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Last night Sketchbound met once again at the communal table to sketch, doodle, draw and paint! Our theme this week was inspired by the recent heavy downpowers that drenched Dubai… a welcome change from the heat of the sun. The … Continue reading
Reminder!
Sketchbound at Le Pain Quotidien tonight from 7.30pm, Dubai Marina Mall.
Sharpen your pencils and don’t forget your sketchbooks!
Need inspiration?
Tonight’s theme to help get your creativity flowing is ‘Rain’.
Already illustrating a personal project?
Bring your work, come along and join us!
Hope to see you there…
Did you know…
On this day in 1858, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the first-ever patent for a modern pencil with an eraser attached to it.
A single wooden pencil can write 45,000 words or draw a line that is 35 miles long.
A pencil can write underwater, upside down, or in zero gravity.
Manufacturers painted the first pencils yellow because the color was associated with royalty and honor (People quickly began assuming that yellow pencils were the best type!)
In Middle English the word, spelled pencel, meant “artist’s brush.” It was borrowed from Old French pincel or peincel, related to Modern French peinture “painting.” The French inherited the word from the Latin penicillus, for “little tail.” ~ Robert Linsford (pencils.com)
Thomas Edison had his pencils specially made by Eagle Pencil. Each pencil was three inches long, was thicker than standard pencils and had softer graphite than was normally available.
Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he had ever published, usually several times, by pencil.John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.
Vincent van Gogh used only Faber pencils as they were “superior to Carpenters pencils, a capital black and most agreeable”.
Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his Tonight Show desk. These pencils were specially made with erasers at both ends to avoid on-set accidents.
Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casing to write his books. He had 6 sharpened pencils ready at the beginning of each day and only when all 6 pencils became unusable did he resharpen them.
In 2012, when I founded Sketchbound, the first sketch I drew for the group’s image was instinctively a pencil.
Here is that sketch!
Happy National Pencil day from everyone at Sketchbound!
It has been raining in Dubai since yesterday. There is beauty in the rain and a welcome change to Dubai’s usual weather, it brings a calming and cooling effect to the air.
For our next Sketchbound Dubai meet-up, the theme will be ‘Rain’! Hope to see you there, we will meet on Monday 31st from 7.30pm at Le Pain Quotidien at Marina Mall the the communal table.
Have your sketchbook and pencils at the ready!! See you there…
“What is most valuable to know is not where to look for a particular idea, but how to train the mind in the method by which all ideas are produced.”
Monday night was a quiet meet-up in Le Pain Quotidien, sketching ‘green’ being the theme, green tea was sipped and chocolate treats were sampled. Beautiful pen illustrations by Samira depicting quirky representations of ‘green’ items from an emerald ring, to a watermelon, to a St. Patrick’s Day message. A memory of Dublin was sketched by Alison.
Here are some images from the St. Patrick’s Day meet-up, the night of which was fitting as Sketchbound hails originally from Ireland!
Balbriggan Sketchbound members took to the street on St. Patrick’s Day to display and sell their work to the people and visitors of Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Railway Street was the setting for an array of stalls for the festive street market. This initiative was organised by Balbriggan Creative Quarter. The home of Sketchbound Balbriggan is Molly’s Coffee Gallery which is located within this creative hub. It looked like a great day and you can read about Sketchbound Balbriggan’s participation here!
Well done to the hard core members for flying the flag for Sketchbound!!
Sketchbound Dubai’s 3rd meet-up takes place Monday 17th March, St. Patrick’s Day. We will meet at Le Pain Quotidien, Marina Mall from 7.30pm til late. The theme for the meet-up is ‘Green’. Get your pencils and sketchbooks ready!!
Happy St. Patricks Day ~ Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!
Today, my day commenced with a visit to The Archive, Dubai to attend a book binding workshop with Michelle Harvey. I was eager to create a handcrafted sketchbook for myself. The course facilitated by Michelle was excellent. Michelle’s style of facilitation is relaxed and very informative. There were four people on the course including myself. All materials were supplied, participants were required to bring a cutting mat, craft knife/scalpel, scissors and a metal ruler. We created two books each. The first book we created using a running stitch and completed using a soft cover to finish. During the construction of the first book, we experimented with embossing. The second book was created using a French stitch technique which was completed by covering the book with a hard cover.
The conversation was flowing during the workshop and the atmosphere and space of The Archive complemented the creativity of our work. Also, the fact that we were surrounded by a wonderful collection of books adorning the sleek shelving of the venue. The workshop commenced at 11am and ran until 4pm, breaking for 1 hour for lunch. Check out Michelle’s work here on her blog.
Also attending the workshop was Katie Venner-Woodbridge, an art teacher who had attended Michelle’s previous workshop on Coptic Binding. You can check out Katie’s work here.
If anyone is interested in attending one of Michelle’s up coming workshops you can email Michelle on michellechristineharvey@gmail.com
I was very pleased with my two books and will continue to create hand made books. Here are some photographs from the process and with the final products from all 4 participants.
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