My new sketchbook, which uses the cover of Shivers by William Schoell. The cover features a painting of a gargoyle on a roof done in a warm grey palette. A green mist winds around the gargoyle and down to the bottom of the cover. The title is printed in large gold foiled lettering behind the gargoyle.
I love making book covers out of things that otherwise would have ended up in the trash, so I couldn't pass on one of these handmade book-sketchbooks from Arsenik Press. I don't have the time or energy to bind a new sketchbook right now, so I was happy to buy this one because it's still handmade and (importantly) it looks cool.
I love the ridiculousness of 80s book covers: the typography, the painting style, the corny catchphrases, the whole thing. The jacket synopsis is as follows:
Deep beneath the city streets lurks a creature hideous beyond description, powerful beyond imagining, a creature so dangerous that it can destroy its victims by the virulence of its thoughts.
The emanations of its computer-like brain invade every sanctuary, searching for those it would destroy. It is remorseless, cunning and inhuman. The pitiful human weaklings it has chosen as prey shudder with terror and disgust, but there is no escape from the ultimate torture that is far worse than death, unless...
The first spread of the new book. I've drawn some of my supplies on the first page. The book also came with an informational insert, which I taped to the endpaper.
Transcript of insert
Cover Shivers
William Schoell 1985
Cover artist Uncredited
Paper Fabriano 1264 Watercolor 140lb
I stole the idea to draw/paint an overview of my current favorite supplies on the first page from Apple Pine. I always struggle with what to put on the first page of a sketchbook, so I like this exercise. There's no pressure to make a masterpiece, and it helps give the sketchbook... context? I guess? My previous big sketchbook was a little more clinical because I was still relearning how to use one, but I'm hoping future books will be a bit more diary-esque.
My current supply rotation includes some stuff that I haven't found the time to talk about yet, so I'll merge that into this post while it's relevant.
I haven't posted any new coding projects in a very long time, but I've been gradually chipping away at a concept that longtime readers will know by its working (joke) title of "Walmart Toyhouse," from the character management website Toyhouse. In theory, Walmart Toyhouse is a self-hosted character management script with enough automation that it's easy to maintain without being unnecessarily dense or hard to customize. I say "in theory" because progress on the code stalled for a while.
For me, the ideal character management system needs the following components:
All information is pulled from a central database
Page templates that you can reuse and reformat for multiple characters
Some form of organization (folders)
Galleries auto-populate from one central image database
It's not a complex idea on paper, but I didn't make much progress on it because I got stuck on implementing stuff like custom fields into a database. I also thought I had to code a browser interface for the whole thing, and that's a can of worms that I didn't have the energy to open (especially for a project with this many moving parts). So Walmart Toyhouse has been languishing in development hell for a very long time.
Cut to December 2024. I saw a post from Armaina floating the idea of a PHP and CSV character repository, and it singlehandedly solved nearly every problem I was having with my original conception of this code.
The pen I commissioned from Rubato. It's a clear demonstrator with plants embedded in the resin and a green grip section.
I've been enamored with Rubato Pens for a while now and finally took the plunge on commissioning a pen a few weeks ago. And now it is here!
Rubato is operated by one woman, Emi, who makes fountain pens, nib holders, and other trinkets. Her pens are made of resin with decorative inclusions that give them a distinctive look (plants, glitter, charms). They're beautiful little art pieces in of themselves, but I was primarily drawn to their functionality. They take dip nibs!
Tragic: I wanted to draw nice leather shoes but then I had to draw people attached to the shoes. And then clothes attached to the people.
A monochrome sketch of Ian sitting on a chair with his left arm draped over the back. His posture is slouched, and he's sitting with his legs spread. He wears a white shirt, dark blazer and slacks, and leather lace-up shoes.
A monochrome sketch of Bruno sitting on a stool with his left foot propped up against the footrest. His arms are crossed and resting on his thighs. He wears a black turtleneck and necklace under a white suit. He also wears a dark coat draped over his shoulders and leather ankle boots.
A photo of my full-sized watercolor sketchbook. It's hand-bound with orange, yellow, and green thread. The cover is wrapped in lemon-print paper.
I only have a few pages left in my big watercolor sketchbook. This is an accomplishment for me because I usually have a hard time finishing sketchbooks, and I'm actually happy to look at this one despite not really using it for anything particularly fancy. It also means I have to think about making or buying a new one soon.
Liz Steel has a great post on this topic, How to Choose a Sketchbook. In the interest of thoroughness, I'll talk about the criteria she uses in her post.
