Earlier this year, actor Douglas Taurel presented a one-man show based on the World War I diary of a soldier named Irving Greenwald, which is part of a collection at the Library of Congress. The diary itself is quite amazing: look at the tiny print squeezing all that text into pocket size pages! Read more … Continue reading Irving Greenwald’s World War I Diary→
For fans of the Discworld series and Terry Pratchett‘s other books: Doodle-covered exercise books that belonged to a schoolboy Sir Terry Pratchett have come to light and reveal he already had many ideas for his early stories.They provide a fascinating, rare insight into the legendary late author’s creative process as he allowed his mind to … Continue reading Terry Pratchett’s School Notebooks →
I had heard of Lee Lozano but didn’t really know much about her until reading this article in The Brooklyn Rail about the publication of her notebooks. I was inspired to purchase two volumes of the notebooks (Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 are available on Amazon) out of curiosity about their contents, and also because … Continue reading Lee Lozano’s Notebooks in Facsimile Editions→
I came across a very interesting blog called Northing and Easting, which is described as “A blog about mapping, surveying, geospatial technology and the history of the topographic sciences.” Of particular interest was a post about the use of field notebooks: In the olden days (like, up until the 1980s) field notebooks were a staple … Continue reading On Using Field Notebooks→
A poignant artifact from the Cambridgeshire Community Archive: an amazingly well-preserved World War I diary. Eric Gardiner was the youngest son of F J Gardiner, owner and editor of the Wisbech Advertiser (now the Fenland Citizen).  Eric joined up when war was declared and from the moment of his arrival in France up to his death in 1915 he … Continue reading Eric Gardiner’s World War I Diary→
Illustrator/animator Ian Berry is another NYC urban sketcher with some lovely small on-site drawings: His Instagram account also shows off some colorful paintings in small sketchbooks. Read more at: Tribeca Citizen | The Sketchbooks of Ian Berry
On my trips to Paris, I found myself almost too paralyzed to sketch because there was so much to look at. But Juan Carlos Figuera doesn’t have that problem! Here are a couple of my favorites from his Instagram posts: Venezuelan urban sketcher Juan Carlos Figuera documents the streets of Paris with expressive watercolor paintings. … Continue reading Juan Carlos Figuera’s Urban Sketching in Paris→
This week’s addict posted this image on Tumblr, commenting This is my hoard of journals. It’s probably safe to say I’m obsessed… I love how no two are alike, and yet the collection looks so great together, with a beautiful color palette and complementary designs.
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…