Roy Lichtenstein is best known for his Pop Art comic book style works, so I was quite surprised to come across this page from one of his sketchbooks, which is now in the collection of the Whitney Museum. Not comic-y at all, these seem to be studies of perhaps architectural moldings and patterns. I was … Continue reading Roy Lichtenstein’s Sketchbook
How’s everyone doing? Are you staying home? Are you writing a lot? Drawing? Filling notebooks to fill your time? Recording what life is like during this historic pandemic? These are such strange times. I’ve stopped carrying a bag or any notebooks with me when I do my weekly grocery run so I’ll have less stuff … Continue reading Notebooking through the Pandemic
I have a couple of Moleskine’s Japanese Albums, but I’ve never actually used one. The elongated spread of pages always seems daunting to me, but I love to see the way other artists take advantage of this format. American illustrator Chris Russell is one of the best I’ve seen. Large narrative paintings by seventeenth century … Continue reading Chris Russell’s Humanity Notebooks
Ok, maybe it seems a little crazy but this is a serious question: should we be thinking about disinfecting notebooks during this Coronavirus pandemic? (The same question would apply to pens.) Imagine you are sitting in a cafe, writing in your notebook. You set it on the tabletop. What if the person sitting there before … Continue reading Disinfecting Notebooks
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
Yoseka Stationery is a wonderful little independent stationery shop in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens, NYC. I visited the shop about a year ago and had a great chat with the owners, Daisy and Neil. I bought my Kokuyo Sketch Book there, as well as some ink. (I felt like I’d showed admirable restraint, given … Continue reading Yoseka Notebook Review
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
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