I make my own sketchbooks

I've been making my own sketchbooks for at least six years now. I've filled up dozens and dozens of them. Most are made from lettersized paper, cut in three, then folded over. This is the ideal size to fit inside my back pocket.

They contain on average just 30 pages or so, so as not to be too thick. I use regular office paper, and a bit of cardstock for the cover.

Sometimes I make a fancy cover, sometimes not:

Here's some covers up close:

I make my own because I want them to be cheap. So cheap that I'm not afraid to fill them with bad ideas and lousy sketches (my little books cost about 15 cents each to make). A nice, brand new leatherbound (not cheap!) notebook is intimidating for me. I'd want every sketch to be lovely and perfect. I'd want only my best ideas to grace its pages. In a nutshell, the preciousness would be too restrictive, and put a damper on my creativity. It would put a filter on my ideas. Not good.

I need to make loads of mistakes. I need to go to the edges of what makes sense. I need to fly without a net. I need to be quick and messy and just get the ideas (and mostly nonsensical things) down as they come to me, and worry about composition and details later.

I get my ideas from everything and everywhere. I carry one of these sketchbooks and a pen with me at all times, so that whenever an idea comes to mind I can get it on paper. I might be in a lineup at a coffee shop, on the bus, watching TV, or putting the kids to sleep. I’ll overhear a conversation, see some quirky signage, spot an interesting pattern, or think of an odd combination of objects and I’ll pull out a sketchbook and get the idea down on paper. Sometimes an idea for a drawing shows up in my head all ready to go. Other times it's just a single word, sometimes an object, a layout, which I come back to later to flesh out into something more complete.

Here's some inside pages:

Having one of these on me at all times eventually takes a toll on my jeans. Take a look at the back left pocket on this old pair:

When I'm not sure what to draw, I'll rummage through a pile of old sketchbooks and hopefully find some decent ideas. Maybe it's a tidbit I scribbled down three years ago, and at the time it was just the beginning of a drawing. But I'll come across it today and it'll spark something and I'll polish it and add some new text and turn it into a finished piece.

I'd be screwed without my stash of sketchbooks. They're such a huge part of my process.

Comments

[dasmaedchenmitdenlocken]

Selfmade books are great! Yours look so beautiful!

[Robbi]

This is awesome. I have tons of beautiful sketchbooks that are empty. Maybe this is my holy grail.
Or maybe I'm just lazy.
We'll see.
Thanks for sharing.

[Danie at Pasadya]

I just got one of your books in the mail the other day, and I loved reading about your notebooks on the back! I especially love the "Marc Johns' Crap: DON"T LOOK" notebook and the muscles drawing. I should try small notebooks...

[Gül]

I like the way you don't worship Moleskin notebooks:) Your appreciation of 'paper', putting serious artwork onto regular/5cents paper, makes you more successful.

[Carolina]

Que legal saber mais sobre seu processo de criação! Sou sua fã.

[erica]

do you bind them yourself or just staple them together?

[Marc Johns]

Hi Erica, mostly I just staple them together. But occasionally I'll make one with a paperback-style binding, gluing the edges and all that. I'll have to post some of those sometime as well!

[sue]

excellent idea! i find that if i spend a lot of money on a sketchbook, i'm afraid to mess it up! i love these!

[Stacey]

Thank you for showing us an "inside view" of your process and art. =) I loved it. Have you considered selling a photo of the book covers like you have in the post? I loved it and would love to have something like that on my wall.

I really like that you make your own notebooks. I'm going to think about that for myself in my own writing. My favourite notebook is the recession collection with the orange smudges. Did you put those there on purpose?

[Marc Johns]

Hi Stacey, I hadn't thought of offering a print of the book covers. Not a bad idea.
As for the orange smudges, those are just part of my sometimes messy process! Definitely not done on purpose.

[Tshab]

I'm constantly inspired by your work. And I totally agree with you on having the pressure to do good in a nice sketchbook. I may steal your idea and make my own sketchbooks. :)

[MagillLiL]

Hey Marc, I really enjoyed this post. My husband gave me two sketchbooks for Christmas, but after I fill those up, I want to make my own. How do you round the corners so nicely?

[Stacey]

Marc, I will be awaiting the availability of the book covers print. =) The orange smudges definitely add to the look. It's like we tell our friends when we get lost showing them around town. Oh, we do this on purpose to show you around and enrich your experience of the city. ;-)

[Katheriin Liibert]

would love to see these notebooks full of not-perfect sketches on sale!

[EthelQ]

I love all your drawings, but this post is a particular favorite of mine. It's interesting to see a bit of your process, and you've helped me identify why I'm reluctant to draw more (It's those professional sketchbooks! So intimidating!). I've now been inspired to find something simple, and let my pen roam free.

[Guilherme Martinez]

Thanks for the reminder AND inspiration. I have to keep up with my drawing too, having a sketchbook always near is really important. But u said u don't want fancy ones 'cause they may block you from being afraid of making "mistakes", but your sketches are pretty good already! I share the same thought but my sketches are a big mess, plus, i write a lot. Well, enough. Thanks for posting :)

[this is lemonade]

Marc this is such a special peek into how you work. Thank you for sharing it! It's been inspirational for me to the point that I've gone and taken some action on it, aside from pinning the post for "future reference" :)
On my blog tomorrow! Thanking you, and wishing you many more notebooks full of great ideas :)

[Marc Johns]

Thanks for all your comments, folks! I've been meaning to share these for ages. And no, they will never be for sale :)

[oceanfullofbottles]

These are beautiful, you're very clever!
I like your ideas for the covers. Cool