There’s something I have to confess. I’m easily distractible and if I write on a computer I find myself checking my email, googling facts that I think will support my thesis but that really only end up hooking me in to read others’ blog posts, and clicking on links. I even have to hide my iPhone so I won’t get sucked into a game of Words With Friends. In short, the only way I get any writing done is to step away from the gadgets. And the only way I can generate ideas when I’m stuck is to write them out. I can’t help it. I think with my hands. My brain only works in conjunction with pen and paper, partly because I love to touch. The messier my notes, the happier my muse. There’s nothing I love more than notebooks and there’s nothing more interesting to me than other artists’ notebooks. It’s like getting a peek into their brains. For inspiration’s sake, here is a compendium of other artists’ notebooks.
Flavorwire’s Slide Show of the notebooks of famous writers and artists
William S. Burroughs’ Scrapbook
Storyboards from Hitchcock’s The Birds and Saboteur (via La Cinémathèque française)
The medieval sketchbooks of Villard de Honnecourt, a 13th Century French artist only known for his notebooks.
These absolutely gorgeous Polaroids by Andrei Tarkovsky show us how he was constantly training his eye even when off the set. They’re also proof positive that even the most humble medium — there was a time when no one took Polaroids seriously –, can be the vehicle for great art.
While some of Goya’s drawings of war are justifiably famous, his sketches show him just practicing his craft, reminding us that all those mindless jottings that we keep in a drawer are just as necessary for developing our skills as the stuff we polish until it gleams.