Full Moleskine Art Sketchbook

I have officially finished another Art Journal on my list (it was on my list of multiple art journals at the same time – from two years ago). Yes, sometimes it takes a long time to reach the end – that doesn’t mean you should give up (if you don’t want to of course).

I have really enjoyed working in this Moleskine sketchbook with heavy, cream colored vanilla folder-kind of paper in it. But before I write more about why I bought this notebook to use as an art journal and offer up some inspirational links, here’s the video!

Video: Moleskine Art Journal Flip-through

This video is quite long so crab a cuppa’ and have a look when you feel relaxed and are sitting in a comfortable chair.

Last week I shared some snippets of painting process from this journal in another video, in case you want to see my desk when it is messy:

I made this video mostly because I wanted to keep those snippets of process somewhere, but I think it’s fun to watch as well. I hope you like it and if you do, give it a thumbs up so other’s can find it.

I forgot to mention the cover image in the video. It’s a big magazine image from a Swedish play that I never saw. I just really liked the image, so I simply folded it around the cover and taped the inside to make it stay put.

I made it to protect the black Moleskine cover from paint, but now it is staying because it became an integral part of how I think about this journal.

I like how this art journal developed over time. It started as one thing, but instead of giving up on it I let it stay with me and develope into something else: Abstractions. When you have several journals going at once, all with different themes or feels, it takes a lot longer to fill them than if you have one catch-all. And that’s okay too.

Art journaling is not something to stress through.

You’ll get to a full journal once you get there, no rush.

My inspirations

In the flip-through video I mention Jane Davies as one of my teachers, and although I have never afforded myself one of her classes I have learned so much by following her blog and art through the years. Her YouTube channel is filled with the most amazing art experiments, from painting to collage. Thanks Jane for all you’ve shared through the past 10 years or so.

I own both of Jane’s books which are called Abstract Painting and Collage Journeys and I’d recommend both if you want inspiration from a very knowledgeable artist.

Another one I mention is the artist Suzi Blu, which is the first person I took an online class with and one of the biggest influences on me becoming an art journaler in the early days. She encouraged us to get this specific notebook because it has great papers for mixed media, and I have to agree even though it took me “a few years” to fill all the pages. Suzi has written the book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish, that you should check out if this is a style you want to try.

Suzi Blu has since removed her blog and much of her online presence, but last year she generously published some of her workshop content to YouTube. So if you want to learn more about painting girls in her style, check her out. For example this great playlist on mixed media girls: [edit: now also removed]

Get yourself a journal

If you want to get yourself a Moleskine notebook for painting, wet media & art, it is called a Moleskine Art Sketchbook (amazon affiliate link). It has blank pages and a hard cover and it is 5×8.25 inches big. I’m going to add one to my Christmas wish list and see what happens.

Talking about Christmas, I wanted to mention that my Christmas Journals are in the shop! Grab one before they’re all gone!

Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed these videos / journal pages.

You might also enjoy reading the blog post Thoughts on Moleskines, sticky pages & working in multiple books – a Q & A.