I was trying to find online images of Van Gogh’s small sketchbooks (the supposed “moleskines”) when I found the images below. The notebook pictured did not belong to Van Gogh, but was rather a sort of logbook kept at a cafe in Arles that Van Gogh visited. The notebook has been cited as evidence for … Continue reading A Notebook with a Link to Van Gogh?
British comedian Abigoliah Schamaun has done 2000 comedy gigs, and filled lots of notebooks with her material. She talks about them below, accompanied by photographs by her boyfriend Tom Watts: “…I’ve written jokes and setlists into vast numbers of notebooks. I have a notebook on me at all times. They are my security blanket. It … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Abigoliah Schamaun
This photo of artist Gary Panter caught my eye– I wish I could get a better look at that little sketchbook! Panter creates art in various media, but the New York Times article this photo accompanies focuses on his new graphic novel, Songy of Paradise. The article notes that he does not use digital tools … Continue reading Gary Panter’s Sketchbook
I lost track of the news about this Kickstarter project in my email inbox, but it’s ending very soon, at Thu, July 20 2017 8:26 AM EDT. They only need about $1500 more in pledges as of this writing. It looks like a cool concept and a quality execution, with formatted pages that provide inspiration … Continue reading The Captains Log Kickstarter, Ending Soon!
Here’s an unusual notebook format: 160 mm x 288 mm, 100 pages, dot grid– meant to fit in front of your computer keyboard. Of course you can also rotate it so the wire-o binding is at the top. I like the idea that it will lie flat on your desk, but as the illustration shows, … Continue reading Panobook Notebook
This book looks great– an entire graphic novel in facsimile notebook form: My Favorite Thing is Monsters “Set in the same 1960s Chicago where Ferris spent her youth, the book’s main character is Karen Reyes, a 10-year-old obsessed with movie monsters…. The central gimmick of the comic is that Karen is the cartoonist behind its … Continue reading “My Favorite Thing is Monsters,” a Graphic Novel by Emil Ferris
Here’s something a bit different, a notebook that incorporates recycled sails and sailing rope: “With the look, feel, and design of a traditional black notebook, the Cape Horn notebook reimagines used sails from the world’s most epic sailing expeditions as the ultimate storytelling tool. The notebooks, which contain fragments of a sails that have traveled … Continue reading The Cape Horn Notebook, Made with Recycled Sails
You can find some amazing things in online archives. Below are some pages from a sketchbook by a botanist named Roland Thaxter, who lived from 1858-1932 (read more about him here). The actual sketchbook is in a library at Harvard, but it is shared via The Biodiversity Heritage Library, which “works collaboratively to make … Continue reading Roland Thaxter’s Sketchbook, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library
I’d love to see this in person– this art installation is a glowing flat circle that turns out to be made of thousands of recycled notebooks! “Commissioned by Azkuna Zentroa, Luzinterruptus crafted Denboran Zehar for the 10th anniversary of Gutun Zuria (Bilbao Internacional Literature Festival) in April 2017. In light of the anniversary, the designers … Continue reading Glowing Circle Made of Notebooks
David Sedaris has a new book out called Theft By Finding, which contains entries from diaries he’s kept from 40 years, including while he was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. The diaries themselves are quite interesting– he made many of them himself and decorated the covers: Read more at: David Sedaris: The … Continue reading David Sedaris’ Diaries