The last of the Moleskine XL

In May of 2016 I bought a Moleskine XL softcover notebook with squared/grid pages in it. By then I had become fascinated with patterns and especially how to work them on grid paper. I worked on the book quite regularly. It was my steady companion when relaxing on the couch and listening to podcasts. It was never far out of reach.

The pages I filled in it often took a lot of time, so even though I worked in it a lot and even though I only worked on one side of each page (to prevent bleeding) it still took me over two years to finish it. But finish it I did!

Here are the last six patterns in the Moleskine XL Squared:

As you can see I chose to use the same colours in the last six pages, very much inspired by the fact that it's autumn. As always they were done in my trusted Stabilo 68 felt tip pens. In fact the entire book was done in those. I actually have had to replace several colours over time, that's always a good sign of liking an art supply.

When I finished the book I made a very bad little video of me quickly leafing through it. You can only see a fraction of the patterns coming by, but my intention was to show the wealth of a fully filled up sketchbook, so I hope you enjoy this peek anyway.

Now that this book is finished I have immediately purchased another book. It's also a Moleskine XL squared, but I opted for a cahier style book instead of a regular softcover. The idea is the same though: filling it up with grid patterns. I have already done the first few in there, but that is something for another post.

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day.

P.S. For those who receive my posts by mail. You probably have to go to the blog itself to see the video. Blogger never  includes the actual video in their mail service. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Foggy Fall Forest

Autumn is here and that means that walks through the forest are especially pleasing to the eye, especially on a somewhat foggy day. Like on the day I took these pictures during one of my morning walks.

I especially enjoy the carpets of leaves that are being made on the ground by the different types of trees. We mostly have pines on our island, so any leaf shedding tree makes a big difference. Also the less leaves remain on a tree the more clear the shape of the branches becomes and I  am forever fascinated by the shapes of winter trees.

All in all I'm pretty happy the cooler season has begun and that winter is on its way. I just wish time would go a bit more slowly. Can you believe we are already approaching December? What happened to the year? If you have any idea where it went please let me know, for I am at a loss. ;-)

Until then I hope you enjoy the change of the seasons wherever you live (be it fall or spring or anything in between) and wish you all a wonderful and artsy day!

A peek in the journal - The Second Leuchtturm

When I looked back into my posts of the last months I realized it had been quite a while since I showed some finished journal pages. In fact the last pages I showed you were from my Second Leuchtturm. As you may or may not remember I have absolutely fallen in love with the Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks and I cannot seem to part with them. It's the combination of the paper and my fountain pens that keeps me buying them.They are not perfect books, but they are perfect for me and my current style of journaling.

It may help to figure out how much I haven't shown yet if you realize that I just started on my fifth Leuchtturm! So there are two whole journals you have not looked into yet! That's still a lot of posts to look forward to. :-)

The pages in this post are from the last third of the second book and were all done in January of this year. Mostly during my two week vacation to the island of Schiermonnikoog. So this is kind of a travel journal post too.

Here's a peek:

Of course this is just a selection of pages. The books have 249 pages and there's a lot of writing in them. I love showing my journals, but I have no intention of making the entire books public. A journal is simply too personal, plus it would make for a truck load of posts that would never end.

As always my journal is a combination of imagery, photographs, some drawing and mostly just my thoughts on paper. Putting thoughts on paper is a good way to get a look at them and seeing what goes on inside your head. It doesn't always make for interesting reading and there's a lot of repetition. But then again I don't consider a journal a thing that should be read as much as I think of it as a thing that should be written. It's a very self centered and personal exercise, not prose for some external reader. The journal is for me. That it also is a good way to keep memories of my life is a wonderful bonus and does make it extra precious.

I hope you are enjoying some personal creative outlet of your own and I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day. 

Back to my morning art

In the beginning of 2015 I started a new personal routine by doing art every morning, mostly before breakfast. This new habit has gone through many changes and many challenges, but I was pretty consistent in keeping it up.

However when life got a bit too overwhelming last spring I decided to take a break from it all and just not do my morning art for a while. It was a good decision by the way.

At the time I didn't know if I would pick it up again or if it would just be the end of this daily routine. I didn't really mind one way or another, I was already pretty proud for having done this for over three years and it had given me a lot of pleasure and a lot of filled sketchbook pages too!

Still, at the end of the summer when things started to quiet down a little and I got back into my regular rhythm and pass-times, I actually started to miss it. So very carefully I did a few  pages in a moleskine sketchbook that I had already started using ages ago. The idea was to just see if I would enjoy doing some art again every morning or if I would find it less pleasurable than I remembered.

I finished three spreads in this sketchbook in about three weeks. Patterns take a lot of time and I do the morning art about half an hour every morning. Here are the three spreads I did:

The stain on the top left is the result of a helpful cat. :-)

After three weeks it was obvious that I was very much enjoying doing this again and I decided to start a fresh sketchbook just for my morning art again. I'm focusing on patterns in felt tip pen right now, because it's easy and practical. But in time I may return to some watercolour or some other media. It's all good as long as I keep creating something.

The most important thing is that I am back in the habit of doing some art before breakfast again. It shapes my day to start with art. I have been at it for a little over two months now and am still enjoying it, so that's a good sign. I will show you some of the new sketchbook in another post of course.

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day!

A vacation in six walks - Sixth walk - Ruurlo

The first week of October I got to have a free vacation by house sitting for my sister again who lives in te East of the Netherlands in a town called Zelhhem, which is in a region called Achterhoek.
 
During the week I went on six medium to long walks in different parts of the region. 
I cannot walk anywhere without taking pictures, so I will take you along with me vicariously by giving you a photographic impression of each walk. That means six posts of just landscapes, castles, windmills and other lovely scenery. 

I sure hope you will enjoy the view!

Sixth walk - West of Ruurlo

My last vacation day was very near to perfect. Not only was te weather much cooler, it was also still very sunny and nice out, plus the walk I took was just stunning. I took the bus to the town of Ruurlo, but I did not visit the town itself. Right next to it on the west is Ruurlo Castle and next to that are glorious landscapes to be had. After two walks in and around towns, I kind of wanted to avoid the town itself and just be 'outdoors'. I got what I wanted.

So here's an impression of my last vacation walk:

Ruurlo Castle - it houses an art museum.

I had my lunch here, can you imagine?

And with this sixth and final walk I concluded my lovely vacation, and we conclude this series of posts on the blog. Thank you all for bearing with me. I just have to get these trips out of my system before I can move on with the regular artsy stuff.

I do hope you enjoyed viewing these walks as much as I enjoyed doing them. I'm still a little 'homesick' for this lovely area and its comforting to know I can visit there from time to time and stay in sister's house again.

For now though I will enjoy being on this beautiful island I call home and am back to my regular routine. Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day!