Product Review: Stillman and Birn ZETA Paper

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

As many of you are aware Stillman & Birn makes what I think to be the best sketchbooks currently on the market today. The quality and variety of papers, and the variety of formats (size, spiral, hardbound) covers a broad range and offers just the right product for any sketchbook artist.

Stillman & Birn sent paper samples of their newest paper choice, Zeta, to a number of artist to try and review. I have not read any of those yet so that I would have no preconceived notions about the paper going in. But you can read Jamie Williams Grossman's review here, Jeanne Forsyth's review here, and a review from Liz & Borromini here.

Yesterday, I gave the new Zeta paper a whirl. If you're familiar with my sketches you know that I am a mixed media maven! One of my top requirements in a sketchbook is that the paper be able to handle all kinds of media, both wet and dry together in one sketch, or on one page spread.

The Zeta paper is a "cousin" to Stillman & Birn's Epsilon series paper.  Plate smooth, and really lovely to the touch. While the Epsilon is 90lbs, the Zeta is twice that, at a beefy 180 lbs. This for me is a big plus right out of the gate. I just have to have a heavy weight paper to work on. Something substantial so I don't have any worries about the paper buckling, the surface peeling,  getting rough or abraded, or any reservations about scrubbing, lifting or layering.

The Zeta paper, like all Stillman & Birn papers is sized inside and out, which means that wet media like watercolors and ink lay on top of the paper without sinking in too fast and reduces "staining" the paper meaning that you can lift color. Yay! But this is a little different than hot pressed watercolor paper, flat and graded washes may be a bit challenging on the other hand wet media brush strokes will remain, (as you can see especially in the lower left hand background in the sketch above), and that can be an exciting advantage adding, spontaneity, energy and movement to a piece, something I like.

So what exactly did I throw at this paper?? Well, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink......

• Uniball Vision Pen -black
• Sharpie Marker-black
• Daniel Smith Watercolors
• Winsor & Newton Gouache
• Plaid Folk Art Gold Acrylic Paint
• DecoColor Opaque Paint Marker - white
• Uniball Gold Gel Pen
• Blue Painters Tape

I worked on this sketch for about 1.5 hours. There are a LOT of layers and a lot of wet media used, that's important to know because I watched closely to see if the paper would buckle when wet.  It did, but only slightly, and from it's wettest point when I could see the buckling it dried and flattened to only a slight wave in about 15 min. Today the paper has just a slight curve but if I put it under a book I'm confident that it will flatten out completely. That means that bound in a sketchbook the paper once dry will flatten out beautifully once the book is closed.

Pen on Zeta

I started this sketch using a UniBall Vision Pen, then later on switched to Sharpie and added bling with the gold gel pen. I am happy to report two things that made me very happy...

• the pen never missed or skipped
• the ink dried very fast on the surface and there was no smudging

A third quality I noticed is neither a pro or con just something to be aware of is that multiple pen lines close together, or in cross hatch pattern, could get very dark very fast


Paint on Zeta

Three kinds of paint were used in this sketch, watercolor, gouache and acrylic

• watercolors were very clear and bright and were able to be lifted

• the gouache is a perfect match for this paper being a little thicker and less watery than watercolor and really appreciates the sizing so it can sit on the surface in all it's glorious velvety, opaque, matte beauty

• acrylic is a pretty friendly medium overall and is pretty much able to adhere to any surface, so this was more a question of whether the paper could handle it, and I found no problems using it

Painters Tape on Zeta

One of the things I like to do in my sketchbooks is tape off a margin around the edge or tape of a rectangle or square to work in. Here's what happened...

• blue painters tape pulled up the surface of the paper leaving it " fuzzy" and abraded

Next time I will try using drafting tape (which is what usually I carry in my sketch kit) which is less sticky, and should be gentler on the paper.

Next I'm going to test my vast marker collection on Zeta, so stay tuned!

Sketching Sculpture

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Trips to museums make great sketching days. At the Slater Museum they have life size plaster casts of  all the famous sculpture form antiquity. Pencil and gouache were used to capture the Hermes Belvedere and the Dying Gaul.

The next town over from where I live has a Sculpture Mile, a mile long section of the downtown that has a sculpture exhibit that changes every year. this privately funded effort brings art into the public spaces of the town. Pencil, watercolor and gouache capture two views of this figurative piece.

Working in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook

This is the cover page for my Stillman and Birn Beta Sketchbook.....

...and the first page. You can see by the dates that I am way behind in posting. In fact, this books is filled and I've moved on to a new one! I'm really going to try hard to get caught up and to post regularly, as I finish pages. For now if you want to keep up to date I post frequently in Cathy Johnson's Artist Journal Workshop Group on Facebook.

The SUN page above is done with pencil, watercolor, gouache and marker.

The Bird feeder page is one of my fav's. The very quick sketches (birds don't stay still very long!) were done with a blue/black Uniball Signo pen, and since the ink is not waterproof when touched with a waterbrush loaded with yellow ochre watercolor beautiful green, browns were created, perfect for depicting the green enamel of the feeder and the color of the seed inside.

Beautiful spring colors on Messerchmidt's Pond near my home, the top three are gouache and the bottom is a watercolor.  These small landscape studies are invaluable for preparing me for the plein air painting season.

One of the things I really love about the Stillman & Birn beta sketchbook is it's fabulous heavy weight, (180lb, unheard of in a sketchbook!) multimedia paper. This paper takes everything you can throw at it with no buckling or rippling, no bleed through, and the surface stays perfect even with repeated applications, even a fair amount of scrubbing. All of that is important to me because I know that I have the freedom to experiment and to keep working a sketch until I get it working to my satisfaction, even if I have to add several types of media to do it. I really feel fearless when using this sketchbook! And that is very, very good for unleashing creativity!

Sketching Spring Trees

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Spring Trees, done on Easter Sunday, UniBall Vision pen, Daniel Smith watercolors, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

Winsor & Newton Gouache, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

 I thought this wold be an interesting comparison of two similar (yet very different!) mediums ,watercolor and gouache. Gouache is sometimes thought of as opaque watercolor, in the 19th century it was called body color, meaning that it had a heavier consistency than watercolor, hence it had more body to it. You can thin down gouache like watercolor and create semi transparent washes or you can build up color as I did here.

The watercolor and pen is a very fast way to work and the transparent color seemed the best choice for capturing the very sunny day and the light colors in the trees.  When i did the second sketch clouds were rolling in and the weather was changing and layers of heavier gouache seemed the right choice for that particular situation.

Gouache and watercolor also work well together, allowing you to sit opaque layers or areas on top of transparent areas which produces a really nice effect.

Zoo Sketches

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Sketching at the zoo is very challenging! Some of these are from on the spot observation, others developed and fleshed out from photos I took. I wish there was a zoo close to home so I could go frequently and become adept enough to capture the animals quickly and accurately while observing them.

The lions are done with 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

The Baboons were very entertaining to watch especially the very young one, who persisted in pestering his elders even after getting a scolding. 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

Wish I could have gotten the Bactrain Camels to turn around, but they were at the hay baskets munching the afternoon away. 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

 This part of the zoo was fascinating. It's called the Deer Forest and a herd of 90 Fallow Deer roam free as you walk along the paths. The deer will come to you to eat if you buy corn from the little dispensers, they will follow you and walk freely in and out of groups of people. Here you see a chocolate variety, and a spotted. There is also a white coated variation. Watercolor, 2B pencil and gouache, in a Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook.

This was a spur of the moment visit on our way home from my daughter's college in Beverly, MA and I would have missed the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful animals if I didn't always keep at least one sketching kit in the car at all times!

Landscape Sketches

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

 Beaver Dam, Golden Fluid Acrylics, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook

Having a great time taking my paints outdoors and doing quick painted sketches. The beavers have repaired their dam this year and the water level in the beaver pond on our property has risen significantly.

 Hammock River Sunset, W&N Gouache, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Getting accustomed to what gouache can do. For this sketch I primed the paper with some acrylic matte medium. This forces me to use a thicker application of paint (otherwise the gouache will bead up) which is good, it keeps me from thinning the paint too much.

 Spring Sunset, pen & watercolor, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Always nice to return to one of my favorite combos, wc & pen.

 Florence Griswold House and Daffodils, W&N Gouache, Beta Stillman & Birn multimedia sketchbook. Always challenging to do architecture in pen! it's a bit wonky but full of character!