Moleskine!

A little over a week ago I discovered moleskine sketchbooks (there should probably be a registered trademark symbol around there somewhere). Apparently, they are the greatest thing since slice bread for writers, artists and also, it seems, mathematicians. As the story goes, Picasso used them, Hemingway used them, and Van Gough used them. Go to this page to see what they look like.

I have to admit, I was intrigued. Turns out that these books stay flat when opened, there's no protuding seam in the middle when you're trying to draw a nice double-page spread, there's an elastic band-type thing which keeps the book closed. And, if you're a pack rat, there's even a little pocket at the back so you can store the items you collect (which just happen to be the perfect size to fit in there, too). This is going to sound very Apple of me but I really liked the rounded corners!

I was sold when I saw the pocket-sized books. It's great to walk around with a sketchbook for those moments when you have a brainstorm and you really, really, really have to write/draw it down. It just so happens that a store near my work sells them-- oh they didn't know what hit them. They're great little books! They had the sketchbooks-- which I bought that day and couldn't wait to leave work to start drawing in it. I wanted to get the square ruled notebooks but they were the type where you flip the pages over the top (check the site to see what I mean). I love square-ruled paper, though! The other notebooks were there-- the ones for writers with ruled lines and the Japanese Album which gave me a drawing idea (I'll write about that once I finish it). The Japanese Album has 60 sheets but they fold out. Imagine what a nice long landscape drawing would look like in one of those! The only notebook they didn't have was the watercolour ones. The moleskine books are not good for watercolours or ink (I learned that the hard way despite reading that one many moleskine fan sites).

Here's my first drawing. I experimented with some sketching markers (Crayola. Hey, there were the only ones I had around and I was really excited to start drawing!). The background is marker and the black is charcoal. Then I sprayed it with the fixative spray. For a long time, I was in a drawing slump. I didn't feel like drawing in my regular sketchbook. I guess having something new spiced things up.

This one was done with water colour piant. Sans the water. It's a painting of my mother's town in Italy. The sun is actually a drawing of the town's patron saint's halo. The one you see on the statue of him. So I drew his halo to represent him watching over the town.

Then I went completely bonkers over trying ink. With a brush. So here's a cityscape at night from above. I remember the evening when I drew this (well it was a little over a week ago)-- it was warm, not too breezy and the stupid mosquitos were already out.

A painting (ink again) gone horribly, horribly wrong. You see, I didn't want to mix colours yet (so that's my punishment). Therefore, I cleverly call this Beauty on the inside.

And finally, a really red Sodium Bicarbonates (sans the rest of the group) done in marker. This was supposed to look like I coloured outside the lines (I love that phrase!) but I'll need to practice that a little more. It's funny how difficult it is to draw incorrectly. Bill Watterson (of Calvin & Hobbes fame talked about that in one of his books as he described that comic where Calvin sees the world out of perspective (as in drawing).

I'm still working on the drawing I showed in my 12 of 12 post a few days ago.

12 of 12

Hey, what happened to all the editing tools on blogspot? Hm... Anyhoo... this is my first time participating in the 12 of 12. It's an idea from The Rosary Army Catholic Podcast from sqpn.com. I heard about it on my favourite podcast on the planet, The Daily Breakfast (you'll find it on sqpn.com as well). Every month, Father Roderick, the host of that show participates and encourages his listeners to participate as well. The concept of 12 of 12 is simple; on the 12th of each month, take 12 photos throughout your day. Then post them on your website, blog, flikr, wherever. Click here to see photos of the other listeners and participate! :)

And now for mine...

It's June 12, 2006 and I am supposed to have been up at 5:45 am to do my cardio, eat breakfast, shower and go to work. Except, I skipped my cardio and got out of be close to 7. I have to be out of the house by 7:30. I don't know how the image came out so dark. Actually, most of my photos came out dark even though it was sunny outside.



I've managed to get myself out of my house on time for my walk to the train station. Good thing it's only 15 minutes. One thing about doing this 12 of 12 is after you download your photos and see them on your computer, you realize how boring your life is! :)





And here I am at the train station! I took out my camera, took the photo and put it back in my bag. My friend didn't even ask. It was as if I did this all the time.



My job isn't exciting enough to be featured on a 12 of 12 so here's my little walk outside during lunch in Toronto's financial district. At this point, I'm walking back to my office building. It's somewhere in there.



While standing on the street corner in front of my office one day, waiting for the traffic light to change, I looked up and noticed these faces carved into the architecture of another office building in the distance. To bad they don't make buildings like that anymore...



Later on I'm finally home! And I go directly to the computer to plug in my minidisc recorder to record a bunch of podcasts. Yes, in realtime. Very oldschool. I'm waiting for the new iPod nanos to come out with a nice drop in price befor eI fork over the $$$ for it. I know you can never predict with anything about Apple but my spidey sense is telling me that August may be the month!



When I'm all set up and recording, I eat dinner, wash the dishes and make my lunch for tomorrow. This time, I'm a little adventurous. I found these soy thingies where you soak them in water for 10 minutes, squeeze the living daylights out of them, then soak them again and squeeze them again. The package only said to cook them or add them to your favourite dish. No recipe or anything. What else did you expect from something called "Soyachunks". So I mixed them with some Thai peanut sauce.



While the soyachunks were being soaked in water the first time around, I went out in my backyard to enjoy the sunshine and poppies blooming. Well, it was too cold. That stupid wind is still there.



After my cooking fiasco, I sat down and did a little painting on a drawing I'm working on in my moleskine. The medium is ink but it seems to act like watercolour (it's my first time trying this out) and the moleskine sketchbook is not very suitable for watercolours.



Back to my computer and I'm checking e-mail...



And yes, my minidisc is still recording! I listen to these podcasts while I'm at work.



And now it's time to open up iPhoto to import my 12 photos...



And connect my card reader to complete the task.



And that's the end of the story! I wish the 12 fell on the weekend. It would have made better photos! :)