I like to rest my hand on my sketchbook as I’m drawing, which I find awkward as I get near the edge of the page so, inspired by the Sketchboard Pro, which has a rebate that precisely fits my iPad Pro, I’ve made myself a board to snugly fit my A5 Pink Pig sketchbook, with a 4 inch surround, that I can use in either landscape or portrait format.
It’s built up from a corrugated cardboard, so it was useful having a guillotine to cut out the matching pieces. I left a rebate at either end of the slot to accommodate the spiral binding of the sketchbook. It’s not shown in this photo because I hadn’t realised until I tried it for size that I’d need one on the outer edge. I draw on both sides of the page, so I need to flip the sketchbook over to draw on the right-hand page.
I discovered that it was best to glue every layer, rather than rely on masking tape to hold it all together.
I had an offcut of foamboard that I used for the top layer.
Finally I covered the whole thing with the tail end of a roll of hessian wallpaper that I’d used back in the 1970s when making a noticeboard (later rejigged as a couple of hinged pairs of display boards for craft fairs).
Everything I used was recycled apart from a 250ml bottle of ArtStudio Matte Glue, £1.29 from The Range.
Now I need to get out and actually use it.