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!
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.
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.
Kirsty Hall has 10 tips for artists. It’s a great list and everybody should head over and read it.
Excerpt below:
4: Love Your Process
I’ve seen far too many people, particularly at art school, endlessly
struggling with a medium or form that they just don’t enjoy. Why? Art
is hard enough without handicapping yourself with a process that
doesn’t excite you. You need a certain amount of joy to get through all
the bits that you don’t like, so don’t lumber yourself with a form that
just doesn’t do it for you – it’s not noble, it’s just masochistic!
For some reason #4, quoted above really resonated with me. Why was it in art school that I forced myself to labor over acrylics on canvas when I hated it and beat myself up for not using oils? I should have spent my time creating book art, books, sketches and watercolors. I can only imagine the artist I would be now if I focused my time and effort- 4 years worth, on art that I loved!
Don’t think of what you should have done do it.
Maybe the next time you journal you can choose a new identity to force yurself into a new way of thought? that’s what the journaler and blogger here thought up. Check out the pic below for an interesting pictorial thought on this idea.
I like the idea, and its a nice way to take an old writing prompt and explore it over again. For those of use who are visual journalers what about drawing or writing in someone else’s style?
This one is for all you GTD addicts and Hipster
PDA users. I was at staples today and I found Hipster PDA 3×5 card wallets,
completely ripped off from the Levenger’s pocket briefcase. Featuring black and
brown leather and a seemingly decent quality. They also have business card
wallets that I couldn’t resist.
I can’t find a link to the Staples version of the 3X5 card case but trust me, it looks JUST like the Levenger case. Probably a lesser quality but still very nice. It retails for $14.99. They had a bunch of other snazzy accessories, notebooks and portfolios. All coordinated in colors and designed to look good on any desk.
*warning Paper geekiness below!
In bookbinding news, Staples has discontinued Wausau’s pastels paper in favor of their own line of paper. The Staples paper is also acid free BUT it only comes in at 20lb, Wausau’s paper was and is 24lb. But Staples now has acid free pastel colored cardstock @ 110lb and wonderfully coverstock @ 65lb. Here’s my one issue with the I would be fine with the change if the Staples brand was in a comparable weight but its 4lbs less, which makes one hell of a difference when writing with a fountain pen.I bought a package to test out and see what it’s like but I’m not holding my breath. What I am excited about is the coverstock. I’ve been looking for a decent coverstock for age that was both cream in color and acid free most brands do not make it. Usually it’s bright white and not acid free. I would suggest that thus far the range of papers they are introducing isn’t comparable to Wausau but Hammermill and because of the acid free labeling on the Staples paper I"d say thus far they are beating them out.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike change?
* a quick check online shows that the Wausau paper is available online, in the colors I use (IVORY) even cheaper than I had been buying it in the stores. So I’m wondering if they are getting rid of all their stock and I’ll never find it again.
I haven’t yet posted anything about my YouTube videos. I’ve started to record myself paging through them, sometimes with music or not. Here’s the first video I did:
