Thurstan Challenge Update

 In my defence I should probably explain that I’m having a week off from work because I have to use up all of my holiday time by the 31^st. When I posted on Sunday I had 9 copies to make. Since then I’ve completed four of them:-

Bravely I’ve included the originals alongside them. I think that the big issue has been the shading. I could and should have gone a lot darker in some places.

The cat is the most effective yet took the least amount of time.

There are five left to do and all of them are detailed complicated sketches. Gulp.

 

The Thurstan Challenge

If you’ve been reading my blog at all over the last year or two – look, it’s not impossible that you somehow stumbled across it and quite liked what you read – then you may well have noticed a couple of things. I am rather obsessed with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and quite a few of its illustrators, and I am particularly interested with one called Edgar B. Thurstan. You would be right to think so. I’ve written a long article all about why and what I know about Thurstan and you can find it in my links section. In fact I’ll make it even easier for you. Just click on the link below.

• Edgar B Thurstan - Tenniel Clone or Unfairly Forgotten Alice Illustrator?

So, I’ve copied 12 out of his 21 Alice illustrations. In celebration of the Alice Challenge I set myself about three years ago, to copy all 92 of Tenniel’s illustrations, I’ve now decided to undertake the Thurstan Challenge. I want to copy the remaining 9 of his illustrations. Granted it’s not that huge a challenge, but the bearing in mind that I’ve already copied my favourites of his Alice illustrations, I think that some credit is due for the undertaking. So here’s the originals of the 9 I have left to do:-

More sketches in the new Canson Sketchbook

I’ve been doing a little more work in my new Carson mixed media sketching journal today. I mentioned that I like the way that it takes fineliner when I tested it and made my first sketch in it on Monday. After making two ink sketches in it today I stand by that. It’s quite similar to sketching in the Seawhite Travel Journal, I find, even though the paper in the Seawhite is much lighter at only 130 gsm.

So this first sketch is a copy of one of the Harry Rountree (1928) illustrations of the Pig and Pepper chapter in Wonderland. Now, I’ve made most of my other Harry Rountree copies in the Royal Talens book. What I find with that is that you have to use a thinner nib whenever you’re doing something a little more detailed. I was perfectly happy with a 0.1mm nib to make this sketch. I found it gave me a lot of control and meant I could sketch pretty accurately. In fact I’m sure I could have used a nib that was a least twice as thick and achieved just as good results.

So this encouraged me to try it out with a copy of an Edgar Thurstan illustration. This is my copy of Edgar Thurstan’s illustration of Alice entering the Looking Glass. I think it has come off a wee bit better than the copies I made in the Royal Talens book using the same nib. Here it is:-

I think I should also point out that this was made on the other side of the page on which I made the watercolour and ink sketch of Disneyland Paris. The paper is so robust that you can do this without ay issues at all.

Here's the same sketch alongside my copy of the Tenniel illustration. Tenniel’s illustration is accompanied with a Mirror image illustration of Alice emerging on the other side on the reverse of the page. Edgar had to do it all in just the one illustration.

I think Edgar gets maybe just a little further away from Tenniel in this one than he does in quite a few of his other illustrations. Alice has a glass dome clock to her right in both illustrations. The interior of the fireplaces are similar. To her left Tenniel’s Alice has a vase under a dome. There’s a similar vase on Thurstan’s Alice’s left, but this doesn’t have a dome. There’s also a more prominent vase on the right too. Tenniel’s mirror is square, while Thurstan’s is a more ornate, bowed shape. I some was I’m put in the mind of the way that Edgar worked on Tenniel’s original with the train carriage illustration. In both, if I can use a photographic analogy, he's not only positioned the ‘camera’ to look down on he scene from a bit of an angle, he has also zoomed out a little which means he gets to show more of the scene than Tenniel does.

I have to say, this was another of Edgar’s illustrations that I have thoroughly enjoyed copying. I don’t think I can put poor old Edgar up on a pedestal with Tenniel, because a lot of his illustrations to seem so derivative. But then, if you’re going to be derivative, the do it well and do it interestingly and I think that Edgar certainly manages to do this.

New Sketching Journal - Canson Gradate Mixed Media A5

I’ve been reading reviews of art materials again. This is a dangerous thing for me to do as I’m sure you’re aware. But hey, sometimes you have to just live a little. Now, you may well be aware that I like travel journals for sketching in. A few years ago when I was spending time with my friends in the Cardiff Urban Sketchers one name of travel journal that kept coming up was Moleskine. So up until last year, that’s what I’ve used. And if you’re read what I’ve written in the past you’ll know that I’ve been pretty happy to use Moleskine. However, I had in the back of my mind the nagging feeling that just maybe Moleskine is a little bit on the expensive side and there may be something equally good if not better for quite a bit less money.

So in the past 12 months I’ve used Italian in Moleskine, British in Seawhite, Dutch in Royal Talens and American in Amazon Basics and now I’ve gone French, with a Canson A5(ish) mixed media Graduate sketchbook.

I’ve pictured it alongside my trusty Royal Talens sketching journal. The size is very similar, with the Canson being only slightly taller. The price is comparable too, the Canson being a few pennies cheaper. You get fewer pages for your money, but the pages are 200 gsm to the Royal Talens 140 gsm. The Seawhite is just over £1 more expensive on Amazon but you get half as many pages again – over 120.

Like Seawhite, Canson go the full Moleskine, by which I mean that you get your matte finish hard cover, your page ribbon, elastic binding strap, and document wallet at the back. Like Seawhite the paper is white, compared with the off white of the Moleskine and the ivory of the Royal Talens.

I will admit that I enjoyed drawing in ink in it. I’ve just returned from Disneyland Paris with my family and this test sketch is based on a photograph I took in the part of the park that is called Fantasyland (I think)

The paper feels as if it has a little more tooth than the Royal Talens. I love just sketching in my Royal Talens, but I do find that for anything detailed I can’t use anything much bigger than a 0.1mm nib, whereas the paper in the Canso felt a better medium for getting the kind of marks that I want to make. Still, I also wanted to see how it works with watercolour. I applied colour to the above sketch using my Windsor and Newton Cotman travel sketchers set. Here’s a photo of the result.

I took a photograph rather than making a scan, because I tend to find that a photograph will show us if there’s any buckling or waffling of the paper. This stood up pretty well to the watercolour. Mind you at 200 gsm I should hope so.

Here’s a comparison between the five brands of A5 travel sketchbook I’ve mentioned in this post.

Clockwise, from top right – Amazon Basics, Royal Talens – Canson – Moleskine – Seawhite of Brighton.

Not surprisingly the colours appear most vibrant in the 200gsm books, the Amazon Basics and the Canson, with the Seawhite coming out on top of the lighter papered books.

I’ve only made this one picture in the book so far, so it’s a little early to daw hard and fast conclusions. But it was nice enough to use, so we’ll just see how we go. If you’re looking for a budget, value for money all purpose sketchbook I still think you can do a lot worse than Seawhite, though.