Moleskine Mandalas

Moleskine notebooks are incredibly popular for keeping notes, journaling, sketching, doodling, collage, watercolor and more. A Flickr search found 54,459 photos tagged "moleskine" and 1,077 moleskine related groups. I typically use lined 5x8 Moleskine notebooks to keep notes ~ books to read, perennials for the garden, recipes, to-do lists, but I've never drawn in them.

This past week, while I waited for the kids at swimming lessons, I started doodling in my notebook with a black superfine Faber-Castell PITT pen. As the week progressed, I added color with brush nib PITT pens and Sakura gellyrolls. These quasi-mandalas just exploded on the page. The texture of the paper is smooth and warm. The ink adheres without bleeding and dries quickly. Several doodles followed, and I am officially hooked. You might like Moleskine Mandalas II and Rapidograph & India Ink (a white mandala).

If you share my fondness for pen and ink drawings and blank notebooks, check out notebookism, the moleskinerie Flickr group and the amazing pen and ink work at Andrea Joseph's Sketch Blog.