LookatBook.com is a really cool concept and a great site. Well designed and planned out. Each spread in the shared sketchbook/journal is fantastically done. Head to the site and read the about page and see what it’s all about.
Check out these sweet little sketches on Linda T’s Sketches and Drawings blog. She clearly spends a lot of time drawing and coloring those drawings. I’m a big fan of this style- lines drawn in ink and then watercolor or color applied after. However the activity of her black and white lines is what makes the images come alive. Either way these are some fantastic sketches- lively colorful and enjoyable. What a great way to spend an hour!
I occasionally get feedback from people who buy my books on how they like them, use them and things I could do better. I got one a few days ago from someone who buys my books on eBay and uses them as I do on a regular basis. Here’s what he had to say:
Leslie: I worked Saturday till
3AM, then tonight till midnight. A GREAT HELP was one of your jotter
notebooks. I was formulating a new *** ****** product our company
already has orders for. Moving between the lab and the warehouse,
applying the stuff, making observations and changes, and with all the
junk sitting around, it was impossible to use a full-size notebook to
write in. The jotter was perfect, and everything involving the new
chemical that arrived on Friday is in that little book–which would be
worth a pretty penny to a few people I know of. — D
I love getting emails like that. First it tels me I’m doing something right with my books and tells me that I’m not the only one who uses my little notebooks regularly. OKay so I use it like I’m addicted to it, but I’m okay with that.
He’s using one of these:
But maybe in a different color.
I decided that I would do some testing of the new Staples brand paper, which I have from a reliable source is manufactured for them by a major paper brand. (I’ll do a post on that soon.)
So I tested the 3 papers I wrote about in my previous post here.
The first paper I tested was Staples brand 65lb coverstock. It’s thick, stiff and smooth. It’s quite enjoyable to write on, accepts all inks well without noticeable feathering or strikethrough.
The next paper was the Staples brand 5 squares per inch graph paper. As much as I don’t like to sew it up into a book I was surprised at how much I liked writing on it. The paper is very lightweight, very smooth and takes ink well. I noticed a little feathering with the fountain pen and the Staedtler liquid point. There was also a lot of strike through with most pens, however the following pens showed little to no strike through- Uniball Jetstream- all colors and the space pen. The thicker pens with more liquid ink had more strikethrough.
The next paper was the Staples brand 20lb paper in cream. I found little strike through on the paper with the exception of a red liquid ink pen in .7mm. I should check it out with a thicker fountain pen and see what happens. Again I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this paper was to write on. While not the same experience as a Strathmore 100% cotton it as a very nice feeling paper with all the pens. The fountain pen ran smoothly over the surface and the more fluid inks didn’t feather, with the exception of the red ink, which gives even the thickest of papers trouble.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and enjoyability of the Staples brand paper. I found the coverstock to be more pleasant than some of the other cardstock I’ve used for hedgehogs. All papers were listed as acid free on the package.
Earlier this year I went to Maine to visit my family and take a brief vacation from work. I had made a sketchbook filled with 140lb 100% cotton paper. It was awesome to work with, the combination of the paper and the handmade book made it easy to draw what I wanted to and add the color I wanted. See below for few pictures of the book.
I’ve always been a fan of the 1000Journals
project by someguy. I first noticed it years ago and I’ve noticed it in the
blogs again. If your into art journaling, sketching and well designed journals
check out the site and look at the plethora of images.
Lifehack.org has an article up about energy sinkholes, things that sap time and energy away from the important stuff. This adapts and relates to all things, even art. I took a look at the sinkholes and which of them keep me out of my studio and it was interesting to think that I subscribe or do so many of them. I like to think of myself as an intelligent person but looking at the stark list of these sinkholes I had to think to myself how could I do them and not even realize it?
So my list is pretty basic. These are all things that I do that keep my out of the studio. I have see how scheduling things for my “free” time has given me some freedom as to the chains that kept me shackled to my computer all night. For instance this blog is written mostly on Sundays and some early AM’s before work. I wrote everything up and use typepad’s nifty post scheduler to put my posts out on a schedule. Rather than doing what I used to do for the other blog- either type it up in a word doc and cut and paste it in or put it in and save as a draft and then hope to remember to post it later.
One of the other sinkholes that I’ve been trying to cut back on is TV. With the fall season of shows out all my favorites are on so I’ve been using our DVR to it’s fullest. I record the shows that I like, skip those I don’t and watch only the show itself and skip all the ads. A 1 hour show really now only lasts 40 minutes. I’ve also been trying to cut back on the amount of shows that I watch, but with a lot of new shows out that I like I’m having a hard time with that. So my solution is that on Sunday when I do my blogging to multitask and bring my laptop into the living room and blog on the couch. At least that way I’m combining 2 time sinks into one.
So now that I’m thinking about how I’m killing my free time I’m more aware of it.
I was surfing the internet and I found the blog of Susan Cornelis and all I could say is wow. The address of her blog is http://susancornelis.wordpress.com/ She does a lot of sketches, interior, exterior and sumi ink drawings. Her use of color is evocative and makes her images pop. Her use of line is fantastic as well. Her image filled blog will keep one busy for hours and it’s the sort of blog that you can’t just walk away from, you feel like you have to keep looking.
I don’t have pictures yet but I bought more graph paper, so I made a metric ton of graph paper jotters. They came out great. I also stitched up a lot of blocks for hedgehogs- 8 with 65 lb super stiff cover stock in cream, 120 pages in 6 signatures. The blocks came out really nice. Later this week I’ll be gluing them up and cutting covers.
I’m also working on some of the journals I used to make- leather with paper backing and super nice paper inside. Yeah baby. I’ll get some pics up tomorrow.
The book press below might not be pretty but I’m sure it’s plenty serviceable and would give anyone the amount of pressure they need to press up a few hedgehogs. I found it on this website. And it’s currently for sale.
It’s made from a pipe clamp- readily available from any woodworking store or big box building store like Home Depot. Most pipe clamps can be bought in the pieces and you then buy the pipe to mount the clamping pieces and the system works through leverage. After sliding the top clamp into place you then screw the turn screw to create the tight pressure. Because you can buy pipe in any length this is a great design to work with- the only limit to the stack is how high you want to go. I wouldn’t suggest going over 16 inches, but that’s a lot of books. Hurrah for a binder thinking outside the box and making something that works, is relatively inexpensive and provides more than enough clamping pressure for the home binder.
