Calmness, Mindfulness, Meditation and Tranquility -- Sketchbook no. 68

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted a sketchbook! Maybe one day I will post about numbers 64 – 67 but probably not.

This is a Midori sketchbook that I bought on my amazing trip to Japan which I loved. It’s ideal for fountain pens and that’s the bulk of what I used in here. The paper is thin but super nice, and colors pop on the slightly creamy stock. I’ve had Midori sketchbooks before but this one was slightly bigger, 5.8” x 8”. I carried this around with me from April to November this year.

I love how plain and minimal these sketchbooks are, with a simple taped spine. It’s almost like a coverless Moleskine. The different styles (lined, gridded, blank) have different colored bookmarks. The thin yellow one in this one is a nice touch. I did badly miss having a back pocket though, and I like when sketchbooks have those vertical bellyband-closer things, to keep the sketchbook from flopping open, though those do get pretty tattered and loose after a while and I usually end up ripping them out anyways.

Artistically, I feel kinda meh about the stuff this one is filled up with. Mostly when I flip through it it seems like wasted time in a depressing way? Like there are a lot of youtuber portraits and mindless doodles from when I was procrastinating from working. I need a real project soon, like paintings or a comic, but my energy level isn’t there. Maybe an xbox will solve my problems. Well, enjoy flipping through these, and if you’re interested in a Midori sketchbook then they get a full Spina recommendation. Solid!

In the Shadow of Man -- Sketchbook no. 61

This sketchbook might look familiar, as it’s the exact same as MOONBURN, the sketchbook I completed last year and posted about previously…. Well it should because this one was a free replacment of that MOONBURN sketchbook! Right when I took off the shrink-wrap I noticed that MOONBURN’s spine was coming apart a little. It didn’t strike me as a big deal and it was totally still usable (obviously,) BUT I came across a card in the Moleskine’s back pocket that went on and on about their quality control and to contact them if you have any problems… so I did! And then they sent be a new one. It really worked out for me! Moral of the story is to complain more : )

What am I talking about. Anyways, this is a small 4.5” x 7” hardbound sketchbook with thick semi-smooth paper that’s nice enough to allow you to use both sides. I named it after the best photograph I’ve ever taken that’s taped to the cover starring America’s Sweetheart, Sugar Cookie. I started this one on September 25th, 2021 and finished February 24th, 2022.

I have a lot of fountain pen memories while flipping through this sketchbook. Lot’s of new ink colors and pens… also we had a few fun trips that left their mark in here. We Visited Sonoma and stayed with our friend and previous neighbor on New Years, and we took a Portland trip to visit our college friends in January. Also the LA Rams won the Superbowl and I have some confetti from their victory parade taped in here! Very nice sketchbook overall, I’d definitely get another on of these one day, but maybe the standard 5x8 size.

He's a Honker -- Sketchbook no. 60

This sketchbook is made my Leda Art Supply. I started it January 21st, 2021 and finished it 8 months later on September 22nd, 2021. It’s pretty big for me, 7.5” x 10”, which makes it probably the biggest sketchbook I’ve had in like 10 years. It was a gift from my brother-in-law’s family.

If I were to describe this sketchbook in one word it would be “smooshy.” I actually really like the soft cover, the elastic strap, and the huge pocket in the back, but the paper is really thick and soft. After its been used the pages kinda spread, so it doesn’t lay flat. That’s a bad way to describe it, I’ll take a pic to show you what I mean.

See? You can squish it to half the size. The paper itself isn’t my favorite… it’s really soft! It can take washes, markers and ink well, but everything soaks into the paper in a way that makes me personally feel DRIED OUT. This sketchbook left me parched. After a while I ended up loving having so much room for comics, and since the bleed through was pretty bad with fountain pen ink (which is all I’ve been using since the pandemic), I didn’t want to use the other side of the pages… so I taped in tons of what I call my “Clippings”, random doodles on pads that I use for work notes. Some of my favorite drawings in this sketchbook are the clippings. Overall, I enjoyed how different this one was for me and can definitely see the general appeal of this sketchbook, but after lugging it around for 8 months I’m definitely ready to go back to something slimmer.

Also, Me -- Sketchbook no. 59

Also, Me
Sketchbook no. 59
Worked on November 12th, 2020 to January 21st, 2021

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This is an A6 sized Hobonichi sketchbook I bought on Jetpens. I knew it would be small, but it’s REALLY SMALL! Like, 4” x 6”. I’ve had A6 sized sketchbooks before because I love tiny things and draw small anyways, but this book took some getting used to… mostly because the paper is super thin. I got this one because I love the two tone cover color and it’s good for fountain pens, which is what I mostly used to fill this up. The paper is very smooth, so not great for pencils, especially if you want to erase a lot, because the paper crinkles easily (because it’s so thin!).

Hobonichi is more known for making journals, so it would probably work better as a daily planner type thing than a sketchbook. It’s also too expensive! $15 for this tiny thing? Nah man. Not for me. The perk of not really liking a sketchbook is that I fill it up fast and loose to get it over with, which lead to some interesting pages.

MOONBURN -- Sketchbook no. 58

MOONBURN
SKETCHBOOK no. 58
Worked on July 5th, 2020 – November 12th, 2020

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Welcome to my sketchbook blog! This is where I hope to post galleries from my sketchbooks as I complete them, and maybe even go back and add old ones. I’m an avid sketchbook-er and love trying different brands of varying sizes and styles to keep it interesting and HERE is where I will talk about them and share how I use them.

The first thing I do when I get a new sketch book is name and number it, and this is the 58th book I’ve completed since I started numbering my sketchbooks in college. This is a smallish Moleskine Sketchbook, 4.5” x 7”, hardbound with nice enough paper that I could draw on both sides. I used to love Moleskine’s when I first heard about them, but haven’t used one in years and years until I picked this one up. I really liked it! As you can tell flipping through these images, I pretty much stuck to one pen for this whole book because it is one of my favorites and felt VERY good to use on this paper: the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, which actually seems pretty hard to find nowadays?

About halfway through this book I ordered an entry level fountain pen (a Pilot Metropolitan ) and that sparked my current obsession with them, which you will see when I finish my current sketchbook… As for the content of Moonburn, I was months deep in quarantine and flipping through you can tell that most of the faces you see are drawn from work related video chats, my only form of socialization.

Overall, I really enjoyed this sketchbook. It was a good size, and it had been a while since I used a ‘premium’ book like this, and reveled in it’s quality! The paper was so nice and it really inspired me to fill it up quickly with tons of tiny lines. OH, also, I found that old driver’s license on the sidewalk and taped it in my book. Isn’t that cool?! It’s so old. Moonburn is dedicated to Carmen Wong, I hope she’s thriving.