Thumbs Up Thursday - Moleskine Journals

Sure, I've heard about Moleskine journals. Many artists swear by them, but I never saw the point of spending the extra money. I thought, 'Why would I want to spend 25GBP on a Moleskine journal, when I can get the same size in a different brand for only 5GBP?' I rarely work in a journal anyway, because I get frustrated with the fragility of paper and find the paint more difficult to manipulate.

That was then, this is now! Last week I had the pleasure of working in a Moleskine journal for the very first time, as part of Gary Reef's Create and Pass Journal project. I was a little nervous, as I tend to work my surfaces over pretty hard and was worried I would damage the journal...or worse, Gary's artwork, which was on the other side of my page!

What I found instead was that the paper could take a fair bit of abuse. Early on, I did have too much water in my brush, which caused the paper to pill a little. I soon got the hang of it though, and once I had the perfect balance of moisture in my brush, the paint glided so smoothly. The feel was absolutely wonderful and the finished result was so rich. I was amazed at how much visual texture I was able to create and how none of my work damaged anything on the other side.

If you look closely, you can see the paper pilled on the forehead, but the
paper is so forgiving that it wasn't that noticable.

Sadly, I had to ignore temptation to keep painting in the lovely little Moleskine journal and posted it on to the next person on the list. I did, however, buy one of my own the other day! I have called my girl that I painted in the journal 'Mirabelle', which apparently means wonderful in French. It seemed fitting, as she was part of my wonderful discovery of Moleskine journals. If you haven't tried a Moleskine journal, run out and get one...they get a big thumbs up from me!