A Day at the Beach and Whitelines Paper

Beach, Nature Journaling, Sketching with Pen, Watercolor Pencils, Whitelines Paper 7 Comments

Being at the beach on Hilton Head Island in August can make you feel like a sardine packed in oil, in a very small can. The word ‘crowded’ just doesn’t fit the bill.

Rob and I found this out back in 2007, our first full year back in the low country since the mid ’80s. We decided to celebrate his early August birthday at the beach. We’ve enjoyed Hilton Head beaches a lot over the the last 25 years… but our vacations usually fell between September and May.

Just for the heck of it we tried a summer visit again in 2009. What were we thinking??

Ahhh, but yesterday we were a lot smarter with our planning. Instead of a mid-week beach visit, we chose Saturday…. the day of check out/check in for vacationers. While everyone else was stuck in traffic on Route 278, we and a decent amount of people were enjoying a beautiful day at the beach 🙂

On the technical side…
I made this journal entry in a new journal by WHITELINES. This is a Swedish company that makes a toned paper using white for lines. They also offer paper with grids (squared), isometric lined notepads and perspective lined notepads. There are many choices of binding: hard covered spiral, soft covered flexible and glued pads.

The paper has a nice feel. I estimate it to be about 24# in weight. I’ve been using Pentel energel and Signo uniball ballpoint pens on it and have experienced no smudging. The ink in these pens is water soluble. Micron pens remain waterproof on it’s surface.

I used watercolor pencils on the page above with minimal water using a Niji waterbrush. The paper did buckle but that was no surprise. I think colored pencils would really work well on this surface, perhaps even pan pastels. When you turn the page over you can see a little bleed through, but not nearly as much as you do with Moleskine’s regular journal paper.

WHITELINES claims that when pages are copied or scanned the white lines and toned background will disappear.

As you can see above, that was not the case when I scanned the page at my scanners normal settings. I had to lighten the overall exposure of the original scan, lost some subtle tones but the page on the right is a lot cleaner looking.
I do like how the ink really stands out on the paper. And the toned surface is easier on your eyes versus looking at dark lines on a white surface. I liked working on a paper with grids. My type lines remained square to the page 🙂
Overall, I like the paper. I will continue to use this particular hard covered spiral bound book for my research into moon lore… but that’s fun info for future posts 🙂

7 comments on “A Day at the Beach and Whitelines Paper”

  3. I love this page, it screams summer fun and beach and fun colors and I want to be right there! I love pages with all little things here and there.
    The moon this month has been spectacular. The rising last night was gorgeous even if it was no longer full. Water is 85??? I am so used to New England waters. Maine was 48 on the 4th of July.

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  4. Thank you, Elizabeth! Whitelines makes a flexo bound journal that might be easier to lay on the scanner. I have a spiral bound book and they always leak light that makes page wrinkles show up more. I do love the way the pen ink flows across the page and it's nice to see what you write standout and not the lines on the paper. But for an art journal, I still prefer making my own 🙂

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  5. Thank you, Elizabeth! Whitelines makes a flexo bound journal that might be easier to lay on the scanner. I have a spiral bound book and they always leak light that makes page wrinkles show up more. I do love the way the pen ink flows across the page and it's nice to see what you write standout and not the lines on the paper. But for an art journal, I still prefer making my own 🙂

    Reply

  6. Those lovely little vignettes make me feel like I'm right there! Gorgeous page, Pam, I always enjoy the way your words integrate with youor images. Your review of Whitelines is interesting, and I appreciate seeing the original scan as it gives a good idea of what we might have to contend with! My writing tends to wander uphill and to the right, especially when printing in the field, so built-in grid lines would be great! I think this might be a good field book purchase.

    Reply

  7. Those lovely little vignettes make me feel like I'm right there! Gorgeous page, Pam, I always enjoy the way your words integrate with youor images. Your review of Whitelines is interesting, and I appreciate seeing the original scan as it gives a good idea of what we might have to contend with! My writing tends to wander uphill and to the right, especially when printing in the field, so built-in grid lines would be great! I think this might be a good field book purchase.

    Reply

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