Disney Sketchbook/Autograph book

[mom2sixx]

Hello,

I hope I am in the right place!

I am planning our family's first (and probably only, since we have five children still at home) trip to Disneyworld in 15 months. I am interested in finding/making a nice book that I can do pencil line drawings of Disney characters in that I can then use as an autograph book for our trip. I want it to be a very nice hardback type book that could also be used as a scrapbook.

I'm not very crafty (graphite drawing is about the best of my abilities currently), so making something would be quite a challenge for me. However, I am game to try if someone could give me tips that might help.

I plan to use a fine grain 70 lb paper unless someone recommends something else.

Thanks!

Kristen

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I have a friend in architecture school who makes her own sketchbooks. I'm not sure what paper she uses - it's really just personal preference. I will check out her facebook and see if she's posted any pictures fo what she's done, because it sounds like what you're trying to do - a mixture of sketching, scrapbooking, collages, etc. She has really cool work.

For sketching, I really like Moleskin books. They make sketchbooks, but I actually prefer to get the notebooks with thick pages and no lines (I think they're called "heavy duty" or something like that) because you can write in permanent ink on both sides of the pages without it bleeding through. They are hardcover, bound books - the downside is that if you mess up and need to remove a page, it's difficult to do so that the book still looks nice.

That would be my biggest concern would be the pencil line drawings rubbing against the opposite page, where I'm assuming you're going to have the characters sign. I'd suggest that you spray a finish over the sketches to keep the graphite from smearing.

 

[mom2sixx]

Yep, I'd definitely need a fixative. I have an even bigger issue of being a lefty; I tend to draw left to right which makes for a lot of smudging. That's why it's going to take me the full 15 months to do this.

The beauty of making my own book is that I could probably do the drawings first so that I wouldn't have to worry so much about errors.

I'd definitely appreciate anything you could share with me!