a currently inked!! some of these have been inked since december, but i haven't used them in my copy paste book yet so... i'm not done with them. also i included the dip pen and two kakuno nibs, since i've been starting to use those much more in my journal
its kind of hard to get my phone camera to focus properly on the ink colours... they look more accurate in the close up photos?
also, please... feel free to ask about anything if you can't read it haha; my handwriting isn't particularly good in this one
hii, would like to know what books you use, if you're okay with sharing that
hi hello! thank you for asking because this made me realise i never actually got around to making a post about all my notebooks?? oops...
this is certainly a longer post than you bargained for since i decided to take the opportunity to go for it and just explain it all... so a tldr is that, for the most part, it's hobonichi a5 and a6 grid notebooks with original tomoe river paper (i dont have any of these with sanzen) for notebooks, whatever single signature notebook i feel like using for my journal, and the hobonichi weeks.
but!! if you would care for like, actual details and uses (and aren't scared off by how long this is oh my god) here are the details:
i have a hobonichi weeks mega that i use to track the discord calls between my partner and i, along with what we watch together in the month section. in the standard weeklies i track my health (i am chronically ill and disabled) and then the back pages i use as an actual planner. i do use other parts for list making but that's not really very interesting.
next is my journal, currently the a5 life pistachio (grid) notebook. the last one was a muji a5 grid notebook and i think the next one will be the kleid life a5 notebook (the one with the 2mm grid). this one has been seen a lot on this blog, its the only book i actually decorate and the writing is mostly just stream of consciousness. i actually havent written anything in here since the 10th of april because i've been too entangled with star trek...
next my pocket notebook, a lined midori a7 book (though my next one will be blank). i keep the clip of that platinum preppy in the plastic cover, held in place by the hairband, so that i can just pull the pen out of the cap and write without fumbling. i use this to scratch down things i want to return to, especially while im out of the house.
here we have my sketchbook(s), the very almost full midori md cotton notebook in the strange f0 size, and then the one i will be moving into, also midori md cotton, but the a5 square size. i pretty much exclusively draw in fountain pen, and use fountain pen ink to prepare the pages, so i figured this counts as part of my notebooks.
so now we start with the hobonichi a6/a5 books. first up of these is my copypaste book- i've been calling it that since before i came across the term commonplace, and also i think with the recent shift in how people describe a commonplace book, copypaste seems more effective shorthand to me? but essentially i directly copy things, with a few of my own thoughts in the margins. its also a record of all the pen and ink combinations i use, each one gets a double page in here. i write in my neat print writing for this one. also that's a postcard from stickii club tucked inside the clear cover
this one is dubbed "character thoughts", as it originally was for that, but it also has media alanysis from the midpoint now as well. the character thoughts part is either fanfiction or original fiction stuff, but its all just written as notes (i am not a writer!) the goal for both sections is to have a record i can look back on for my thoughts. analysis sections are sometimes broad and sweeping, like reflections after watching something, and sometimes are meticulous observations where i pause every 30 seconds or so to write something down
this one is very very recent, its kind of the same thing as the previous one, except this one is just for a specific special interest, because it was fully dominating the other book. rather than start a separate section at the mid point though, i just flip the book over. so the fanfiction type things are in the back of the book, but its upside down so i'm still writing left to right as normal.
now we're getting into swatch book territory, which doesn't really count, but at this point i might as well. this one is everything that i have - including ink samples and inks that i have tried but have let move on to someone else. its just for swatching them, not recording anything about them or how i use them. i do the swatches the same exact way with the same exact amount of ink. this is the hobonichi grid a6 with original trp,there's just a postcard on the front
then there's this one, a reference book i'm still filling out, with all the inks i have -not including samples. there's space to write out whenever i put something into a pen, and the swatches are on the edges for easy comparison.
these are two different small notebooks i bound together, from pages in other books. theyre back to back in a midori clear cover. the first is the midori cotton md paper (f0 size). since i use this paper for my sketchbooks i include how the ink reacts to water after its dry. the other is the kleid x life white paper, with a 2mm grid. i think life paper is really cool with fountain pens, and i love how the grid effects some inks but not others
so,
now that i've definitely scared you away with an absolutely excessive answer... i hope that was interesting and or helpful! it was fun to think about how to be as succinct as possible (which still resulted in this many words) and it meant not fully explaining a lot of things, so if there are any questions anyone has, absolutely feel free to ask me!
i ended up getting far more drawn into note taking (both analysis and creative) and so if you've been wondering where my normal journal posts have been... i haven't touched it in 2 weeks! i don't mind much, because all that has been on my mind is (special interest), and i don't want to force journal writing just for the sake of filling space.
anyway, i decided to move (special interest) into an a5 book, all by itself, since it was completely overtaking my standard character thoughts / media analysis a6 book. it's pretty weird to make the transition to a5, but it's working!
you won't be able to read what i'm writing but i thought i could share what it looks like when i write! my hand is very relaxed! and also maybe it makes it clear why i prefer thinner pens, because thicker ones mean i would have to spread out my fingers- no longer neutral
i made a currently inked video, since i don't really see much, if anything, joining this lineup throughout the rest of the month. so if you'd like to hear me talk a little about each combination and watch me write with them! take a look!
a much more gentle and cosy colour palette this time! there was slightly not enough space for everything...
quite sailor heavy this time it seems! wow! the pairings of pens to inks can be found here , and the dates are dominant industry november leaves and colorverse taepyeong seongdae
it was so overcast and rainy yesterday that i couldn't take a great picture (not that i mind, i love rain so much)
i started delineating the passing of days with a line rather than just a space and i think i like that a lot more! and i also put a little tab on the top right for the cross over to a new month
i did also use the irish green twsbi with sailor manyo kuri for the bottom right memo note but i felt like that didn't count
the dates and "may" are with FWP chidori cherry blossom and hampton harbour respectively.
ive started working on my big swatch book again, this time not recording it, since that was really throwing a spanner into the whole operation, and wow! inks! i love them!
i wish there was a good way to take photos of the whole page but, as you can see, doing so just fucks up the contrast on the dark inks and makes them so much darker than they are.
oh btw this is original tomoe river paper; if youre confused about rikyucha and sukigokoro both being so cool toned, they both look very different on sanzen
lots of spring vibes for this spread! the starting piece was the cats memo paper. its overcast today so the lighting is a little weird? oh well.
its a bit of a shame i didn't think to squeeze in a ramen sticker...
the ink for the date was dominant industry unknown land- a really nice brown with some pink chromashading. and, as always, the actual combos of inks to pens can be found here
a much more moody spread! so far everything in this new book has been bright and colourful excitement about the green grid, but i got so drawn the wolf heads in the top left that i went with something darker!
the sakura moonlight in grey is a close enough colour to the blue of the note paper that from some angles its almost invisible but then from others the writing is clearly darker, and others still it's lighter. it's fascinating!
this time there weren't that many pens, since i used the silver kaweco twice and wrote in longer sections. the ink for the dip pen was sailor yurameku yoi <3 my current pen and ink lineup can be found here
another couple days in one, the dreamy mood wasn't planned to go with these past few days but it ended up being very fitting
no dip pen use this time! the dates are using ferris wheel press moss park green and sailor ink studio 252 though! the pens and ink pairings can be found here for anyone curious
you know when you get a bunch on vegetables in your groceries and it makes you very excited? and then also you get two new kawecos? wahoo yippee!
this is actually one of my weakest pages in a while, but i'm also pretty glad that i'm at the point of practice with design that even my weakest aren't bad to look at anymore
edit: ... it was only writing todays date just now, 3 hours after posting this, at least 12 hours after doing it that i realised: i wrote sa24 instead of fr24... in my defense, when i wrote it it had gone past midnight and my laptop said saturday. ... even though i was smart enough to ignore the 25...
so everything can still be found here, though there is now the additions of:
kaweco sport lunar shadow green <f> sailor yurameku amamoyoi
kaweco sport lunar light green <f> tono & lims kaleidoscope awa
i finally got my new sketchbook in the post! and since that also came with my kaweco lunar sports, i got to have left over ink to welcome the sketchbook with! yippee!
the ink is sailor yurameku amamoyoi, my favourite ink and one i only have like 5ml left of
obviously the sketchbook is super diluted with water, but in swatches it really does look both green and pink (and brown and grey and-)
original trp, kleid × life noble white, midori md cotton
i got very excited by the green grid and needed to have something that was all green haha 𐔌՞ ´^ ▿ ^` ՞𐦯 that includes using an ink for the date (and dip pen writing) that is mouldy in the bottle... 𐔌՞. .՞𐦯
the green ink used with the stirrer and medium kakuno nib is lennon tool bar cabbage.... its quite mouldy... so no more pen use. but it turns out its still fine to use this way?
the other ink used was sailor ink studio 273, fascinatingly, it was a light taupe with barely any pink tones when used with the kakuno fine nib!
i have a new video up! it's about the past 2 months in my notebooks: my finished journal, and how i've been using my books for my special interests! also included is a look at some recent inks and my sketchbook too
both the 19th and the 20th actually, i had to leave the house on the 19th ;; this notebook is making me so happy, the green grid really does activate something in me. and the way ink pools is delightful!
yet again, i used lennon tool bar jujube with the dip nib (clearly i need to ink a red-orange in a pen) and then also sailor yurameku kyokuya. after having that one in a fairly dry pen, i forgot how dark it would be this way though. the other inks and pens are here, if that's something you're curious on
a currently inked!! some of these have been inked since december, but i haven't used them in my copy paste book yet so... i'm not done with them. also i included the dip pen and two kakuno nibs, since i've been starting to use those much more in my journal
its kind of hard to get my phone camera to focus properly on the ink colours... they look more accurate in the close up photos?
also, please... feel free to ask about anything if you can't read it haha; my handwriting isn't particularly good in this one
