This handy sketchbook is top-bound (suitable for the left- and right-handed), lies flat, and has an elastic pen holder so that your favorite pen or pencil is always at hand. The cover design is by Grant Snider, author of the Shape of Ideas, a collection of comics about the creative process. Offering empathy, humor, and inspiration to creative types of all kinds, this handsome sketchbook has a few pieces of Snider's art tucked here and there throughout its blank pages. Whether you are a professional artist or designer, a student pursuing a creative career, or someone who spends their spare moments dedicated to creative pursuit, this sketchbook will motivate you to explore the world and capture pieces of it through your own unique perspective.

“[Snider has] created something unique: a synthesis of comics, philosophy, and poetry: a thoughtful new way of packaging eternal ideas in cartoon boxes.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books What does an idea look like? And where do they come from? Grant Snider’s illustrations will motivate you to explore these questions, inspire you to come up with your own answers and, like all Gordian knots, prompt even more questions. Whether you are a professional artist or designer, a student pursuing a creative career, a person of faith, someone who likes walks on the beach, or a dreamer who sits on the front porch contemplating life, this collection of one- and two-page comics will provide insight into the joys and frustrations of creativity, inspiration, and process—no matter your age or creative background. “A creative kaleidoscope of humor, insight, and truth. An inventive window into the creative experience filled with hope and encouragement for daydreamers and doodlers, sketchers and scribblers, inventors, explorers, and spinners of yarns.” —Clare Vanderpool, New York Times-bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author “Grant Snider’s work delivers introspection, humor, and inspiration in visually stunning drawings. They are a colorful look into the creative process—from the moments of quiet contemplation to the days of frenzied desperation.” —Susan Cain, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking “A friendly, encouraging depiction of the creative process, with its highs and lows, from a comics creator.” —The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Keep a sketchbook journal and explore your world, preserve your thoughts and celebrate life! More than a diary of written words, a sketchbook journal allows you to indulge your imagination and exercise your artistic creativity. It is a personal, private place where you have unlimited freedom to express yourself, experiment, discover, dream and document your world. The possibilities are endless. In How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal, Claudia Nice shows you samples from her own journals and provides you with advice and encouragement for keeping your own. She reviews types of journals, from theme and garden journals to travel journals and fantasy sketchbooks, as well as the basic techniques for using pencils, pens, brushes, inks and watercolors to capture your thoughts and impressions. Exactly what goes in your journal is up to you. Sketch quickly to capture a thought or image before it vanishes. Draw or paint with care, to render an idea or vision as realistically as possible. Write about what you see. The choice is yours--and the memories you'll preserve will last a lifetime.

Who hasn’t misplaced something important? Readers large and small will laugh knowingly along with this relatable (and rather giant) case of forgetfulness. Belbum is a giant. Like most giants, he is very good at stomping, napping, and losing things. One day he loses something especially important, though: his only pair of pants. After searching high and low, Belbum sets off to ask his friends whether they have any pants he can borrow. But the cyclops only wears tunics. The gnome’s pants, stretchy as they may be, are far too small for Belbum. And unicorns don’t even wear pants. There’s only one thing left for Belbum to do: walk to the tailor in town . . . in his underwear! From the author-illustrator of The Great Thanksgiving Escape comes an enchantingly silly tale about forgetting your things — and holding your head up high.

This book serves as an introduction to the key elements of good design. Broken into sections covering the fundamental elements of design, key works by acclaimed designers serve to illustrate technical points and encourage readers to try out new ideas. Themes covered include narrative, colour, illusion, ornament, simplicity, and wit and humour. The result is an instantly accessible and easy to understand guide to graphic design using professional techniques.

"STC Craft, A Melanie Falick book" -- Title page.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza-also known as Benedict or Bento de Spinoza-spent the most intense years of his short life writing. He also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes-but no drawings. For years, without knowing what its pages might hold, John Berger has imagined finding Bento's sketchbook, wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave him a beautiful virgin sketchbook, Berger said, "This is Bento's!" and he began to draw, taking his inspiration from the philosopher's vision. In this illustrated color book John Berger uses the imaginative space he creates to explore the process of drawing, politics, storytelling and Spinoza's life and times.