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A walkthrough of my diary
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A walkthrough of my diary

A 20-minute page-by-page video tour of my notebook from November 7, 2021 to January 8, 2022

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Austin Kleon
Jan 18, 2022
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Austin Kleon
A walkthrough of my diary
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Hey y’all,

Today I’m doing something I’ve never done before: I’m sharing a 20-minute video of me flipping through my diary page-by-page and talking about my habit.

Here’s a 30-second preview:

Twitter avatar for @austinkleon
Austin Kleon @austinkleon
Tomorrow’s newsletter is something I’ve never done before: a 20-minute video walkthrough of my diary. Sneak peek below. Subscribe! austinkleon.substack.com
3:05 PM ∙ Jan 17, 2022

I’ve kept a daily notebook for a few decades now, but I’ve been keeping a good ol’ fashioned everyday diary since January of 2017:

The diary is the heart of my practice, the place where most of my work is made or at least first conceived. I share a lot of pages on my Instagram and on Twitter, but these are always the good pages. I don’t think I’ve ever actually flipped through a whole volume in front of the camera.

This diary was an interesting one because at a certain point I decided to try to make it more like a crazy medieval manuscript, with text in the middle and things going on in the margins.

A few links before you watch the walkthrough:

  • The biggest influences on my diaries are Lynda Barry and Thoreau. (My kids comics are inspired by James Kochalka.)

  • Everything in this one was written and drawn with my trusty brush pen.

  • You’ll notice there aren’t a lot of “I did this/I did that” type entries. I save that for my logbook, which is basically just an appointment book filled out retroactively.

  • The kind of notebooks I use are listed on my studio gear page.

  • Here’s how I begin a notebook.

  • If you’d like to start your own diary, but don’t know where to begin, check out The Steal Like an Artist Journal.

Finally, here’s a video of my goofy weigh-in/weigh-out ritual:

Twitter avatar for @austinkleon
Austin Kleon @austinkleon
It’s that time again: time for my most ridiculous notebook ritual
6:29 PM ∙ Jan 8, 2022
134Likes6Retweets

Okay! Here we go — feel free to pause on pages to get a better look or to skip ahead:

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