[1]Skip to content [2] [3]Colossal The best of art, craft, and visual culture since 2010. • [4]Log in • [5]Shop • [6]Search & Explore … Menu • [9]Art • [10]Craft • [11]Design • [12]Photography • [13]Animation • [14]Books • [15]Climate • [16]Film • [17]History • [18]Conversations • [19]Illustration • [20]Music • [21]Nature • [22]Opportunities • [23]Science • [24]Social Issues Close • [26]Search & Explore • [27]Subscribe • [28]Events • [29]Conversations • [30]Art Glossary • [31]Shop About Colossal • [32]About • [33]Contact [nav-panel-bg-mobile] [nav-panel-bg] Become a Colossal Member • [34]Join Us • or • [35]Log in [36][surprise-sta] • [37]Privacy Policy • [38]Terms of Service a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawingsAll images courtesy of José Naranja, shared with permission Through a Love of Note-Taking, José Naranja Documents His Travels One Tiny Detail at a Time April 23, 2025 [39]Design[40]Illustration [41]Kate Mothes • [42] Share • [43] Pin • [44] Email Bookmark From postage stamps to jetliner specifications to items he packed for the journey, [46]José Naranja’s sketchbooks ([47]previously) capture minute details of numerous international trips. “I’m lost in the intricate details, as always,” he tells Colossal. Everything from currency to noodle varieties to film references make their way into small books brimming with travel ephemera and observations. Naranja is currently working on a thicker book than he has in the past, which is taking more time to fill, along with an illustrated card project called 2050, which merges science, tech events, and his signature “beauty of note-taking” aesthetic. The artist has also reproduced some of his sketches in The Nautilus Manuscript, a small batch-printed, hand-bound edition available for sale in [48]his shop. Follow updates on the artist’s [49]Instagram. a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like pens and ink a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like pens and ink a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like a stencil and stamps a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like pens and ink a series of small sketchbooks with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like pens and ink a small sketchbook with elaborately designed travel notes and drawings, on a table with artmaking tools like pens and ink the tops of a series of closed, small sketchbooks showing how full they have become, with color and details on the edges Do stories and artists like this matter to you? 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[52]$7/month [53]$75/year [54]Explore membership options● [55]Previous article [56]Next article Related tags [57]drawing[58]José Naranja[59]notebooks[60]sketchbooks[61]travel Related articles • [62][naranja-3] [63]Maps, Everyday Ephemera, and Watercolor Drawings Record José Naranja's Travels with Fantastic Detail • [64][naranja-5] [65]Stamps, Scientific Charts, and Hand-Drawn Maps Occupy Every Inch of Travel Notebooks by José Naranja • [66][ocean] [67]A New Book Plunges into the Vast Diversity of the World's Oceans Across 3,000 Years • [68][sketch-6] [69]Drawn the Road Again: Inside the Travel Sketchbooks of Chandler O'Leary as She Explores the U.S. • [70][kobayashi-3] [71]Japanese Chef Has Filled Notebooks with Delectable Illustrations of All of His Meals for 32 Years • [72][DrawingMachine_03] [73]Crank Out Infinite Geometric Designs With The Wooden Cycloid Drawing Machine Trending • [74]a black-and-white photo by Dawoud Bey of a Black man standing on a street in New York next to two women in large coats and hats, who are turned away from the camera [75]Explore Trailblazing Street Photography in ‘Faces in the Crowd’ at MFA Boston • [76]the open atrium at Calder Gardens with two large-scale sculptures in red and black and a large hanging mobile [77]Calder Gardens, a Light-Filled Museum and Prairie, Houses the Sculptor’s Work in Philadelphia • [78]a white arm with a tattoo by Nano Ponto of a vibrant gradient emerging from a black and white eye [79]Innumerable Dots Form Bright, Bold Gradients in Nano Ponto’s Entirely Handpoked Tattoos • [80]a colorfully knotted rope work by Jacqueline Surdell hanging from a bar [81]Monumental Tapestries by Jacqueline Surdell Invoke Forests as Portals to the Divine • [82]a full-room installation of red fiber and paper pages by Chiharu Shiota [83]World War II Journal Entries Float in a Web of Blood-Red Yarn in Chiharu Shiota’s ‘Diary’ • [84]a beaded artwork by Dyani White Hawk inspired by Native American patterns in bright colors [85]Lakota and Western Art History Converge in Dyani White Hawk’s Vibrant Works • [86]"Noche obsidiana." symmetrical natural pigment painting by Omar Mendoza, featuring cosmic symbols and visual motifs evoking Mesoamerican ancestry [87]Omar Mendoza’s Natural Pigment Paintings Radiate the Power of Ancestral Knowledge • [88]a photo of a large, vaulted room inside an abandoned house by Bryan Sansivero [89]Bryan Sansivero Documents Otherworldly, Forgotten Houses in ‘America the Abandoned’ Advertisement Art in your inbox. 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