More sketches with the Moleskine sketchbook

Blocking in the broad areas the in light color washes gives more confidence, and feels more natural. I feel like I can draw anything I want now and not mess it up terribly!

As I mentioned on the previous page, the pages of the Moleskine sketchbook are slightly water resistant at first (but it goes away after the first wash). You can actually use this to get some nice effects.

I continued adding handwritten notes as I did with the first Moleskine sketch. I like the look, and the words remind me of the circumstances at the time I was sketching. This has turned into a sketchbook journal, and it's great fun!

These days I work mostly at home and don't have much chance to sketch people on the subway anymore. So I decided to open up Wednesday mornings for a weekly "art morning." Between these art mornings and the occasional weekend sketch, I'm able to keep the sketching alive in my life.

On the bottom sketch of the"castle" I tried a few new things. I deliberately laid it out to look like a page from picture book, and I switched to a fine point, stiff nib pen for more consistency in the lines and hatches. The pen I used was a Murex (Pilot MYU 701). It is currently my main sketching pen.

March 27, 2005 Update: Moleskine sketchbooks and watercolors

It is no secret that Moleskine sketchbooks are not very friendly to watercolor. First it beads up, then if you rub it a bit it settles down, but it's still very unpredictable and hard to control. Since this paper was apparently intended for dry media such as pencil, I decided to try watercolor pencils. First I had to borrow back my watercolor pencils from my 7 year old daughter Izumi (I gave them to her when I thought I'd never use them again). Here are the results of my experiment:

On the left page I scribbled with Mitsubishi UNI watercolor pencils (they were all I had) and then brushed over the right half with a Pentel "Aquash" waterbrush. On the right page I brushed on regular Winsor Newton watercolors with the same waterbrush. You can see how the color from the watercolor pencils actually behaves well while regular watercolor beads up. So finally here is a way to get around the problem. Looks like I'll have to buy another set of watercolor pencils since Izumi won't give me back my old one.

May 17, 2009 Update: Moleskine watercolour notebooks

There is now a Moleskine sketchbook that works great with watercolor. I have written a separate article on sketching with a Moleskine and have updated it with my observations on the watercolour notebook.