"Do You Keep A Sketchbook(s)?" Topic

Just wondering everyone… I've kept sketchbooks of ideas, terrain plans, maps, scenario thoughts and many other wargame related things for, well, forever (ever since I started gaming over 35+ years ago). How about you? What kind of things do you have in it (or them, if multiple volumes are kept, as in my case).

I have used squared grid pads for many years for the same reasons .The one with four squares per cm square
Very helpful for terrain planning.

Had to get an extra one as the kids used to swipe my one for Minecraft builds.

Found it good for dungeon crawl maps in last couple of years too and I keep the more interesting ones.

I use a Moleskin notebook for recording all the battles played in my wargaming room.
link

I regularly intersperse photographs and old wargaming memorabilia from games played before I started the book.

I don't have one myself, but I like the idea of the notebook to record your battles. I really enjoy the tangibility of something like that.

Yes, I do. In fact, like Phil D., I use Moleskine (or variants) as well. Been logging various gaming things in them for 30+ years. It's a wonderful archive that takes me back to many games, memories, and ideas long forgotten. Those books are some of my most prized gaming possessions and have proven to be an invaluable reference over the years.

I have always had a 'game book' on the go – it usually includes drafts of rules, scenario plans, OBs etc. I generally use a ring bound notebook.

I can't recall how many I've got through over the years, but I have kept all the old ones.

I used to do sketch maps rather often. But that was back when I had an opponent. Now not so much.
I do use grid paper to plan scratch buildings.
I tend to keep both.

I have file folders on almost every scenario I have done for club games and Conventions (Mostly Historical Battles) where I keep design notes and almost always graph paper sketches of the terrain layout plan. I have started to scan them now and keep everything on a back up drive and flash drive.

VR
James Mattes

I keep a pair of the trusty black composition note books. One for general hobby stuff and a second as a painting log.

The painting one gets a list of what colors used and any mixes as well as my thoughts on how colors work and cover and what to do different with them in future projects.

The general one of course gets everything non-painting.

I keep a legal pad for army lists, scenario ideas, terrain project sketches, RPG plot ideas,

Yes small 8x11s and 2 18x32 for everything from maps to blue prints and mini ideas.

I do most of my work on Word Perfect and CorelDraw and Core1 Photopaint. But I always make a hard copy if it's not finished and I put it into a file I carry around with me constantly to work or on trips so I can review, add notes and sketches. The key to this is preventing it from falling out, so what I do is I get a pocket folder and trim down a file foler so it fits. Everything gets put in the file-folder which is then slid in upside down into the posket folder so the papers don't fall out or extraneous stuff gets shoved into it.

Can't tell you the time I've found stuff years later and been able to finish it off or adapt it for somethingelse.

BTW, "moleskin"?

Moleskine: moleskine.com/web/en
If you want to start a notebook, better do it in style :-)

From their website:
Moleskine was created as a brand in 1997, bringing back to life the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.

I keep a note book of my paint formulas and patterns . Put scenerios in it to .

Yep.

Moleskine – the GW of the notebook world.

I don't have a record of games played, but keep a file of concepts, plans, sketches, rules, and scenarios dating back to sometime in the mid-1980s.