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I use cheap notebooks

tiramisu.bearblog.dev

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Re: I use cheap notebooks

#161

Post by ticviking »

criddell wrote: post #140
LaffertyDev wrote: post #78

It took me a while to get over the fear of destroying/using up nice things. Like enjoying a nice bottle of liquor, or using up a very nice notebook. Eventually I came across the idea that things are meant to be used, and now I'm much more relaxed about damaging/using up the things I own. I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of starting to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new software projec…

> I also just tried out the new "sidekick notepad" from Cortex. Very expensive (overpriced), but I was happy to support their work. The sidekick notepad is a pretty nice idea, but $32 + $12 shipping is a lot for a 60 page pad. I've been using a Notsu dot-grid landscape notepad (great paper!) but it's 8.5" x 5.5". I just wish it was larger. The Sidekick looks like a pretty nice size... How hard is it to get custom pad…

I've had reasonable luck at local print shops. They can do custom sizes in a plastic spiral binding for a reasonable price. I haven't found someone who can do a sewn binding, but I wonder about asking a leatherworker in town if his machine could do 30 pages if I bought a few spare needles.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#162

Post by ticviking »

2b3a51 wrote: post #99
nicbou wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to remember that a nice notebook costs less than a meal at the restaurant.

True. Also an A5 size artist's sketchbook - with hard covers, 120g/m^2 off white paper (will take any pen from Sharpie downwards as well as watercolours) and sewn bindings - can be bought almost anywhere in the UK and costs less than two coffees in a nice cafe (£5). Just keep one with you. PS: I did think that the linked article was going to be about low specification laptops, and was preparing to extol the virtues o…

I mean cheap notebooks and a recycled thinkpad are basically the perfect portable tools for thinking.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#163

Post by egypturnash »

willjp wrote: post #10

Relatable, years after a career change I’m still hoarding nice sketchpads and watercolour paper because anything you do with them has to live up to the material.

no it doesn't

fill them up with shitty studies and sketches

you'll never be able to do work that will "live up to the material" if you don't ever use it

it's just raw materials, leaving them sitting in a closet is a worse insult to them than using them for a shitty sketch, at least from the shitty sketch there's something on it and you learnt a little something from the process of doing it

amateur artists often have this problem, pro artists do not fucking care, we will use that expensive paper to take notes on a phone call if that's what's handy, it does admittedly help if you know damn well that the $100 block of ultra-swank watercolor paper is going to end up being used to make multiple pieces that go for 10x the cost of that, but you can't get there without burning a ton of materials

take out every pad and just draw some kind of scribble on every page, now it's ruined, now start filling up those pages with drawings instead of having a stash in the closet that you never touch because it's Too Good

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#164

Post by smiley1437 »

LaffertyDev wrote: post #78

It took me a while to get over the fear of destroying/using up nice things. Like enjoying a nice bottle of liquor, or using up a very nice notebook. Eventually I came across the idea that things are meant to be used, and now I'm much more relaxed about damaging/using up the things I own. I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of starting to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new software projec…

Nothing quite as sad as perfect, mint-condition camera lenses that never left the box to take any pictures.

“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#165

Post by leroy-is-here »

I used to get hung up over having specific journals for specific thoughts -- one for my projects, one for cool stories, one for whatever else. But eventually I consolidated. I stopped categorizing, I stopped judging, and I just started writing. I guess that's kind of the same blocker as the author, just a different spin.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#166

Post by criddell »

ticviking wrote: post #161
criddell wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also just tried out the new "sidekick notepad" from Cortex. Very expensive (overpriced), but I was happy to support their work. The sidekick notepad is a pretty nice idea, but $32 + $12 shipping is a lot for a 60 page pad. I've been using a Notsu dot-grid landscape notepad (great paper!) but it's 8.5" x 5.5". I just wish it was larger. The Sidekick looks like a pretty nice size... How hard is it to get custom pad…

I've had reasonable luck at local print shops. They can do custom sizes in a plastic spiral binding for a reasonable price. I haven't found someone who can do a sewn binding, but I wonder about asking a leatherworker in town if his machine could do 30 pages if I bought a few spare needles.

The Notsu pad that I like has the pages held in by some glue along the edge. I like it better than a spiral and I think I like it better than the tear-away style that the Sidekick is using. The glue seems relatively easy to do, so all I really need is somebody to print me 12" x 7" dot-grid pages.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#167

Post by egypturnash »

Whatever works I guess. I use nice notebooks with sparkly covers fashioned after lavish 18th-century bindings because I feel like a wizard when I write in them, and that's fun. I have a few nice fountain pens I use for this and most of what I write is the most banal shit imaginable, just to-do lists and whatnot with the occasional longer-form entry reflecting on my day, or a dream log or whatever.

If you have a hoard of nice notebooks you'll never use then either get over this fear of having to use them for Serious Meaningful Things, or find a broke friend who does not have this fear and pass them on.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#168

Post by shidoshi »

Muji notepads (if you're close to a Muji) have the distinction of being both reasonably priced and nice to look at IMHO. They also have a lovely selection of writing instruments of all types.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#169

Post by RadiozRadioz »

fattybob wrote: post #150

Fine choice in notebooks but why are you writing in bear??

I think motivations for wanting to write in Bearblog are quite understandable for somebody in this community. Is there a particular reason why writing in Bearblog would be a surprising and/or bad thing that needs defending?

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#170

Post by postalrat »

utopcell wrote: post #155

Expensive notebooks have the opposite effect on me. When I pick one up, I appreciate the effort that went into making it and the fact that it was designed counter to a bottom-barrel cheap philosophy. This puts me in a mindset to do higher quality work. Its cost never crosses my mind. Sure, moleskine-like notebooks are more expensive than run-of-the-mill Staples ones, but in absolute values, they don't really cost muc…

Would you also appreciate the effort that went into making nice linen or silk when using it to wipe yourself?
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