Sketching Stand Build

At the telescope, I observe when seated, always. It is hard to sketch with just a clipboard, especially when the angle formed by my knees exceeds 90°, making sketching problematic for me. A clipboard cannot hold all the supplies I need. 

When I sketch at the eyepiece, I’m confronted with a litany of challenges from fatigue to dexterity challenges with regard to holding a clipboard. I’m often tired, and the dexterity required to hold a clipboard, stop things from falling off, observe, and sketch what is observed makes sketching a challenge, especially at nighttime. I also want to be able to make my “final” sketches right at the eyepiece with no need for post-processing on the computer. I decided to think about how I can improve my sketching experience to allow my skill to show in my sketches without hindrance. So, in thinking about it, I decided to build a sketching platform that would address all the challenges I've listed below. 

• Fatigue from staying up late.

• Holding a clipboard when the angle formed by my knees is greater than 90 degrees.

• The clipboard is too small to hold all the pens and supplies I need.

• The clip-on book light is awkward on the clipboard- limited range of movement for illumination purposes.

• Wearing a headlamp- awkward too. Turning on/off, sometimes I forget to turn off and reflections appear in the eyepiece.

  • Headaches because of head band overlapping the temples/arms of eyeglasses- causes headaches.

• Observing ability is negatively impacted when the brain is occupied with holding a clipboard so nothing falls off to the ground. The impact to my observing is the same as if I were standing to observe in which the brain is occupied with keeping balance. 

• Using chalk is a challenge- usually I do this first on the table working from short term memory (look in EP, then go to table), then move to the observing chair to do the rest of the sketch. 

• Sketching on white paper bleaches my eyes. Then post-processing (inverting, correcting star shapes, etc) is a waste of my time. 

• Sketching on a clipboard does not allow me to sketch the final sketch at the EP.

• Build a sketching contraption that attaches to my existing 3-way Manfrotto 3030 head on DSLR tripod. 

• Make the sketching platform stable. 

• Re-purpose projector retaining platform I built for the outdoor theater. 

• Build a contraption that allows me to sketch at the eyepiece and reduce post-processing time to simply adjusting the curves in the picture of the sketch for sharing online. 

• Build a contraption that allows me to have everything I need at the eyepiece- reduce trips to supplies case to get things I need. 

• Make a holder for makeup brushes. 

• Make holders for Dixie Cups to hold chalk powder or other sketch related supplies. 

• Use existing resources at home- everything must be re-purposed or built from scratch- not buying anything from stores, including spray paint / finishing supplies- everything has to be done with supplies I have on hand. 

• Use a tripod as a base so I can adjust it higher for sketching at zenith with the 24”.  

• Adapt the clip-on book light to emit both amber and red.

• Make the clip-on book light movable to anywhere on the sketching contraption. 

• Make contraption able to hold cups of my chalk for sketching DSOs. 

• Contraption needs to be easy to transport to dark sky sites. 

• Contraption needs to be sufficiently light to reduce lateral stresses on retaining metal dowel in the tripod. 

Inspect the projector platform- what needs to be done and what was done?

• The platform is made of 13 ply 3/4” thick baltic birch wood- the good stuff. 

• Repair water damage by sanding the top and bottom flat. The platform was left outside accidently a few times after watching movies- rain overnight soaked the platform a few times. 

• Remove the three sides that kept the projector from falling off

• Repair the cone-shaped warping on the bottom panel of the projector platform caused by pressure from the central mounting bolt and the 1/4” gap between the wood and the Manfrotto 3030 tripod head.

  • Revise the sketching platform to address this by building an adapter that fits into the gap in the head.

• Drilled two 11/32 holes in the Manfrotto 3030 head for the new adapter I’m building. 

  • Two holes instead of one gives more stability. 

• Built an adapter from a 2”x2” block of baltic birch left over from my 17.5” build. 

  • Counter sunk two holes with a forstner bit sized larger than 5/16” bolt head  so bolt heads do not protrude from the adapter- makes epoxying the adapter to the platform possible. 

  • Drilled 2 holes spaced apart 1 1/4” in countersunk holes for two 5/16” bolts

  • Installed two 5/16” bolts into the holes on the adapter, then filled with West Systems 105/205 epoxy. 

• Epoxied the adapter onto the bottom of the platform and let it set for 24 hours before the next step below. 

• Got an old piece of crown molding in the shed and cut a piece of 5/8” width at 14” length from it, and epoxied West Systems 105/205 epoxy onto the bottom edge of the sketching platform to serve as a stop for my sketchbook and to stop pens from rolling off. I let that set for 24 hours. 

• Drilled 15 holes of 13/32” spaced apart 1” and 1/2” from edge for Gelly Roll Pens. The 15th and last hole is spaced 3” away at the very end- that is my eraser pen hole. 

• Drilled four holes of 11/32” diameter and 1/2” from edge for soft pastel pens on the left side, spaced apart 1”. 

• Drill 2” hole at the top right corner for makeup brushes. 

• Drill  three 2” holes for Dixie Cups to hold chalk powder or other sketch related supplies. These holes need to fit dixie cups so they are servicable/replaceable. 

• After sanding platform smooth with 120 grit, 

  • Filled in various gaps with West Systems 105/205 epoxy mixed in with 404 silcia and let that set for 24 hours

  • I painted the platform black with flat black spray paint as not to cause reflections from the clip on light- 4 coats each side. Old paint I had on hand. 

  • Followed with 8 coats of sprayed on Helmsman Spar Urethane in Satin- old cans I had on hand.

With the platform largely done,

• Disassemble clip-on book light, install red and yellow electrical tape on individual LED light for deeper amber light and red light instead of white light when switching colors using temperature button. 

• Remove clip- sand down the clip retainer with disc sander 

  • Epoxy a piece of sized down rubber to cover exposed electronics from sanding down clip retainer. 

• Epoxy one N54 earth magnet onto bottom of book light. Let set for 24 hours. 

• Stack N54 magnet bars on top of each other- secure with 3M VHB foam tape as protection against shattering when the light is removed and the magnet falls. 

• Secure elastic cord to magnet and to Manfrotto 3030 head using hot glue and 3M VHB tape to ensure magnet does not get lost in the field. 

Then I labeled each pen hole with the color and weight of the pen ball using white on black label maker tape. On the leftmost, are my whites, followed by what I think will be my most commonly used colors. 

The good:

• Paradigm-shifting for me- I can relax when sketching, and focus on observing more since my hands are free. 

• All of my supplies are now in one place, on the sketching platform, and all are labeled with white on black labels for easy reading. 

• All gel pens are arranged from heaviest to lightest, left to right.

• 3-way adjustment is marvelous. Allows me to sketch at all different kinds of angles to best match my dexterity in a given seated position for a DSO.  

The bad:

• The magnets on the light/sketching platform need adjusting- setting the light lower down closer to the paper alleviates some of the “balance” problems. 

  • More magnets probably is the solution here. 

• Too many pens? Time will tell. 

• Dew could be a problem. 

  • Need to develop some kind of “cover” for the brushes/pastel cup holders. 

• Sometimes I wish the platform was about 2” bigger all around but weight would be a bigger concern. 

• Lack of pencil holders for standard diameter sized pencils.

  • Add this? Or epoxy over existing pastel pencil holders on left side and re-drill if I don’t use the pastels often enough?

The ugly:

• Not made of solid gold. 

• Does not sketch automatically for me. 

• Does not improve light grasp of any of my telescopes.