In this remarkable gathering of private journals, log books, letters and diaries, we follow the voyages of intrepid sailors, from the frozen polar wastes to South Seas paradise islands, as they set down their immediate impressions of all they saw. They capture their experiences while at sea, giving us a precious view of the oceans and the creatures that live in them as they were when they were scarcely known and right up to the present day. In a series of biographical portraits, we meet officers and ordinary sailors, cooks and whalers, surgeons and artists, explorers and adventurers. A handful of contemporary mariners provide their thoughts on how art remains integral to their voyaging lives.
Often still bearing the traces of their nautical past, the intriguing and enchanting sketches and drawings in this book brilliantly capture the spirit of the oceans and the magic of the sea.
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 document the process of art-making; to research, experiment and workshop ideas.
Sometimes messy, sometimes elaborate, they hold an eclectic mixture of different media and textures, combining practice drawings and paintings, image designs, reference pics and (more recently) mock-ups of comics.
You can see more of her sketchbooks/journals in this post from her website, where she also shares images of her incredible paintings. There is lots more to see on her Instagram feed too (@kat_sakkas), where she posted this photo of more journals:
In addition to Daler Rowney, her collection includes Paperblanks, Leuchtturm, Rhodia, Clairefontaine and Moleskine notebooks.
Thanks for sharing your addiction, Katerina! It is always great to hear from fellow notebook addicts!
Like Field Notes, the various limited edition and branded partnership designs of Kokuyo Sketch Books have become very collectible. People customize them with decorations, add elastic closures, and put them in protective covers. Here are a few of the many variations I’ve spotted on Instagram:
If you want to see more, search the tag #野帳 for “field notes,” and #測é‡é‡Žå¸³ for “survey note book”
Back to the notebook itself in its basic form, the Kokuyo Sketch Book is 3.75 x 6.5″, and about a quarter inch thick. This makes it a great size for a jacket pocket, if not for the back pocket of jeans. The slimness of it is very appealing. The green cover has a slight fabric-like texture, and the gold stamped “Sketch Book” title gives it a very retro look. It is a hard cover– not as thick a cardboard as a Moleskine cover, but it still doesn’t have much flex to it, and seems quite sturdy. You can bend it back on itself without the spine breaking. The corners are sharply squared off, with a fair amount of cover overhang. Those who are longtime followers of this site know I’m always griping about wide cover overhang on notebooks, (purely for my own aesthetic preferences and unrelated to function) but I’ve realized that my objection to it really depends on the proportions of the notebook– the thinner the notebook, the less it bothers me, and on this notebook the overhang doesn’t bother me at all.
The Kokuyo Sketch Book not only opens flat, but it will lie flat by itself. Inside the notebook, the endpapers are plain white other than a barcode inside the back cover. Then you have 80 pages of squared paper. The light blue grid lines are spaced at 3mm, which is noticeably smaller than you’ll find in most notebooks, which are 5mm. The only other notebook I can think of with an even tinier grid is the Kleid 2face Notebook, also from Japan.
The paper weight is not specified but it feels smooth and relatively light. Some wetter pens bleed through quite a bit, and show-through is about average. I would call this notebook semi-fountain pen friendly. There was almost no feathering, but there were small spots of bleeding with most fountain pens, more noticeably with wetter pens. If you use finer nibs and drier inks, you will probably be fine.
I bought this notebook for $5.00 at Yoseka Stationery in Queens, NYC. I haven’t seen them for sale in too many other places, but I believe Goods for the Study carries them. I thought I had seen them at Kinokuniya a while ago, but they haven’t had them the last few times I’ve visited. Online, you can get a 10-pack on Amazon for only $19.99. The Level Book is available as a single copy, only $4.82 with free shipping. JetPens doesn’t carry them, strangely. At Baum-Kuchen and Nomado Store, you can get a snazzy Superior Labour-branded version.
I really love the Kokuro Sketch Book– the classic styling and the practical durability make it a winner. And the slim 80 page format makes you want to line 100 of them up on a shelf. But I am trying to figure out how I’d use it. My only problem with it is the size– I like it, but I am so wedded to my favorite 3.5 x 5.5″ size, it’s hard to use anything else in my daily carry. If Kokuyo made a smaller 3.5 x 5.5 ” version of the sokuryo yacho, I would find it irresistible!
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 seven-hour operation. The imprisoned Kray brothers ended up becoming pen pals with Fallon and helping to raise money for his care. Among the correspondence they exchanged in the 18th months before his death was this sketchbook:
The archive includes six signed crayon drawings by Reggie of a sailor, a cowboy, a boxer, a landscape, a boat at sea and a boxing match. Affixed inside the sketchbook are two Christmas cards. An inscription on a page at the front dated December 3 1989 reads: “The most courageous boy in the world – James Fallon. God bless. Affection. Your friend. Reg Kray xxxxx.â€
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 am working on the page. I don’t always make one page on the same go, but work with it several times, adding more ideas as the page progresses. However, I have quite low expectations on how my pages will look. They are not pieces of art but more like collections of ideas to me. … My art journals are not chronological diaries but random visual notes that I process to full images. I can make a quick sketch of a rose one day and then continue the page with painting on the other day. When I am working with a new art class, I use art journals to record my visual ideas and practice the techniques. I also see creating art journal pages a route to bigger paintings. When I paint on canvas, I use the ideas that I have come up with when making the pages. Every artist should also be an art journaler!
This week’s addict shared a photo of his collection with me via Twitter several years ago and yet it somehow languished in my to-do list until now! (At least I think so… after 10-plus years of blogging, I can’t even remember all the Notebook Addicts I’ve posted about!)
Here’s Stephen’s collection as of 2015.
I bet he has a lot more by now! Maybe he’ll update us via Twitter again: @hdbbstephen
This is my latest favorite find in the “Artists’ Facsimile Sketchbooks” category: Hilma Af Klint Notes and Methods. I saw it for sale at the McNally Jackson bookshop in NYC and it’s full of lots of great reproductions of full notebook spreads.
I saw the Hilma Af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim a few months ago and found it quite interesting. They had a couple of her notebooks on display, as well as some additional images in a timeline, and I snapped these photos:
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, known for his sketches of Orlando, was reunited with a notebook lost when he was in teens in New Jersey.
I love coming across other people’s art journals, especially presented in spreads of thumbnail pages:
This is from Wings of Judas, the website of Judas Bardon. You can click to zoom in on each page via this link. The home page seems to be down so there isn’t a lot of other info about the artist’s background, but you can see other journals and artworks via this link.
When I posted my first Hahnemühle sketchbooks review several years ago, the brand wasn’t that easy to find in the US, except for their artist papers. Fortunately, this has changed and Hahnemühle sketchbooks are now more widely available at Amazon, Blick and other retailers. The company contacted me to offer some samples of their various sketchbooks, so let’s take a look at all these goodies!
Hahnemühle Watercolour Book
First off, the Watercolour Book. This is an “A6″ (actual dimensions 4 1/4 x 6 1/16”) portrait sketchbook with a lightly textured 200 GSM watercolor paper. I love the unusual textured charcoal grey cloth they used on the cover. At 60 pages, it is nicely slim, and even though the size is a little larger than my usual favorite size, it has attractive proportions and offers a little more real estate on the page while still being very portable. I tested my Winsor and Newton artist grade watercolors and the paper held up well, with no significant buckling. Colors are vibrant, and the pens I tested worked well too. The list price is $17.49, and Amazon currently has it available at $14.00. (Buy at Amazon. Other sizes and landscape orientation also available.)
Hahnemühle Report & Art Book
Next is the Report & Art Book. I guess the name indicates it is a reporter style top opening notebook, but the paper inside is plain, so it can be used in landscape format as well. The red stitching adds a cute detail to the exterior. One other distinguishing characteristic is the fold-back cover. Inside are 64 sheets of 130 GSM paper with a fairly smooth texture. The pocket in the back is a bit small compared to the size of the notebook, which again is said to be A6, but is actually 4 3/8 x 5 15/16″. This paper is toothier and I found it a bit rough an draggy with fountain pens, but they are certainly useable, and didn’t bleed or feather. The Acculiner and Super Sharpie did bleed a little, and I saw more show-through on this paper than with the other sketchbooks in this review. But I still think it’s a pretty good paper for basic sketching with most pencils or pens. The prices I’m seeing online for this are around $20 and up, which seems a bit high to me compared to some of the other items in this review. (Amazon only seems to have the A5 size.)
Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketch Book
The Nostalgie Sketch Book, appropriately, has a very classic feel with a squared off spine and squared corners. (A6, but dimensions are 4 3/8 x 6″) The cover is wrapped with a grey textured paper that sort of has the look of a coarse woven fiber. This has 80 pages of 190 GSM paper with a smooth texture designed for finely detailed ink drawings. I loved the feel of writing in this sketchbook– fountain pens work beautifully, and nothing bleeds through, except for a little spot where I held the Acculiner in place for 5 seconds. This is one of the best papers I’ve tested for show-through, bleed-through, and fountain pen friendliness. The list price for this size is $16.95. (Buy at Amazon. Other sizes also available.)
Hahnemühle Grey Book
The Grey Book is aptly titled, as the cover is grey and the inside pages are also grey. The cover features a sort of wood-grain texture but you see the fibers in the paper, so it also sort of looks like grey flannel. It is an A5 size (6 x 8 7/16″), with 80 pages of smooth 120 GSM paper. I was happy to have a chance to play with my white gel ink pen and marker, as well as using black and white pastels to create shading and highlights. Obviously colored fountain pen inks are not the intended use, but most fountain pens will work pretty well on this paper with zero bleed-through or show-through, but maybe a tiny bit of feathering with really wet inks. I’ve seen prices online ranging from $7.50 to $15 for this size. (Buy at Amazon: A5 or A4. They also make a version with light brown paper, called the Cappuccino Book.)
Page on left is the back of the previous pen test page showing one dot of bleed-through from the Acculiner marker
Hahnemühle Diary Flex
Finally we have the Diary Flex. This notebook features a refillable cover. Inserts can be purchased with blank, lined or dotted pages. The design is quite attractive, with a black faux-leather textured cover and red accents. The inside of the cover has slots for business cards or credit cards, and papers can be tucked in the front and back cover pockets. The top and bottom of the spine are notched so that the headband of the insert shows– this may make the spine less likely to wear at the corners but I can’t decide if I like it. I also don’t love how the elastic closure is anchored at the spine– this leaves the loop flapping around with no place to tuck it out of the way. The paper inside is very smooth, with an ivory tone. At 100 GSM, it feels quite substantial as you turn the pages. The paper feels very smooth and I expected fountain pens to do really well, and for the most part, they did. Just a tiny bit of bleed and feathering only when pressing down to really flex the nib.
The cover and its included refill sell for around $16-20 at most retailers, and the refill notebooks alone are around $7. These seem like a good value, but I’m not sure if the cover is special enough to merit refilling. I do like it, and it seems sturdy enough to last a while, but to me, the point of a refillable notebook is to have a cover made of leather or something that will break in and become more loveable over time, like a Filofax or a Traveler’s Notebook. The refills can’t be used on their own unless you want to look at a very unfinished cardboard exterior with mesh on the spine. But maybe there are other covers that would be compatible? The size is about 4 1/2 x 7 1/2″, so it is an unusual size, but maybe close enough to a Travelers Notebook if you don’t mind a wider cover overhang. (Buy at Amazon.)
Conclusion
All of these Hahnemühle notebooks feel really solidly made, with good attention to detail. They all have more cover overhang than I personally prefer, but everything is symmetrical and squared off and the construction seems precise and high quality. And because Hahnemühle is first and foremost a paper company, they know how to deliver specific paper types that will please artists as well as casual users. Like Stillman and Birn, Hahnemühle offers different textures, weights and colors to work with a range of art media. For me, the Nostalgie and Watercolour books will definitely be in my to-be-used pile, and the Grey Book will also be fun for more experimentation. I’m really pleased with these Hahnemühle sketchbooks and look forward to seeing more of their products in the US market. Check out their website for more details on their various offerings.
Giveaway!
The folks at Hahnemühle also sent me a pack of their Travel Booklets (they’re part of my review from a few years ago), which I will be giving away to a lucky reader:
The giveaway prize is this brand-new, in-wrapper two-pack of Travel Booklets, plus, as a bonus, I will throw in the Diary Flex and Report & Art notebooks tested in this review– just a couple of pages in the back have been used for my pen tests, but they are otherwise in like-new condition.
I will pick one winner from entries received in any of these ways:
On Twitter, tweet something containing “Hahnemühle Sketchbooks @NotebookStories @Hahnemuehleâ€, and follow @NotebookStories and @hahnemuehle
On Instagram, follow @Notebook.Stories and @Hahnemuehle_global and comment on my Hahnemühle giveaway post, tagging a friend and adding a hashtag of your favorite adjective describing the Hahnemühle notebook. (Example: “@myfriendsally #fountainpenfriendlyâ€)
On your blog, post something containing the words “Hahnemühle Sketchbooks†and “Notebook Stories†and link back to this post, also leaving a comment below with the link in case the trackback doesn’t work.
Please note that the prize can only be shipped to a US address. The deadline for entry is Friday June 14, 2019 at 11:59PM, EST. Please allow a couple of weeks for me to announce a winner. Good luck everyone!
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…
