Feeding sketchbooks, notebooks

With the days

I've been asked how I come up with the phrases I handwrite in my sketchbook pages that I share here. As a complete reply to that question in this newsletter I'll include photos, descriptions as well as a downloadable ebook of one of my sketchbooks, titled Another Sketchbook, which further describes, with illustrations, my thinking …

I'll start with how I got to this particular sketchbook page that I did one morning recently.

Here goes:

Every day I hear or read stuff, in real life, online and in printed forms. I make note in my notebook in a category labled “overheard/read" of something that caught my attention. Sometimes I paraphrase in my own words what I read or heard. Sometimes I quote directly with attribution. Each day in my notebook on the same page I also record 7 things I saw or noticed and I make notes of 7 things I did.

Look at the page in the photo above labled Aug 11, 2023 - in the “Overheard/read” category I wrote a paraphrase of what I read on one of the newsletters by

Austin Kleon

as well as a direct quote from him. As you'll see shortly the paraphrase is what makes it's way into my sketchbook …

My notebook is small, about 3 x 5 inches, roughly the same size as my sketchbook. Typically I write in my notebook, seen on the left in the photo below, in the evenings and I draw and write in my sketchbook, seen on the right, in the mornings.

This gives me time to think about a subject and sleep on it overnight. Sometimes something I had written in either the “did" or the “saw/noticed” category will be reflected in the drawing I do in the mornings. When I wrote, the evening of Aug 11, about seeing a monarch butterfly I didn't mention that it had alighted on one of the large river rocks in our garden but it had. So the butterfly on the rocks was on my mind when I did my morning drawing. Somehow when I began drawing the butterfly became a bird, the rocks were imaginatively stacked and other elements from our garden were added, albeit in odd scales, and the concept I gleaned from Austin Kleon, which I'd paraphrased in the Aug 11 “overheard/read” category, got adjusted… Essentially my sketchbook page became its own thing the morning of Aug 12.

So that's generally how my sketchbook/notebook process goes.

I feed both my notebooks and sketchbooks with whatever I read and experience within a day.

I cannot stress enough how important reading and making daily notes is to all of my creative output.

Here's a newsletter I enjoyed recently about reading and making notes by

Ted Gioia

- in Ted's newsletter I recognized myself and my way of reading and note making.

How I Take Notes

There are as many ways of keeping a sketchbook/notebook as there are people so for additional fun here are some other newsletters I've read and enjoyed recently that are also on the topic of keeping notebooks - they're by

Weirdo Poetry

,

Cook & Tell

and

Jillian Hess

Notes, Notebooks, and Notetakers

sketchbook stories: ebb & flow

Let's Talk Notes: How Do You Organize Quotations?

Anyhoo, back in 2020, during the worst of Covid19, my notebook/sketchbook process got adjusted, refined and honed. My 2020 sketchbook is called “Another Sketchbook: more drawings from the heart”. That same year I made a printed reproduction of my 2020 sketchbook which is only slightly larger than my original sketchbook. The 84 page printed reproduction is on the left and the original to the right.

Here are some more pages from inside Another Sketchbook… you can also see a full preview of the entire book reproduction for free here. Below are photos of my original sketchbook

Below the paywall is a downloadable ebook version of Another Sketchbook.

I hope you'll enjoy seeing it!

If you've been meaning to upgrade to a paid subscription, today would be a good day to do so - Another Sketchbook is a milestone in the process of how I came to do creativity like I do. It's the full monty on my thoughts about reading and mental health. Thank you for your support - I'm grateful because you help me keep doing what I’m doing with this community and my newsletter.

Okay, on with Another Sketchbook…(again, if you want to preview before you download 84 pages click here).