Sketchbooks, notebooks how I love them all

And how I begin playing with the new ones

A rabbit came all the way up to our patio one morning this week…

… and was included in my sketchbook page, anonymously of course.

I had already begun painting the brown snail shell in my sketchbook so the rabbit needed to have colors contrasting to the shell. The sketchbook in the photo below is the “anything goes” sketchbook you've seen most often in my posts.

Because several of you have requested it: this post contains the nitty-gritty about the various blank books (sketchbooks and notebooks) I use and the hows, whys and what-fors of them - including links (the bold type) for more details about those book brands. I am not affiliated with any of these blank book brands, nor do I benefit from the links - I include them only in a ‘show your sources’ sort of way.

My anything goes A.M. sketchbook is a 3.5 x 5.5 inch size made by Royal Talens and it has paper sturdy enough to handle lots of watery inks or gouache paints. For example the snail shell has at least 4 or 5 layers of color on it - which I did a bit at a time while eating breakfast. I work in a rhythm: sip coffee, paint a little, eat a bite or two, sip coffee, paint a little, eat a bite, sip coffee… and so on until breakfast is done. Why do morning sketching in an “anything goes” book? To welcome my days gently, slowly and benevolently.

When breakfast is finished I stop painting - even if the art is unfinished - and leave my book open to dry and be ready to play with the next morning. The photo below is of the finished drawing.

This week

J. L. Sullens

got some new blueberry bushes for our backyard.

So I spent time looking at the shapes of the leaves and the berries.

With blueberries on my mind during another morning I drew some blueberries and a bear character in my pro-democracy blue art sketchbook.¹

This is a different sketchbook from the anything goes A.M. one you usually see in this newsletter. It's the same size 3.5 x 5.5 inches but it's the Art Alternatives Pen and Ink brand - which means it's fine for my fountain pen inks and ink washes but will not work well for my gouache paints. Even with the ink washes I can't get too wet with it or the paper buckles too much. Still the book is such a good quality for my fountain pen inks that I'm dedicating its pages to my thoughts and found quotes about democracy and community. Why? Because the U.S. governmental democracy is under siege just now and I want to remember and think about the values and virtues of democracy. I'm finding it soothing to have calm musings on this topic in one place.

As I've shared my pages from this book online some friends have asked me to make t-shirts with these artworks on them. So now on my Zazzle shop I have a “Pro-Democracy Art” collection - which I'll add more to over time. (Link here)

I worked over several mornings on the page pictured with the support of our cat.

In a third sketchbook - another Royal Talens brand sketchbook sized 4.7 x 4.7 inches square - I've been writing my original limericks and other very short poems and stories. Why? To play around with words and images - silliness with no motive other than to make myself laugh. Here's an example.

I have a forth blank book dedicated to collecting favorite family kitchen cooking recipes. Why? Because YUM!

It's a 3.5 x 5 inch Baron Fig brand book - the pages handle ink and light applications of gouache paints very well. I'm still updating this book with new recipes now and then plus I use it to cook from. The book opens flat, and stays open without clips, while in use. I keep it handy in the bookshelf between our kitchen and dining room - it's used that often. Here's a look at the book cover and some pages inside.

I've published a portion of this recipe sketchbook as a book titled “Favorites So Far” - a printed version is here or see the footnotes at the bottom of this post for a free downloadable ebook version.² Here's a photo of the printed book.

In a recent newsletter I shared that I'd gotten a new blank book at my locally owned stationary shop Eryngium Paperterie. It's slightly bigger than my usual bear, I mean book, at 4.25 x 6.75 inches wide and tall and it's a glorious 1 inch thick!! The brand is About Blanks and I guess it has almost 500 pages in it! I'll be able to live with it for a long time! Wahoo!!!

When I begin any new book besides taking the sales wrapper off I turn to a page in the back of the book - not the very back page but within the last two or three book pages. There I test a variety of my favorite pens, inks and paints so I can see what will or won't work on the new pages - and I leave room to test other pens, inks and paints as time goes by. The test pages become a sort of reference index I can refer to over the life of my work in that particular book. Here's the test page I started in my new About Blanks book…

… after the tested inks and paints are dry I turn the page over to see if anything bled through. I notice that the ink-wash test area buckles - but the applied-more-dryly paint test area did not. So I conclude that too much watery-wash will not work on this paper and I'll need to work more dry than wet. As I turn the page over I notice I can see through the paper. While nothing bleeds through the “ghost image” could be a problem if I were to photograph and share any of these pages. Knowing me sharing is highly likely so I conclude that the paper in this book is a work-on-one-side-only sort.

After doing the test pages in the back I give my new book a name on the first or second page which becomes a title page. Since the About Blanks company reuses old book covers the naming of my book is easy. Here's a look at the book spine….

… and here's the title page I made.

Now I have a new friend, so to speak, to get to know better over time. I like the “ordinary miscellaneous” notion I have as a result of the title. It feels open ended, normal and full of potential and I like that feeling. I also like the feel of the tactile book itself and it's “worn denim jeans” look which makes me think pleasantly of slower more relaxing times.

I have no idea what I will do in these pages but the book calls to me in both the conceptual and physical senses - the very attributes I look for in a new blank book!

BTW I typically begin filling pages inside a new blank book by opening to a random page in the middle of the book and making my marks there rather than starting on the page after the title page. It's less intimidating this way. But the exception, of course, is a sequentially dated journal.

There are many benefits of having and using multiple blank books³ but the one I value most is the ability to collect and sort myself out in a variety of gentle ways … my books become a sort of Labrador Retriever for my spirit.

ICYMI - I was interviewed by

Allie

at

Introspective Ink

this week and I was asked about my childhood, my influences, current struggles… and I told everything. Allie did an amazing job with both the questions and pairing my artworks with my responses. You can see it here. 👇

Interview with Sue Clancy

Thanks for reading!! I hope you have many blank books that you can love and fill with love too!⁴

1. By fan request I've begun putting my pro-democracy sketches on t-shirts… soon there will be cards and cups too added to the collection here 👇

https://www.zazzle.com/collections/pro_democracy_art-119014308084177031

2.

3. An article on using multiple sketchbooks for different purposes by

Amy Stewart

- thank you again to

Diane’s Blue Forum

who recommended it! It really is a good one!

Notebooks Are Like Shoes, You Need More Than One Kind

4