The Perfect Sketchbook for Travel Artists & Art Enthusiasts (A Kickstarter Project)

I love to draw… and sketch and paint and colour and… well, if you’re here on this blog, you get the idea and you probably enjoy the activity too.

I am a long time fan of Moleskine sketchbooks and their ability to open completely into a flat book, especially their aquarelle range. The fact that they travel well, that’s an awesome bonus. I am also quite a fan of Cuthbert Mill’s high quality Waterford paper for the pure cotton watercolour papers that seem to resist warping of any sort regardless of the amount of soup the painter throws at it.

I’ve often wondered would it not be perfect if somehow, the two were to collaborate and marry their qualities together: a sketchbook with pages that open up flat and able to withstand any amount of work, glazing, charging, washing on its surface. That, and then some, because I’m demanding and a perfectionist. It would appear that I am not the only dreamer.

Enter the “The Perfect Sketchbook for Travel Artists & Art Enthusiasts”: a passion and commercially possible and viable project started by Singapore's local artist and Urban Sketcher enthusiast, Erwin Lian Cherngzhi.

The perfect sketchbook is one that is “hardbound, compact, binds well, opens flat, and filled with 100% [premium] cotton paper” which is what sketchers dream of, AND with a plus: you will find at the front and back page, a “value chart and "18% photography grey". That bonus completes the ‘and then some’ portion of any perfectionist’s dream.

As a short summary, here are some of the sketchbook’s features:

• Hardcover with smooth leather-like surface

• Elastic band to keep the pages together

• Rounded corners

• 60 pages of 100% cotton acid-free Coldpress archival watercolour paper

• 190 GSM

• Paper is made from England's St Cuthberts Mill (makers of Waterford and Bockingford)

• Paper colour is off-white, light cream

• Ribbon bookmark

• 18% Photography grey front sheet

• Value chart included

• Inner pocket on the backcover

• Durable binding

• 3.5 by 5.5 inch (9 by 14cm) landscape

In other words, it’s a Moleskine on steroids… and better.

Already convinced? Back the project here.

Check out more details and pictures here.

Don't miss this chance to be a part of an awesome passion project and own a piece of artistic perfection.

Campaign ends 21 Aug 2014

Pics and video below.

Un Cafe S'il Vous Plait : Part Un

I was acquainted with this dark mysterious caffeine drink since I was five, when my grandmother would mix it in my formula to entice me to drink up the mix. Questionable parenting aside (my grandmother is AWESOME and I dare you to challenge that notion), it started me on my passionate journey to the perfect brew. I am always looking for new coffee blends and roasts, gadgets and extraction methods. Just like any wine connoisseur would, so was I about coffee.

So, from the humble corn and margarine robusta roast of the local ‘kopitiam’ to the delicately balanced blue mountain to the overhyped ‘kopi luwak’, I have one time or another, tasted them. There are a million and one ways to extract the elixir of morning life from out of these roasted miracles, however, with the arrival of the ubiquitous ‘green siren’ and its global manifestation, no one can claim ignorance to the fast, efficient and tasty method popularised by the Italians: the espresso.

Espresso is the term used to describe many things about coffee: it is a type of roast, it is a method of extracting the drink out of said roast and it is also the term to identify the drink.

That’s the easy part. The challenge, for any barista is to extract the perfect espresso drink from the grounds. It is a delicate synthesis of consistency of grind, quantity of grounds, amount of temping of grounds and the crucial water-to-grounds ratio.

Finally, the extraction, which is perfectly enjoyable on its own, can also be used in combination with various dairy creations to create a myriad of coffee based drinks. As a benchmark, I have always used the latte: it test the barista’s skills in abovementioned extraction AND the judicious method of steaming the milk with a careful milk-to-coffee ratio. A right balance creates a beautiful symphony of flavours that enhances the coffee while a poorly executed one is simply not worth the time nor the calories.

Here then, is a collection of tasting trips and sketches that I have done over the past few months of the cafes in Singapore. Allow me to humbly present “Un Café S’il Vous Plait: Part Un”.

 Click on image to launch the e-book

Series done in ink with fountain and brush pen on Clairefontaine Goldline Hardbound 20x20 Sketchbook.