When you're looking for a sketchbook, you've got to find the right paper for the pens you like to use. I like to draw on both sides of the page.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't know where I got the idea for 'The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book'; I just told my brain to think of a book, and it did.
I normally keep a series of draft in a catalogue type of book in which I scribble, sketch and draw ideas.
A pen is different from the pad, the key, moving your fingers across a screen. I like both. I like to work on sketchbooks, big old white sketch paper. I like how that feels, and I like to put different media on it. Then there's the phone, smartphone, iPad: It's the new page, and it's not the same page anymore.
I use the old Strathmore vellum surface paper, which is the best paper you can get in the Western world for ink line drawing. It has a good, hard surface.
I don't like drawing characters facing right. If I tried to do that at a book signing, I'd have to pencil it first.
If you want to draw comics, you really have to love to draw, as you will be spending many hours sitting down with a pencil or pen in your hand.
The drawing is already partly there - it's in the paper. And the paper is talking before you do.
The truth is, I don't sketch much at all. I have a very visual/spatial brain that retains a lot of information about maps, directions, positioning, and details, so I usually prefer working out those issues on the page itself.
Do you have hands? Excellent. That's a good start. Can you hold a pencil? Great. If you have a sketchbook, open it and start by making a line, a mark, wherever. Doodle.
My sketchbook is not sacrosanct, and my children would draw on one page while I drew on the other. It was something we shared.