Because life isn’t complicated enough, I always have 3 notebooks going at the same time:

1. My logbook stays on my nightstand.
2. My sketchbook stays in my office or goes in my bag if I’m traveling.
3. My pocket notebook goes with me everywhere.

I love the classic Moleskine and Field Notes sized notebooks, but they’re still a bit big. To be able to carry it everywhere, I need something that will really fit in my pocket — the notebooks I use are no bigger than my iPhone 4. (Because I know people will ask: I carry this type of Moleskine and usually a Pilot G2 or a PaperMate Flair pen.)

These notebooks are workhorses—they aren’t about pretty drawings or good penmanship, they’re about capturing ideas and the general debris of everyday life. It’s funny, but because I don’t treat them preciously, they’re often a more honest documentation of my scattered, day-to-day process than my logbooks (which are always recalled through my poor memory at the end of the day) and my sketchbooks (which I use a bit more intentionally, trying to work out a problem, map out a chapter, get a drawing right, etc.)

I always stamp my address in the front page.

The majority of pages are taken up with to-do lists. (I start each week with a date stamp.)

Sometimes I’m just making a note to follow up later or trying to work something out…

Sometimes thoughts come fully-formed and just need to be dictated.

Dreams and quotes (and apple stickers?)

Sketches at the art museum.

Doodle at a Bill Callahan show.

If you think about it, a map can be a sort of to-do list laid out in space. (This is a map of Maui that I drew on vacation from tour guides.)

Phone doodles.

Here I’m trying to figure out a cover for Steal Like An Artist.

When I had a day job in marketing, I doodled a lot more.

This morning to warm up I drew some entries from one of my favorite Tumblrs, Screenshots of Despair.

Here are some sketchbook scans from the second half of the Steal Across America tour. Here’s what I wrote about my first tour sketchbook:

I use a large Moleskine sketchbook because it has heavy bristol-like pages that don’t tear, it’s big enough to stick a boarding pass in the pages, and it has an envelope flap in the back for travel receipts.

I’m on the move a lot, so I don’t have a lot of time to sketch while I’m walking around, but I do have time to collage when I’m back in the hotel room, so I’ve started carrying transparent tape, Japanese Washi tape that my wife gave me, and a pair of safety scissors (TSA says under 4 inches is okay).

Read more about the Steal Across America tour→

I’ve spent the past three weeks on the Steal Across America tour — other than my iPhone, my sketchbook is the most important thing I carry. I use a large Moleskine sketchbook because it has heavy bristol-like pages that don’t tear, it’s big enough to stick a boarding pass in the pages, and it has an envelope flap in the back for travel receipts.

I’m on the move a lot, so I don’t have a lot of time to sketch while I’m walking around, but I do have time to collage when I’m back in the hotel room, so I’ve started carrying transparent tape, Japanese Washi tape that my wife gave me, and a pair of safety scissors (TSA says under 4 inches is okay).

Here are a few pages from over the past three weeks:

Above: a snapshot of my corkboard during the writing of Steal Like An Artist, about to be cleared…

I dread the end of a project. Day after day, you’re working on this big thing, and suddenly, it’s over. Now what?

I’d like to be a chain smoker when it comes to projects: use the end of the last one to light the next.

Unfortunately, I’m just not there yet—I don’t have the discipline or the stamina to jump into the next project right away. I need some idleness, play, and a mini-sabbatical to recharge the batteries.

So, I doodle…

…make collages on my iPad with the Mixel app:

…and make de-signs:

…and slowly gather up the momentum to start the next big project.

The folks at AIGA San Diego (I’ll be speaking at their Y17 conference next March) asked me for a 15-second video of me answering the question, “What drives you?” I will do anything to avoid talking to a camera, so I drew them this:

I’m working on a whole notebook of these for fun while I watch TV. Here’s the first batch.

I took iPhone snapshots of doodles from 3 years worth of notes at my old job:

(more…)

Found this tea drawing on my Flickr from about a year ago, but I don’t think I ever posted it here…

No commentary…unlike last time. See more on Flickr →