Back to Meishi Size Sketches

At the end of 2022 I discovered one of my holy grails: a leather jotter with fold-over cover. I always wanted a folding jotter because a cover would allow me to carry it in my pocket and keep the top card clean.

I have a few regular "open" jotters, and in the past I put a thin sheet of plastic on the top card. But this was an extra step, and I had to find somewhere to put the plastic sheet while I was sketching.

I had been looking for such a folding jotter for many years, and finally found it at a Japanese website which sells Tochigi Leather products. Tochigi Leather is well known in Japan.

(The pencil in the photo is the Kitaboshi Adult Notebook Pencil.)

The only problem was that the jotter was not full size for 3x5 inch business cards, but smaller Japanese business cards, called meishi (名刺 pronounced may-shee).

This got me to thinking again about returning to meishi-size sketching on the subway.

There are several advantages of meishi-size sketching, especially in Japan:

• They are extremely portable, and the small size lets me finish a sketch before my short attention span runs out.


• While Artist Trading Cards are in a size which is well known among kids and collectors in Japan, everyone is familiar with meishi because the culture places great importance on them. Most people will carry their own meishi or apologize for not having one when meeting someone for the first time.


• They are a standard size (91mm x 55mm) so there is an abundance of meishi-related products such as cases and binders for storage and display, and even vinyl sleeves to protect them.


• There are even cheap wooden meishi-size frames sold at the 100 yen shops (Japan's equivalent to dollar stores), so these sketches can make nice gifts.


• And, of course, a sketch can also double as an actual business card if you have rubber stamped your contact info on the back, or even just a QR code to your website or SNS location.

So I got the jotter and found it to be perfect for my subway sketching. The small size also allowed me to produce a larger volume of sketches on my train commute.

Another advantage of meishi-size sketching is the abundance of blank cards you can buy in Japan.

My style of pencil sketching looks best on smooth paper, and I came across some cards made of Kent paper (名刺 4号 本ケント) which is thick and smooth and takes pencil, ink and watercolor great. Kent paper is well known to artists, and I was surprised to find blank meishi cards made with it.

I ordered two boxes of these cards with a hundred cards per box at Amazon Japan.

I liked them so much, I searched for the manufacturer Yamazakura and ordered 17 more boxes (to get free shipping) directly from them. As it turns out, a man from Yamazakura actually came to my home and delivered the cards in person! So with 1900 cards in my possession, I am not likely to run out any time soon.

Multi Pencils

Around the same time, I discovered another one of my holy grails: multi pencils that have different sizes of lead so you can have both thick and thin lines.

Of course you can get a combination of thick and thin lines with any pencil if you don't mind sharpening the tip during the sketch, but I had always thought it would be great to find a mechanical pencil that immediately gives you either one at the click of a button.

I found the legendary (in my mind) Platinum 5&9 DOUBLE ACTION mechanical pencil which has a 5mm lead and a 9mm lead. That pencil has been discontinued for many years, but I actually found two at a local web site called Mercari.

By the way, all the photos on this page are larger than they appear, so you can pinch out to see more details.

I also found another multi pencil, and this one is currently available. It's the Tutto3 and I found it at Amazon in the U.S. It's the silver color pencil in the photo.

The Tutto3 has three lead sizes, 0.3mm, 0.5mm, and 0.7mm. The difference between 0.3mm and 0.7mm is significant, but I really didn't need 0.5mm between those two sizes.

Double Compartment Meishi Case

Then I found another item which was perfect for meishi sketching. It was not on my holy grail list because I never knew it existed.

It's a card case with two separate compartments for carrying two sets of meishi. It would come in handy if you wanted to separate your own cards from those you receive from others.

It would allow me to keep a watercolor palette as well as a stack of blank cards in one case, so I wouldn't have to carry two cases in my pocket.

This gold colored aluminum case was on sale at 60 percent of the original price which wasn't so much in the first place, so I snatched it up. It's not as classy as Tochigi Leather but it is very practical. And I like the gold color.

Then I made a new vacuum form palette that would fit perfectly.

Unlike the leather jotter, the hard metal cover will not fold back on itself, so the case takes up more space in my hand when open, but it supports my drawing hand when I'm sketching and then holds the card when I'm coloring.

As I mentioned above, sketching at such a small size results in a larger volume of sketches. Here is one month's worth of sketching from riding the trains about three days a week.

I got mine on Amazon Japan

I wanted a slim portable water brush that fits in my pocket. The clip was taken from an old Micron pen (never throw away those old clips).

It's not as small as the tiny piston water brushes on the previous page, but this is easier to use, and travels well in the pocket.

The tip is very fine, and perfect for small sketches, and I think it's more dry than other squeeze type water brushes. But you get used to that real fast, and I really like this model.

Note about Amazon links: If you click on a link and buy something at Amazon, a few pennies per dollar goes into my Amazon account, so instead of letting Amazon keep it all, you can pry a few pennies from their fingers make them share it with me. Any other vendor links I may put on this website are just for your convenience.