Vengeful Fortress: A Stillman and Birn Epsilon Sketchbook Review Adventure Part 1

A while ago a local art supply shop started stocking a wider variety of Stillman and Birn sketchbooks. I currently use the Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha as my daily sketchbook, but I decided to give the pocket Epsilon a try. The Epsilon features smooth, white 150 gsm pages which should work for pen, ink, dry media and light washes.

This sketchbook is in landscape format, which is what I normally prefer. I was planning to use it once I’ve finished with my current Alpha, but weeks stretched to months and meanwhile this sketchbook has been languishing away, unused.

So when I saw Liz Steel going on a virtual sketch tour in Italy, I was inspired to grab this notebook and fill it with a sketch tour of my own. I initially planned to sketch out my cancelled London trip, and I may yet do that, but something inspired me to take this idea to a completely new direction.

I’m going to sketch out a freeform fantasy roleplaying adventure for my regular D&D group, and use that as a way to test out this sketchbook, and to make good use of my fountain pens.

So without further ado: Vengeful Forest, a fantasy freeform adventure.

Sketch and writing done with TWSBI 540 Diamond F nib and Rohrer and Klingner Lotte SketchINK.

Blue lines done with PenBBS 500 Fine and Sailor Sky High ink.

Frying pan Rapunzel dressed in purple is probably copyrighted by Disney, but one of my players thought it would be funny to make my life interesting, so here she is.

I tried to give each character a distinct enough colour scheme so you’ll be able to recognize them from a distance. Each player had one sentence to describe their character.

The watercolours are Schminke and I used a Windsor and Newton Series 7 number 2 brush and a Rosemary and Co 772 brush

I’ll continue posting as the adventure progresses, but so far this has been a lot of fun, and the players seem to be enjoying it too. The Stillman and Birn Epsilon has been an absolute champ: it takes light washes beautifully, with very little buckling, allowing me to use both sides of each page. It also works well with fountain pens, especially fine nibbed ones, which are commonly used for sketching. The white paper makes everything pop, and even though 150 gsm isn’t much when it comes to watercolour, it did allow for some layering and reworking without turning into a messy paper pulp. This is a sketchbook that I’m definitely going to purchase again.

Urban Sketch: Election Day Tel Aviv

A sketch on location of my polling station in Tel Aviv (don’t be creepy) on election day.

While I was sketching an elderly volunteer came for a chinwag in the shade, and then stayed and chatted for a good long while. I guess he was lonely. And later two girls came around selling cookies and lemonade for charity, so I bought a cookie and talked to them while they watched me draw and tried to sell their wares.

Schminke watercolours, Staedtler pigment liners, Stillman & Birn pocket Alpha.

Jaffa in the Morning

A quick sketch of a building in the Jaffa flea market area.

Inktober 4: The Record Sellers

#Inktober Day 5: Breads Bakery

A quick sketch at Breads Bakery. The uncoloured sketch is below the watercolour one.

SketchINK Lotte ink in a Super5 0.7 fountain pen on a Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha and Schmincke watercolours.

#Inktober day 1: Wadi Nisnas, Haifa

Drawn on location in Wadi Nisnas, Haifa. Super5 0.7 fountain pen, Rohrer and Klingner Lotte SketchINK, Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha. Will probably get watercoloured once I have some spare time – took some reference photos just in case.

Place de la Sorbonne sketch

I had less than 20 minutes for this one, so it came out all wrong in terms of the proportions of the Sorbonne building, but by the time I realised this it was too late, and I had a plane to catch. Posting this here because even mistakes have some charm to them.

SketchINK Lotte ink in a Super5 0.7 fountain pen on a Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha and Schmincke watercolours.

Luxembourg Gardens sketch

A quick sketch in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris on a Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha. Still learning how much water this paper can take, and that’s the first use of a Uniball Signo white pen for the water in the fountain. I’m very pleased with this little trick I learned in the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Porto.