Clairefontaine Graf it Redux Part 1 & Diamine inks!

Posted: March 22nd, 2010 | Author: Thomas | Filed under: Ink & stationery | 2 Comments »

 

In my review of the Clairefontaine Graf it sketch pad I made the observation that the cover was epic fail in terms of design, towards the end of my conclusion I mentioned that I would sandpaper off the design and redo it!

This will be a progression of sorts and I will show my efforts (and mistakes) along the way so bear with me.

On a related note, Clairefontaine has contacted me & they have given me the go ahead to redesign the cover range but that will be in a separate post!

 

Part 1

 

 

My first plan of action is to get rid of the design on the cover so I have a blank slate to work with and like all good boys I approached the task with subtlety and delicacy.

Power tools with diamond bits of various grit, what could possibly go wrong?!

 

 

 

I began this quest by utilising sand paper, so far so good I thought but when it came to the creases in the cover I required something with a bit more oomph …and in hindsight, precision.

However my love of oomph won out.

So out came the dremel!

 

 

 

Before you look at me in disbelief and question why I didn’t see the inevitable problems coming my way, I would like to point out that paper is made of wood and wood generally plays nice with my dremel.

And thats all the logic I required to give myself a reason to play with things that go vrrRRZZzzzMmMZZzzzzzz .

 

 

 

So yes, it seems diamond bits rotating extremely fast on an electric motor does go through paper pretty fast.

 

 

 

Not being the sort of person to give up, I deployed the one thing men all over the world would trust their lives to; …duct tape!

And as usual it salvaged my efforts into something somewhat presentable!

 

 

 

So now that I have a sketch book that has a blank cover, my next plan is to decide what sort of design I want on it and how I will actually apply it, will it be paint? graphic pens? or traditional ink? Who knows!

But that’s for part 2!

As a side note, the fish on the cover is done in photoshop & is not representative of what will be on my sketchpad when I get round to inking it.

(By the way, the designs I will do for Clairefontaine will be computer generated and not as rough as my “do it yourself” version so no need to panic!).

So that’s it for part 1, check back soon for part 2!

 

Diamine inks!

 

 

On another note, Diamine inks (thanks Chris!) have sent me 86 30ml bottles of ink (their entire range as a matter of fact) for me to review, I am still working on a review format that will be more fun than talking about boring things like color saturation and ink flow.

 

 

If you are wondering as to how something as trivial as a bottle of ink can be fun then I invite you to mix a a few ml’s of florida blue with 1 litre of rum.

Chaos ensues.

 

 

So lots things to come, if you have any recommendations with regards to what you would like to see in an ink review then drop me a line and I will muse over it!

 

 

 

A+

 

 

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