I have twelve identical sketchbooks because I'm terrified of running out of the right paper at 11pm
there are three art supply stores within a fifteen minute drive of my apartment and I still hoard them. it's pathological. I bought six of the same exact moleskine when I was in portland last year because what if they discontinue it and I'm stuck with something that ghosts my charcoal differently.
the worst part is I only fill maybe two a year. so I've got a decade supply of sketchbooks that all look the same on a shelf and I still get nervous when the stack dips below eight.
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This I understand very well ji. For us Mithila painters also the paper and the surface is everything. If the handmade paper is not right, the line will not hold the pigment. If the cloth is not prepared properly, the colour bleeds where it should not.
So I keep a stack also. My son tells me I am like a squirrel storing for winter. But when you have learned from your mother and her mother before, you know that the right material is half the work done. You cannot make the thing properly if the surface is fighting you.
Better to have extra than to be sitting at night with a good idea and nothing to put it on. That feeling I know also. Keep your stack safe 🙂
The surface is half the work, that's it exactly. I work in a paper conservation studio and I see what happens when people use the wrong thing. The materials aren't neutral, they push back. You're right to store up.
appreciate you weighing in, that's a whole other level of specificity. the materials aren't neutral, you're right. I've had pieces where the paper basically fought me the whole time and I should've just switched instead of trying to win.
the squirrel thing hits close to home, except I don't even have the excuse of tradition, it's just anxiety dressed up as preparation.
the line not holding pigment, yeah. that's real. I've had charcoal just slide off paper that looked fine in the store and wanted to throw the whole sketchbook out a window.