One decision that worked well during my week of daily drawing was to use my own hand made sketchbook. This sounds more impressive then it was: I took a few sheets of printer paper, folded them, and stapled them together.
This approach worked well for two reasons. First, there was the psychological benefit of dealing with a low page-count, zero-cost notebook versus an thick, leather bound affair. And second, publishing my content to the web was made easy. I sliced down the center of the book with an X-acto knife, laid the half-size sheets of paper out on the counter, and snapped photos. And just like that, I was a published artist.
While the staple binding of the last notebook worked, it required more finesse and time to assemble than I wanted to spend. For my next notebook, I decided to take a page out of the book binding world and sew my creation together. Again, this probably sounds like a complicated thing to do, but it's quite easy. The steps are laid out here, and take just a few minutes to follow.
I used the most crude tools: an awl from my toolbox, some masonry line and an oversized needle I happened to have laying around. Here's some action shots:
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hcTDu6VLa7I/WNKB4erAOwI/AAAAAAAGGBU/M-Nmg-o51CYjhNmHIBDZy2M6byi6v7toQCPcB/s320/20170322_093612.jpg)
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-US8moMQSi4Q/WNKB4SnpTVI/AAAAAAAGGBQ/sNKkTdtm5CAt1tChi9EARyxPjtfA7QD8wCPcB/s320/20170322_094351.jpg)
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D1zzOwEDUfs/WNKB4QDBjnI/AAAAAAAGGBM/evQ3oE3zr_IVmKwa8c37JfNP3RQJtaNPwCPcB/s320/20170322_095016.jpg)
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yxF_8iSUec0/WNKB4TfndyI/AAAAAAAGGBI/fD2OBP1w8C0S3gflFjwbJ7zyLLGFCQ8JQCPcB/s320/20170322_095035.jpg)
Even with the crude instruments, I ended up with a perfectly usable notebook. Sewing was definitely faster than trying to hand place staples.
While considering my new sketchpad I realized that it had one obvious shortcoming: without a hard cover, it wasn't easy to draw on unless I had a hard surface to rest it on. In other words, this notebook worked great for drawing my breakfast, but probably wouldn't be ideal for on scene sketching.
As a work around, I grabbed an old 3 ring binder that wasn't being used. I measured it for the size of the notebook and sliced it to size. I then put some duct tape on the edges. See:
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zfjlQ-KszBk/WNM94EbjDvI/AAAAAAAGGBY/ot3SD26kZygv9Skasc2TFBqeB656BBGrwCPcB/s640/20170322_153220.jpg)
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BGCsH4tp5K4/WNM94AG6UdI/AAAAAAAGGBY/W-yZMZeVKFw5OqXnbBJoQgvm7xgrzrdmwCPcB/s400/20170322_153758.jpg)
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2cPfoHorw20/WNPQ9727FcI/AAAAAAAGGCs/bZlYkpw2jmMvWi7Gexpn7YSxtMxJrqJewCPcB/s400/20170323_094103.jpg)
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttxer1FBrJ0/WNPQ90hZqeI/AAAAAAAGGCs/-BL3mKUbyKEivNN2mZSF82zvHnrABzvFACPcB/s640/20170323_094037.jpg)
The 3-ring binder cover had a slot for holding sheets of paper, which I re-purposed to hold the sketchbook. The result is that I can stuff the sketchbook into this pocket, and then fit both items into my man-bag.
I've now got a perfectly functional, extra low stress, drawing setup. All I need is the time to put it to use.
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