The sketchbook is a special portable suitcase of the artist. In it, usually creative people transfer paints, brushes, a palette, sheets of paper, pencils, crayons, an eraser and many other small things. Its store options are very expensive, but there are no difficulties in making a sketchbook with your own hands, especially if the master has experience in carpentry or carpentry with wood and plywood.
To work, you must have a hand tool: a saw, a jigsaw, a grinder (in the absence of the latter, you can simply use sandpaper - 80 and 100), a screwdriver.
The size of the case should be such that sheets A-3, which are most often used by artists for drawing sketches, fit comfortably into it.
Necessary materials
To make a sketchbook with your own hands, you need to buy slats or scraps of thick plywood, a sheet of thin plywood, or also agree and purchase a half-sheet. That will be quite enough.
It will also be necessary to buy a piano loop according to the length of the case and the fastening for the shoulder strap, so that the sketchbook can be conveniently carried on the shoulder.
To fasten the parts together, you need to select 10 mm and 21 mm screws, PVA glue of a thick consistency, brackets for folding furniture doors, so that the lid holds in place in a raised state.
Also consider how the lid will close - you will need a lock, latch or hook. For the surface of the sketchbook, you need to prepare and varnish, it is advisable to purchase furniture.
Blueprints
A sketchbook with your own hands must be done according to the drawings. It is not difficult, just consider the sample in the figure below:
- The case is a plywood box 500 mm long, 350 mm wide, 60 mm high.
- For the cover use the same dimensions, only the height will be less - 25 mm.
- For the side parts, plywood or wooden slats with a thickness of 10-12 mm are used.
- For internal jumpers, you also need to mark on the drawing the required number of pockets.
First, the cover frame and the case body are assembled on the screws. Do it yourself and mark the lower and upper planes. Cut them out of thin plywood - 3-4 mm, so that the weight of the finished case was small. Use a saw or jigsaw to smoothly cut parts of the structure along the contours.
Then we carefully grind every detail of the case. You can use sandpaper. First, a larger one is taken, then the smaller one.
Internal partitions
Before making a sketchbook with one's own hands, the master should consult with the future owner of the case how many compartments need to be done in it, what size they should be. Then, according to the drawing, the required number of partitions of the inner part of the body is cut out of thin plywood and fastened with self-tapping screws. They do not install anything in the lid, as usually sheets of paper or whatman paper are folded there.
Hardware Installation
First, they connect the lid and the body with the help of a piano loop. Next, a bar or furniture hinge is installed using self-tapping screws. When the artist paints, the lid is open and rests on this hinge. This helps and a slight bias to the outside.
Install the hinge from the inside of the lid to the side of the main box.
Then, a hook is fixed on the front side in the center so that the sketchbook closes and nothing falls out when carrying it. There are also installed handles for the belt. To do this, you can use an old men's belt or a strip of dense canvas.
To prevent sheets of paper from falling out of the cover, you can attach a thin plywood partition on the hinges. And in the cover itself, make rotary holders so that it is convenient to fasten a sheet of paper.
At the end, the product is opened with varnish. After drying, you need to thoroughly treat the surface with sandpaper again, and then open it with a varnish for the second time.
Now you know how to make a sketchbook with your own hands. Good luck