Moleskine. I don’t begrudge a company for charging more for a higher quality product, but I don’t think that a Moleskine, good as it is, is better than the cheaper Seawhite, having used the Seawhite consistently for a couple of months now. You kind of feel that Moleskine are expecting you to pay extra just for their brand name which rankles a little with me if I’m honest.

Okay, so coming towards the point, I recently read a thought-provoking post about attitudes towards sketchbooks, where the writer, a well known art blogger, explained how he had carried through from his childhood an attitude that you should only use your nicest, most expensive sketchbooks for your best work, whereas every day stuff could be done on any old rubbish paper. In practice this meant that he has stacks of unused quality sketchbooks because he has been saving for his best work. Look, he said it a lot better and made the ridiculous nature of the situation stand out a bit better, but you get the point. And I thought – blimey, that’s me.

Well, to an extent, anyway. The fact is that I’d taken my Moleskine out of my travel bag when the Seawhite became a permanent fixture and left it on my desk. -It’s too good to use for everyday stuff – being my attitude. Now the silly thing about this is that I’m not like this about everything.

Take ballpoint pens, for instance. Since I was a kid, in fact before I got to secondary school (I guess the US equivalent to a UK secondary school would be a junior high school) my pen of choice was a Parker pen. The cheapest price for one of these today seems to be £5.80  - about 7.62 USD today. That’s  more than what you’d pay for 20 bic biros. The bics don’t last as long, but there you go. So financially it didn’t – and doesn’t – make sense to always use a Parker. But that’s beside the point. I LIKE writing with a parker. The design is a classic, and every time I have to buy a new pen it’s like a little present to myself. It writes more smoothly than a bic – not necessarily more than 20 times more smoothly. Using one makes writing a more pleasurable experience than writing with a bic.

So yesterday I thought – fair point. If it’s fine to use a better, more expensive pen because it makes even everyday writing more pleasurable, then it’s fine to use a better, more expensive sketchbook to make even everyday drawing a more pleasurable experience. If you’ve followed the blog at all for the last couple of years you might remember how I have a huge admiration for the work of Victorian artist and illustrator John Tenniel, which led me to making ink copies of all of his original illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Well, looking over some old blog pages yesterday I came upon the page dedicated to Alice illustrations. In particular those of one of the later illustrators of the books whose work I love, Mervyn Peake. I’ve sketched about 8 of them up to this point. Yesterday, having painted a birthday card for my wife (birthday at the weekend) I wasn’t up for any particularly heavy or detailed sketching I though – I know – I’ll do another Peake copy, of one of the simpler illustrations. – So it was that I grabbed the Moleskine, and made the sketch. Bloody enjoyed it too, if truth be told. Here’s the two for comparison.

Mine

Comparison

Watercolour in Daler-Rowney Sketchbook

This is a post that combines two of my more recent subjects for posts in one. You have to admire that kind of economy, don’t you? My last post was about having made my first pictures outside of the UK and Europe. Well, continuing in the same vein last week I painted a scene from the New York subway – the 1 Train (Line 1) in uptown Manhattan above ground. Here it is if you don’t believe me.

Please feel free to hold your own opinion about the quality of the painting or otherwise. Personally, I’m not unhappy with the way that it turned out considering how despondent I was feeling after the first session. But that isn’t really the point of the post. I made the painting in my Daler-Rowney special edition A4 sketchbook. The pages are 150 gsm and I have to say I am amazed at how well it took the watercolour. I’m talking about the way that it stood up to the watercolour. There’s no discernable cockling or buckling. If anything it did at least as well if not even better than my Winsor and Newton book and that’s 170 gsm. Big tick for D and R from me.

I am now Transatlantic

I am delighted to say that I can now call myself a transatlantic urban sketcher. On 6^th August I flew to Dublin, then on 8^th August I flew from Dublin to New York. I flew back to Dublin on the 13^th and then back home on the fifteenth. So here’s the sketches I made in Dublin and New York.

A4 Hardbound Sketchbooks again

On May 6^th  I posted about different hardback A4 sketchbooks that I’ve used. I’ve had good things to say about Mont Marte, Seawhite and Winsor and Newton, with a marginal preference for the Winsor and Newton. 

Top left - Daler Rowney Ebony - Top right - Winsor and Newton - Bottom left - Mont Marte

 - Bottom right - Seawhite of Brighton

I enjoyed using all of them but just preferred Winsor and Newton. The 170gsm paper of this book takes fineliner better than the other two. Using a 0.05mm fineliner produced noticeably finer lines in this sketchbook than in the other two. This makes the marks just a little bit sharper. I wouldn’t say that there’s a huge amount in it, but it’s there. Also, in the first sketch in the book there isn’t even a hint of showthrough – but then this was also true of some of the pages in both of the others, so I’ll keep an eye on how consistent this is. To my eye the same watercolour set is brighter and more vibrant on this paper, and there’s noticeably less buckling. You could comfortably sketch on the other side of the paper, and I shouldn’t be surprised if you could paint on it as well. One feature I’ve noticed is that the pages are perforated so you have the option of removing them more easily from the book, should you choose to do so.

Okay. Now, or my 60^th birthday back in mid-June I was given lots of lovely drawing stuff, including this – A Daler Rowney Ebony Special Edition Sketchbook. I believe that the special thing about this is the Union flag cover. Nothing against that either. I’ve been a while getting on to using it because I preferred to use a landscape format book for my bridges and tunnels challenge. But when I made my sketch of the Woolwich Ferry on Saturday that finished off my second Mont Marte sketchbook, and so it made sense to do the Thames Barrier sketch in the Daler Rowney.

Okay, so I’ve only made this one drawing in it but my first impressions are very positive. The paper is smoother than the Seawhite book, and much smoother than the Mont Marte, and comparable to the Winsor and Newton. It’s a pleasurable surface to draw on, although I do know some sketchers prefer just a little more tooth.

The weight of the paper is 150 gsm, the same as the Mont Marte and slightly heavier than the Seawhite. The Winsor and Newton is 170gsm. I haven’t applied watercolour to the new book yet, so I don’t know how well the Daler-Rowney copes. But I can say that as a general sketchbook for drawing, this is a nice product I’m happy to use, albeit I still have a slight preference for the Winsor and Newton.

Using today’s prices on Amazon the Seawhite is £8.95, the Winsor and Newton £10.64, the Daler Rowney £12.29. I can’t find the Mont Marte on Amazon. But in all honesty you can find great deals on all of these if you’re prepared to shop around a bit which means that you don’t need to let the price dictate which you go for.