My old sketch book got full quite quickly so I needed to buy a new sketch book to finish the first part of my drawing 1 course. I wish I new more about what paper to choose gsm/tooth etc, there were a few expensive sketchbooks in the art shop, so I expect the quality was probably top notch but they were sealed and there wasn’t that much information on the wrapping. In the end I settled for a cheaper A4 sketch book with a lot of tooth, it said smooth on the front but doesn’t feel smooth to me.However the reason why I chose this sketchbook in particular was of the photo of Corrado Feroci on the front cover.
Here’s a short biography of his life:
Corrado Feroci was born in Florence Italy in 1892 and was a sculptor who worked mainly in Thailand after being invited to the kingdom in 1923 to teach western sculptor at the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Palace Affairs. Corrado later founded the Silpakorn University (the University of Fine Arts) in 1943.
After Italy surrendered to the allies in 1944, he changed his name to to Silpa Bhirasiri and became a Thai national to avoid being arrested by the occupying Imperial Japanese Army. While in Thailand he married his second wife, one of his Thai students.
If you have ever been to Thailand and travelled around the Bangkok streets you will see several of Silpa Bhirasiri’s works including the Democracy Monumenty, the Victory Monument and the Statue of King Rama I at the Memorial Bridge at Saphan Phut.
His photograph on the front helped me choose the notebook, I’d previously bought colour pencils and watercolor pencils by the Thai brand Masterart which weren’t so great, but I had not so long ago read about Silpha Bhirasiri and knew he was the founder of Silpakorn University so knowing that the university had endorsed the brand for this product I had faith in what I was purchasing.
To be honest my sketchbook hasn’t been that organised so far but I made a promise to myself on purchasing this new book to get things in order for my first assignment.
My Drawing Course 