Transcripts
1. Welcome to the Class: Welcome to the class. My name is joined easily. I'm a full-time watercolor
wildlife and nature artists out of Nashville, Tennessee. Today I'm showing you how to
make your own sketchbook. I have trouble finding sketch books to fit
my needs when I'm in the field or just
want to doodle and draw without the pressure
of a finished project. So I've created my own. This is one version
I'm showing you today. I have others like this one because it lays flat for
watercolor painting. It has HP watercolor paper, which is what I create most
of my finished paintings on, which is also great in a sketchbook for drawing
and pen and ink, if that's what you do. And the size is
perfect for fitting in my purse or my pocket. 4.5 by 4.5. Let's get started.
2. Supplies to Make Your Sketchboook: First-class the
materials we need. Let's start with the cover. I use. I picked up cloth fabric and
it's a thick woven cloth. It's nice and stiff. If you use something thinner, you might want to fuse it
together in two layers. This works perfect. You don't have to
worry about the frame because we will use glue, comes in a variety of
colors and patterns. For the cover, you
will need chip board. I use an 8.5 by 11 letter
size piece of chip board. But basically anything bigger than the two sides of your book, whatever side-to-side
your books are, you want enough chip
board to make two sides? Glue the cover to
the chip board. Because I'm creating an archival sketch
book for watercolor. I'm using neutral pH adhesive. I also use a waxed thread. You can get this
online, however, you can also just use regular
a nice thick thread or embroidery thread
and use a candle or bee's wax or something and run it across it and wax it. But the wax helps it
not dig into the pages. It also helps preserve
the acid free, the archival quality of the
paper we're gonna be using. I use arches paper. I do not have a big sample
of that to show you, but I can show you
the cut pieces. It's £140. Arches paper. It's designed for watercolor. You can use cold press. I used hot press. We can even use the
RREF if you prefer. Some countries this
is called cold, not, are not cold. But it's the smooth one. I loved this paper because I can draw or use watercolor on it. Some other things
you might need. You can use an owl like
I have to punch holes. Or you can just use
a push pin or tax. I always piece of cardboard or a board cutting
board to cut on. I use embroidery, straight
needle, a curved needle. If you can see that.
You're going to want a box knife or cutter
to cut your chip board. Scissors. I use separate
scissors for paper. This is my scissors I used
specifically for my thread, so it doesn't get which you can use whatever
you have on hand. Straight edges for folding, creep creases on the pages. And to measure out your pages. If you use something like
this. Let me show you here. To crease your edges. Then be careful that it
doesn't create dense or scratches that would hurt the watercolor
painting on the paper. Something like this bone folder. Keeps it smooth, doesn't
create depths and the paper that would
hinder my artwork, I use a hair tie. Whatever color you prefer. It's perfect size to
go around these books. Just be sure if you
use a hair tie, you get one that does not have the metal piece on it
to hold it together. For your pages. You can use a heavy book, several heavy books to match your pages and make them flat. Or you can use a few pieces of wood with the screws
or get a press. This at least to be a tofu press that I found
really cheap somewhere. And it works perfect for
this pilots in the cover, which I think make it very neat. If you don't have islets, you can just use holes. They're just don't
make them so big, so they show just big enough for your
thread to come through. But I like the finished look at the eyelids. Achieve that. 13 16th inch or 0.5
centimeter eyelids. These are made by we are memory keepers,
various various sizes. Just make sure that the width of the book is supported by
the width of your eyelid. And it has room to here it is, has run took latch itself onto
the back side of the book. I put those on What the ****? Crop a dial. We're memory keepers. There are other brands
that you can get. I like this one because it is all purpose and worked for
things I need bigger range. You can get them at any story. You can get the islet
to the fabrics. But this is called the big
bike Crocodile, Crocodile. It came in a kit
with a CIA things. You don't necessarily
need all of this. And like I said, if you
choose not to use the crop, a dial, or the islets, you can just punch a hole. One of the things I
like about this is it actually does punch the hole, the depth I want it. And it'll also go back
and hook the eyelids. But if you prefer, you can use your owl or a
push pen to create the holes. You will want some scrap paper, even though I have
this underneath it, underneath where I put the holes for the
pages in the cover. I also use a piece of this
and I have a scrap piece of paper for measuring
where my holes are gonna template, so to speak.
3. Measuring and Tearing Pages: Let's get started. One whole sheet of Arches, watercolor paper, £140,
hot press is what I use. Use what you prefer. Start measuring it out. Each page will be
8.5 inches wide. Reach sheet, 8.5 inches wide by four
and a quarter inches tall. I'm including a PDF with this class so that you can see these measurements
for yourself. Now, once I measure this out, I will be able to get
all the pages and the two N pages to go inside
the covers of the book. Rather than you
watching me measure all these pages and
sheets for the book out. I'm going to speed this
section up and I'll be right back with you when we
start tearing the pages With the paper,
I'll measure now, it's time to tear the edges. Not few prefer cutting the edges and prefer
the straight edge. Go for it. I prefer the torn edges. I like the imperfections
that come with it, the vintage look and feel
of the sketchbook with it. So what I'm doing is I'm
just folding the paper, the Arches paper on the lines. Make sure you've got
clean hands before you do this to reduce the oils
that get on the paper. Using a straight edge. I'm gonna make sure that the
folds are folded very well. The point that the
paper cracks arches, this is thick enough paper with the arches
that will do that. Make sure you fold it good
and tight on the crease. And fold it back and forth a few times on each
side with straight edge. Here you see me using a ruler. If you use a ruler or
another straight edge, make sure you do not
allow it to your paper. Now, we're going to
carefully pull it apart and create that
torn edge on each sheet. I'm doing this on the 8.5 inch wide so that when I
fold these in half, the torn edges are on
each end of the page. I will go back and tear it the other way and a little bit. You'll see there's a
little bit at the bottom. And along one edge. When we measured it out. There was some extra, those extras will
be used to create an extra page and the N pages. And then the bottom will
be the scrap that I use for my template to
poke the holes so I keep those little edges
until I'm finished with the book to make sure I need all the scraps of paper
that are leftover. Once we're finished tearing
these apart both directions, we will end up with
16 sheets of paper. That we will fold in
half to equal 3232. Nope, add that times 464 pages. Plus we will end up with an inch sheet
to go on each cover. That will be two, which are also surfaces, surfaces that you can paint
on also if you choose. This will end up with 64
page watercolor sketch book. When you finished the pages, the finish pages
will be 4.254 and a quarter inches by four
and a quarter inches. So it will be a
square sketchbook. And this is perfect for me
because it fits in my back, my small backpack very easily for me to
take with replaces. Right now, I am sketching using one for a sketch
book for sparrows. They're very easy
to locate here. I'm going to fill it
up with sparrows. Again. I'm going to speed up
the rest of this section. And you will see me pop
back in as soon as we are ready for the pages
are the signatures, putting them together
and folding them.
4. Making the Sketchbook Cover: Gonna grab your chip board or your cardboard or whatever
it is you're using and measure out just one line
over the 4.5 inches there. That should make enough space. Make an even extra
little lip around your book, your sketch book. We're going to create two
squares for the covers. Gonna do the same on the
width of the square, 4.5 plus that little extra dash. Work on the second square. Measure it out, draw the line. Extra dash. Then we're going to
take a straight edge. I'm using a pad underneath mine. Can use anything you want to keep from cutting your table, your utility knife, box knife, whatever it is you're using. And just kind of lightly run a score down on your
part, your chip board. Bend it so you can see where the line is on the
opposite side. Flip it over and score again, and then just bend it
back and forth a few times. We have it. Do that, a few more cuts. And we will have to pieces of square chip board
cut to the size we need. This is a long, lengthy
process to get this book made. It takes me about
2.52 hours of work. Of course, there's drying
time when you're drawing the glue and pressing
time, pressing the pages. But do those overnight so
I don't count those times. Last one. See how I use the bend to determine where to cut on the back side. Chip board actually
comes apart pretty easy compared to
regular cardboard. Have our two covers cut out now. Set on my side. Cut the fabric to roughly three-quarters
of an inch more than the chip board pieces. I'm cutting it double. So I only need to
cut one square to get to cover two
pieces of cloth cover. And I'm just going
to eyeball this. It does not need to be perfect. I'm discovering my
scissors or just a little. What's the word for
that? Not sharp. I need to have them sharpened. Left-handed scissors, so I have to locate a place that can sharpen
left-handed scissors. Get this corner. We go fabric way. We are ready to assemble
our covers now. Somehow I missed recording putting the glue on
the chip board here. There's another section,
I'll show that to you, but glue the back
of the chip board and then just set it down
on top of the fabric. Then we're going to
cut our corners. Says there's a dull,
they need sharpening. So this will be hopefully be a little easier
for you than it was me here. Get this one done. You basically cutting
at a 45 degree angle. Some people like to
cut little use in it. I just cut at the 45 degree
angle 100 dealing with cloth. Now if I was using
leather, either, there's another way to
do this. Better cuts. You have to be more careful
because the thickness of the fabric or the other. But this works perfect
for me, for my needs. I'm just gonna use my
bone folder to make sure there's no bubbles in
the glue on the back. I'm going to tuck all these
little pieces in with the glue will be hidden
so you won't see them. Cut the other cover. Let's go a little easier. As soon as I get these
last few corners cut, I'll show you how I did the glue and I did it
the same for the back. Sorry, I didn't
get that recorded. Flatten out any
bubbles on this side. Step cloth is pretty
easy to work with. Good white for this project. The PVA glue. I tend to go overboard, but I would rather go overboard than under not have enough. Wanted to saturate the
fabric and hold it down. I just use my fingers. You're welcome to use a brush or anything you need
if you need to. I found it's just
quick and easy to wash this type of
glue off my fingers. It does dry. Not immediately but
fairly quickly. So you do need to work with it and you may
have to hold these down to keep them pressed until
it gets achieves techie, patchiness. Is that a word? Now don't worry about all
these little strange. You'll never know they're
there when we're done. You can be a little
more precise with your corners than I
have been a few desire. I've found that I
like it this way. The glue keeps the
fabric from fraying, so it's not an issue. Getting enough glue
on here so I can drop our little square that we
cut out in the beginning. I just drop it down
in the middle. There's covered number
one, repeat the process. Usually let these dry overnight. They'll drive
technically faster, but I like it to be completely dry so that punching
the holes as easier. If you try to punch the
holes for the binding. The islets, wallets, what? It can be difficult. Now I didn't wash my hands between these two that you
didn't see off-camera. This does get to
be a little messy, but I've found it till I get a stronger cover this way rather than trying
to use the brush, but you feel free
to use the brush. If you need to apply the glue. You can use a sponge brush, irregular brush, anything
you want to apply it. Pva glue is pH balanced. It does provide a
barrier between the chip board and the archival paper
we're putting on it. All these little
end squeezed down. Get the cardboard cover. This is the same thing I did on the other side
when I applied it. Now we have our little piece of Arches watercolor
paper that we cut out. I set these to dry overnight. I'm just being picky here. There we go.
5. Creating Signatures: To create the N pages, we're going to take
one of our sheets that we've already created. The torn edges are
folded in half. We're going to tear it in half. This is going to
give us 12 pages. We have our sheets, M2M pages, and
we're ready to go. For the remaining sheets. We will fold each 1.5. Use your straight edge
or your bone folder. I prefer the bump folder
because it doesn't create creases in my watercolor
paper just on the fold line. We're going to fold each
one in half just like this. Make sure your hands are clean. You don't want extra
oils on the paper. To create pages that are
4.25 by 4.25 inches square. I'm going to speed this up
a little bit at this point, but don't go anywhere
because I will be back as soon as we are ready
to put these together. We'll be putting
these together to create what they
call signatures. Only use two because it's a
£140 weight watercolor paper. If you use thinner paper, you could possibly
go three or four. But the more you put pages
you put in each signature, the list of those
sketchbook will lay flat. This being heavy paper and my wanting to use
watercolor on it, wanted it as flat as
possible for painting.
6. Punching the Signatures: To make a template out of a scratch sheet of
paper so that we can punch holes for the signatures
to bind them together. Now I've cut a scrap piece
of paper to the height of the signature, the page. I'm going to measure down
half an inch from the top. And then again, three-quarters
of an inch from there. Half an inch. And then three-quarters
of an inch. Then I'm going to measure from
the bottom, half an inch. Then three-quarters of an inch. This should give me four holes, three-quarters of an inch apart, space evenly on each
end of the book. You'll see one looks a little
better than the other, so something's off here. Go back and remeasure. This one's off. We'll reset that
to three-quarters of an inch from the
half-inch mark. From a half-inch. On each end, we measure off three-quarters of an inch that will give us four holes for our
eyelids to put on our cover and to stitch your pages together so it looks nice and even
on the binding, hey, we're gonna grab our owl or your push pin or your tech, whatever it is you're using to create the holes
in your signature. Grab your template,
set it next to the folded cristae area and
began to punch your holes. We should have two at the
top and two at the bottom. Grab piece of cardboard here. Add it underneath,
that'll make it a little easier to
punch the holes. You go. Now once I've done this, like to go through it with a
straight embroidery needle, enlarges the holes so
that it makes it easier to bind without so
much of a struggle. Once I've done this, you set it aside and
move to the next one. I'm going to speed
this up from here, but don't go away. I'm going to show you what
we do with them as soon as they're all punched. We've got them all together. Let's stack them
and get ready to create some covers to go on
top of this sketch book.
7. Punching the Cover: I've made a template
for punching holes half an inch from the end. And then three-quarters
of an inch after that, half an inch, three
quarters of an inch. You'll see what we do with
this and I'll make more sense. There we go. Punch holes at the three-quarters of an
inch this spaces I'm out nice and evenly
for visual appeal. The binding. Going to use a piece of
cardboard to show you this. We're going to punch the holes. I use a crocodile see ROP. A crocodile. First setting punches the whole, set it for three-sixteenths
of an inch. Trying to show you
this sideways here, see the little hole punch. Then I'm gonna set
it for the islet. Now use the big one. There are other variations of a crocodile and you can
also get other tools at a fabric store places
you can buy islets that will set islet. But I like this one because
it's easy to punch the hole. We set this, put it
on a little hump, and then you match.
There's your eyelid. Now I use three-sixteenths
of an inch because it fits the
width of my book. Do this eight times. We have a cover. I'm going to press the
cover and the pages. You can use large books. Or I found this rule cheap
and expensive tofu press made of bamboo wood. And it works perfect.
8. Sewing the Binding: It is time to bind
our sketchbook. Another seems like
a lot of work, but it's worth it
to me in the end. I'm take each piece that
has been pre punched. Pencil mark there. I'm going to match up the
holes in the cover. I'm going to pull out quite
a bit of waxed thread. Wax thread does not tangle
as much as regular thread, so I can use longer lengths. With this book. I can use pull up pretty much enough to
do the whole thing. I'm going to use
the curved needle. It makes it a whole
lot easier and faster to bind this
then the straight nato. Gonna start with the
inside of the book and push it through to
the outside of the pages. I'm going to hold down that
little n till I get it tied. Have your cover and
the first hole, this is where that curved
needle comes in handy. And I'm going to go In the
outside and up the middle. You see my string coming
through the middle there. Then I'm going to go back in through the holes
that I started with. Sorry, I got a little
off screen here. I'm just going to
pull them tight. I'm going to tie a knot. I like to tie it three times. The wax helps hold
it really well. The wax also prevents it
from disintegrating over time and keeps the
book archival. Now I'm going to go
into a second hole from the inside out. I'm again going to go through the outer side of the
hole and the cover, the width, the islet
up the middle. This is actually easier than it looks at
first glance just to watch this a few times
and after once or twice, this actually gets pretty easy. I'm going to go back
in the same hole that I started there. I'm going to pull it now.
When you pull these, you're not pulling them tight. You're pulling them just to
where there's not extra gap. You don't want to
pull it too tight or your book won't be
able to open flat. Continue to do as we
did for the first two. We're gonna go through the
outside and let it curve up through the middle and pull it until it's the gift
has gone in two words. Will go go back
through the hole that we went in and up, pulling it. Now you do have to be careful. Sometimes a thread catches
on the corners of the book. Go back out. Now this first signature
is probably the hardest. Gets easier up
through the middle. Here's where we're going
to attach the second. So instead of going
back through the hole, we're going to grab
the next signature and put it through
the first hole above where we just was working. And come up through the
center of the next signature. Then we're gonna go
to the pull it taut, and then go to the next hole and continue just
as we did before. We're going to pull it through. And then we're going to loop
it to the signature below, the thread that we had
there and then back through the top hole again. This creates a little
chain that connects them. Go through the next hole. Sorry, I went off screen a little bit here,
I'll show it though. There we go. Loop it through the previous row and pull it and go back through the hole that we just did in
the top signature. Pull it. Go through the next hole. All right. Now here is where we're going to loop it to the one below. Just like we did the change
than the other ones. This is very difficult
to show on camera. Grab the next signature, and we're gonna go
back the other way, just like we did this one. Go through the whole
right above it. This one's the holes are not
matched up quite easily. When that happens,
you go through one and then pop in and
go through the other one. The signature is
just got knocked off out of alignment
a little bit there. From the holes that
were punched in them. We'll put it right
back in alignment. Then back in the next hole, going back the other direction. Pull it through. We're going to loop it to the signature right
underneath it, not the bottom one, right underneath it to
create a little chain. If you've ever
crochet or knitted, you should know what
a chain looks like. It's just a little
loop that connects to the stitch below. Next toll. We continue this throughout
the whole process. You just follow it
back and forth. At the end of each row, add another signature
and move up. Gonna let you watch
this with some music. And then I'll be back
in touch when we start to add the top cover.
9. Sewing the Binding Continued: I'm gonna let you watch
this with some music. And then I'll be back
in touch when we start to add the top cover. Once you've gone through
all the signatures, we're going to add the final signature and the
cover at the same time. Just like we did,
a beginning cover. The bottom of the book. We're going to go through. We're doing it backwards from
what we did in the first. We're gonna go
through the islet, then down through the hole to the center of the signature. This is the exact opposite
of what we did starting out the binding process
with the first cover. Pull it taut. Got it, nice and taut. We're attaching the cover here by going through the next hole. Gets caught a little bit here. It's kind of tricky
holding all this together. Holding the signature
and the cover, gonna go up through the center outside to the
center of the islet. Hold it altogether, kind of
pull it a little tighter. A little tug here. Loop it below to get our chain
and secure it in place. Back through the hole
in the signature. The paper to the center, up through the center
again to the outside, will go up through the islet from the outside to the center. This curved, if trying to do
this with a straight needle, it's gonna be almost impossible. Curved needle really
comes in handy here. Then loop it to
create our chain. Back to the center of
the signature through the hallway started in.
We're almost there. The last whole book
is almost finished. Pull it taut. Wants to be difficult here
on this last one. Through the islet up the center. I guess that it's
wanted to be difficult. Rather than loop it, we're going to tie a knot. Our loop it back to the center. Ankle. Tie a knot right here. I could've tied one there, but it would have
left the not on the outside and I think it looks a little neater on the inside. Tighten it up. Not sure why it wants to be difficult
here at the end. The wax will make it difficult
at times to tight and just use a straight needle or your push pin or something
to pull it through. Get it nice and tight here. Anti or not. I like to do three just
like when we started. One. 23. I leave roughly a
quarter of an inch, three eighths of an inch when I cut the string on the end. Just like I did on the
inside or the first cover. You have a sketchbook
ready to pop in your bag. One final thing with Coptic stitching so that
we can get it to lie flat. It is a little bit of
an unsteady bindings, so I like to use hair
ties to hold it together. Look at this page. You can use little clips
on the end to hold the page is still while
you paint in watercolor. Get our little hair tie here. Be sure and use a hair tie that does not have
the metal on it. But they are perfect
size for this. They hold it together so the sketch book does
not get destroyed. I'm off to use my sketch book. I think I'll fill
it with sparrows. Share your sketch book. The comment section. Let me know how it turned out.
10. Off to Use the New Sketchbook: I'm off to use my sketchbook. I think I'll fill
it with sparrows. Share your sketch book
in the comments section, and let me know
how it turned out.
Joy Neasley, Watercolor Wildlife Artist
