A gallery in Long Beach, CA has an exhibition of sketchbooks, on view until March 20, 2020: The personal sketchbooks of more than 20 local artists will be on display at Flatline gallery, Saturday night. Unique to each artist, sketchbooks tend to be full of observational studies and jotted-down ideas; they’re candid representations of an … Continue reading The Sketchbook Show
This look at the Pen & Ink Sketchbook is the 2nd post in my “Then and Now” series, examining various notebook brands that have been around for a while to see how they’ve changed. (See my “then and now” post about the Rhodia Webnotebook). I am always griping about how Moleskine’s notebooks have declined in … Continue reading Pen & Ink Sketchbook: Then & Now Review
This is pretty inspiring: Sean Äaberg is an artist and game designer who had a stroke in late 2018. During his recovery over the following 16 months, he kept sketchbooks, re-learning how to draw day by day. His wife shares them in this video. Read more about him at Boing Boing: Artist Sean Äaberg’s stroke … Continue reading Sketching Through Stroke Recovery
Here’s some tips from a few artists about how to get yourself going with a sketchbooking (or notebooking) habit: Indian artists offer tips on how to start sketchbooking in 2020. I feel like my own sketchbook has been rather stagnant lately so I need to take some of these insights to heart! Mumbai-based artist Sameer … Continue reading How To Start Sketchbooking
I really miss the “Book by Its Cover” blog, especially the series of posts about sketchbooks. (The blog has been inactive since 2015 but the archives are still viewable.) Here’s a cool post I’d flagged a few years ago: Book By Its Cover » Sketchbook Series: John Garcia. I love this shot of John’s pile … Continue reading John Garcia’s Sketchbooks
It’s been a while since I attempted any sort of notebook hack or alteration (except for removing the pen loop from a Taotree notebook), but I recently decided to do a little experiment. I’ve always like the Moleskine City notebooks because they have a nice thickness, with more pages than the normal pocket size notebooks. … Continue reading Notebook Hack (Attempt): Moleskine + Stillman & Birn
Here’s something I came across on the website of the Morgan Library: This is the only surviving personal notebook of the French artist Édouard Manet (1832–1883). He used it in the early 1860s, when he was between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty, documenting aspects of his everyday life and work in the two years … Continue reading Édouard Manet’s Notebook
Cuprohastes was one of the winners of my recent Arteza giveaway, and he included Arteza sketchbooks and watercolor books in this shot of his notebook collection! Quite a variety here: I spy Field Notes, Moleskine, including one of the Van Gogh silk covered ones, perhaps Leuchtturm and I think Mead, as well as others I … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Cuprohastes
At some point during the years I’ve been writing this blog, I remember coming across some discussion about whether the “regular” size Moleskine notebook was the pocket size or the large size. Many people consider the large size to be the default, and I’ve seen customer reviews on Amazon where people give the pocket notebooks … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: Which Came First?
The end of the year is always a fun time to think about daily carry notebook choices– your current year diary or planner is looking nicely worn in, and you’re itching to start a new one! This year, I’m also getting close to needing to swap out my daily notebook/journal and daily carry sketchbook. Here’s … Continue reading Daily Carry Notebook: What I’m Using Now, and Next