Category Archives: Links

Thomas Lawrason Riggs’s Notebook

Father Thomas Lawrason Riggs was the first Catholic chaplain at Yale. He was a member of Yale’s class of 1910, where he met Cole Porter, the composer. He later attended graduate school at Harvard, where he roomed with Porter and Dean Acheson, a future secretary of state. During World War I, Riggs returned to Yale … Continue reading Thomas Lawrason Riggs’s Notebook

Sara Boccaccini Meadows’ Sketchbooks

I love the luscious colors and texture of these sketchbook pages! New York-based print designer and illustrator Sara Boccaccini Meadows has made it a habit to take her sketchbook everywhere she goes, taking inspiration from her everyday surroundings…. This artist also has a 35-minute online class to help you paint beautiful botanicals. Read more: Artist Shares … Continue reading Sara Boccaccini Meadows’ Sketchbooks

August F. Foerste’s Field Notebook

A gorgeous example of a natural historian’s field notes. This belonged to August F. Foerste, an American geologist and paleontologist. From the original article at the Field Book Project website: Field notes are well known to be essential, primary material that provide details about collections and expeditions that aren’t found in published material or specimen … Continue reading August F. Foerste’s Field Notebook

Sketching Sculpture

…or perhaps this post’s title should be “Sketching Skulpture,” because my inspiration comes from a blog post at Sketchbook Skool. The sketch below by Jonathan Twingley really caught my eye– such a cool mix of color, texture and light and dark shading with fine cross-hatching. It was done on location at MoMA, as part of … Continue reading Sketching Sculpture

André Mare’s Sketchbooks

I don’t remember where I first came across the work of André Mare. He was a French artist who was associated with the Cubism and Art Deco movements, and his World War I sketchbooks are quite remarkable. No discussion about Cubism can be complete without at least some mention of André Mare. Yet even in conversations … Continue reading André Mare’s Sketchbooks

Notebook Addict of the Week: Katerina

This week’s addict is Katerina Sakkas, an artist and writer from Sydney, Australia. She’s been using Daler Rowney sketchbooks for 20 years, filling them with drawings and ideas: Simple and sturdy with their canvas-textured hard covers and heavy-weight, off-white paper, Daler Rowney’s Ebony journals have served me faithfully for 20 years, as a place to … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Katerina

Reggie Kray’s Sketchbook

Here’s an odd one: a sketchbook by the notorious British gangster Reggie Kray. The Kray twins were serving a life sentence in prison when they heard about James Fallon, a young boy living in South Africa who had been paralyzed as a result of being hit by a car and only survived thanks to a … Continue reading Reggie Kray’s Sketchbook

Moleskine Monday: Paivi Eerola’s Art Journal

I just loved this spread from the Moleskine sketchbook of Finnish artist Paivi Eerola, posted on her website Peony and Parakeet: Here’s some of her thoughts on art journaling: For me, art journals are little more than just sketchbooks. I like to call them “idea books” as I often process my ideas further when I … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: Paivi Eerola’s Art Journal

Lost and Found Sketchbook

Great story about a sketchbook that went astray for 36 years! In 1983, Thomas Thospecken set off on a cross-country journey, intending to document his travels in sketchbooks and journals. He lost one of them along the way, but decades later, the person who found it managed to return it to him! Artist Thomas Thorspecken, … Continue reading Lost and Found Sketchbook