A mermaid in my new Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook

I've wanted to try the Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook for a while now. The Nostalgie paper is very popular and it has been available as sketchbooks for some time now. When you go over the white 190 gsm paper it feels very smooth, but when you draw on it with coloured pencil you can see that it has a fine tooth. I love how the pencils smoothly glide over the paper. It's easy to fill in all the white and you can still put on a few layers. It's also great for ink.

Today I did a whimsical mermaid after a tutorial. She's not quite perfect, but I think you can see that she has attitude. She's a bit reserved, but if you respect her she'll show you her little world. I did the background with a mixture of coloured pencil and oil pastels. And I blended it with Terpin. Worked quite well I would say.

So, say hello to my little mermaid:

Oil pastels revisited

As planned I bought some solvent yesterday, a small bottle of Terpin by Schmincke. And I experimented with it right away. Yesterday's experiments weren't so successful. Today I finally tried it - on printer paper - by applying the oil pastel with the side of the stick, not putting on much pressure. I then took a cotton bud, let it soak up some solvent and went over the oil pastel with it, holding it flat. The result doesn't look too bad.

It shines through on the opposite side, but, well, it's thin printer paper. Should be less of a problem on thicker paper. It dries rather quickly and then it's permanent. You can go over it with your finger and nothing happens. At the top I tried to draw on it with a coloured pencil. Difficult. Drawing on it with a fineliner is almost impossible.

So I may give it a try in a sketchbook sooner or later.