Moleskine Spread by Ruben Fletcher

Ruben Fletcher has been “Starbucks drawing” on moleskine for years. But he thinks he has wasted an awful lot of time doing so because feels he should have spent it  on something more worthwhile. But what that worthwhile pursuit is, he has yet to discover as he plods on.

In my years of Starbucks drawing (Jesus! “In my years of Starbucks drawing”! What a colossal misuse of my time, which could have been allotted to whatever it is I should have been doing with my life, and it should be painfully clear that I still don’t have the vaguest notion what that might be. The old saw “Many are called but few are chosen” may be an old saw, but it still has sharp teeth, because apparently I didn’t even make the “called” cut. The celestial equivalent of Simon Cowell didn’t even see fit to let me get to the next round. Not that I sat by the phone or nothing, but it would have been kind of nice to have been awokened by a beam of light from above and a Leonard-Cohen like voice intoning, “How about EG-155429a, Exotic Aniimal Groomer? Care to give that a shot?” No, either the Heavenly Host lost my number or else decided to let me fend for myself, and if that’s the case, They have no one to blame but Theirselves, because this is just the way I fend)…

Read more here…

Carry-on Makeup Box by judysmile

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes another unique moleskine concept. Did it ever occur to you that a moleskine can have something to do with makeup? I didn’t think so.

Judysmile in Taipei, Taiwan has transformed her legendary journal into a makeup box. Is that original or what? Bulky or not, moleskine-loving girls now have a valid reason to get their moleskines out when retouching.

More of her carry-on makeup box here.

James Gurney and Moleskine in Action

Got a moleskine watercolor book? Then you just might find the Schmincke watercolor set to be its perfect partner, size-wise.

James Gurney, an artist known for his plen-air landscape paintings and author of the best-selling illustrated book series called Dinotopia, shows us how we can set up the sketchbook and Schmincke and all other bits and bobs so we can get all comfy while painting — even when we’re “perched on a mountaintop.”

Learn how to do just that here and, mind you, his Gibraltar painting is absolutely lovely.

Source: Journaling Arts

Journaling Arts tests the sheets of the Moleskine Pocket Journal and concludes the experiment with satisfactory results for the legendary notebook.

The testing involved various types of notebook, including the Moleskine journal, and a bunch of the most popular pens in use today.

Find out here and see how the moleskine lives up to expectations.

Olya Fomina of Russia showcases her entry into the Carnival Moly by the Moleskine Exchange: Group 4. Her entry titled Urban Carnival also features a poem called Carnival Man by Carole Z. Spinelli with a first stanza that goes:

Carnival man

i fell in love with a carnival man

slick as glass

bold and brass

narrow hips

ample lips

muscled arms

wicked charms

The adventures of the Moleskinex4, which features artists from Netherlands, the U.K., Israel, Germany, Argentina, U.S.A., and Russia, are chronicled in their blog, moleskinex4.blogspot.com:

This blog will follow the adventure of a group of artists around the world, in a Japanese fold Moleskine sketchbook exchange.Each artist will set off with a small Japanese (accordian) folded Moleskine. Creating a drawing, collage, or painting, then send on to the next artist. Each artist will draw on a spread (2 or 3 pages) then send it on to the next artist. When the artists book is filled, it will be returned to the owner with images created by artist around the world. Each artist has a month to make an entry. The outcome will be a pleasant and surprising adventure, as artists are encouraged to interact and merge their art with others.

The moly is set to travel next to Israel where it will be concluded — another achievement for the MOLY_X 4.

© Moleskine.com

Historian Caleb McDaniel is a notebook carrier, which literally means he always had a small notebook in his person which he used to jot things down. He became a moleskine convert sometime in 2005 and subsequently paid homage to the legendary notebook by blogging about his first moleskine.

Although I’ve always carried small notebooks for jotting, I’m a recent convert to Moleskine. In fact, I just finished my first one a few weeks ago. My first Moleskine dates back to a research trip in Boston last March, and below I’ve scanned some of the pages from it. Since starting this small Moleskine, I’ve also started a larger Moleskine journal which functions like a private blog. And in addition to these two Moleskines, I keep another notebook exclusively as a commonplace book for quotations that I like.

More…

Butch Dalisay, aka Penman of the national daily Philippine Star, tells us how it took him three years to fill up his first moleskine notebook. A confessed gadget freak, Butch didn’t immediately find the moleskine appealing. Guess what got him? The notebook’s “snob appeal,” without really expecting much in the way of substance. Here’s how he got hooked:

I’d picked up this notebook in the US after seeing it for the first time in a bookshop in Rome. As a certified gadget freak who never leaves the house without a laptop and a smartphone, I didn’t think I needed a physical, old-fashioned notebook, but it was finally the Moleskine’s snob appeal that got to me. It had been used, its ads proclaimed, by writers like Ernest Hemingway. And since I also collect vintage fountain pens, I thought that the combination of pen and notebook was very stylish in a retro way—as indeed it was.

But little did I expect that style would be resoundingly trumped by substance. I came to depend on the Moleskine much more than I expected—because it fit in my shirt pocket, could open flat on the table (another of its claims to fame), and never needed to boot up or to be recharged. Its creamy paper absorbed ink without feathering; it had a sewn-in bookmark, and best of all a small pocket in the back for business and phone cards, receipts, and ID pictures.

More…

Chuck Rose, Deputy Managing Editor from Columbia, Maryland, blogs about the time he got his first Moleskine.

Today was like Christmas. I came home and my wife said there was a package waiting for me on the kitchen counter. She was curious but not trying to pry. ( I hadn’t mantioned that I had ordered this). My youngest son was dying to know what was in the box. I had checked my USPS tracking number earlier in the day and didn’t expect the package for another 48 hours. But there it was. Waiting for me to open it. My first Moleskine sketchbook.

More...

Get your Moleskine sketchbooks out. We’ll be doing some real-life painting.

Michael Nobbs is encouraging each of us to let loose our artist selves and begin drawing our lives.

On his blog, he posts about his new booklet Start to Draw Your Life and considers “how it can be a first step for me in exploring ways of using the web to distribute work (rather than just using it as a medium that art is passively consumed through).”

That’s C-O-O-L!

Except that I don’t have an artistic self, much less drawing talents (a life I have though). As to Nobb’s offer, I think I’ll take a rain check — for now. Probably in my next life.

Seriously, it’s one guide that’s sure to give novices some real interesting experience getting the hang of drawing. I, on the other hand, will be more than happy drooling over other people’s drawings and as usual, go on wondering why such ability doesn’t come easy for me.

On second thought, Nobb’s little booklet might just be what I need.