9.05.2007

Tool Time

Back in 2001, my wife and I took our first trip together, to New York City to visit some friends. One day while strolling about, we stopped into this great stationery store in midtown and, among other things, I picked up a 6"x9" Cachet Ecru sketchbook. I thought the off-white paper was really cool and would be fun to draw on. Since then, it's been my sketchbook of choice. I've gone through about a dozen of these sketchbooks since buying that first one. I've bought a few at the bigger (7"x10") and smaller (5"x7") sizes too, just to switch things up a bit (the big one is especially fun to mess around with), but the ol' 6"x9" is the one I constantly carry around. Any idea I have, every illustration I do (not to mention every strip in Lunch-Hour Comix), pretty much begins here.

They're a little hard to find, so I buy them one or two at a time via mail order from Dick Blick. I somehow just can't even stand to sketch on plain white paper anymore, so I don't want to risk running out and having to settle for something else. I'm always trying out new stuff, but I'm pretty picky about my art supplies, and I tend to find something that works and stick with it.

The spread. My goal is to trade them for a house in France someday:



Looks somewhat impressive all stacked up, I guess:



I always stamp the date inside the front cover I begin a new book. I'd never remember otherwise:

4 comments:

Mack said...

Nice R. Crumb ref, Rob. Keep up the great work and you'll get there.

Owen said...

Man, if my mom found those drawings in my sketchbook I'd be grounded for sure!

Paul Vivier said...

Humbling. How much Stir Crazy coffee would I have to buy you to just look at them?

Robert Ullman said...

Mack: Glad someone caught that!

Owen: There've been times I've had to work on Savage Love illustrations when my parents have been around...try explaining diaper fetishes to your 60 year old mom sometime!

Paul: In terms of actual content, it'd probably only take a cup or two!