ORIGINAL POST DATE: November 9, 2005

This latest update to the Ninth Wave Designs Gallery includes images from my Moleskinei Pocket Sketchbook.

The sizing of the paper in the Moleskine sketchbooks makes using watercolors on the paper difficult. I have found that tempera and watercolor pencils have more body and don't bead up when you apply them the way watercolor does. Even though Moleskine never recommended using watercolor in the sketchbooks, many users have found this to be an annoying quality in the sketchbook paper. In the spring of 2006 Moleskine will be releasing a new watercolor sketchbook, with paper expressly designed with watercolor use in mind. I eagerly await the chance to try one of the new Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks out, and will post about it as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I enjoy working in a wide range of mediums in my Moleskine sketchbooks, and have never been very troubled by the specifics of the sketchbook paper. Recently I was experimenting with liquid acrylics on the pages of my sketchbook and found that the peculiarities of the paper sizing made it easy to create a vellum effect on the paper, a very convincing looking vellum effect actually. This was an exciting discovery for me, since I have an interest in old manuscripts and imaginary writing. I was recently introduced to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript (thanks Paula!) and wanted to create some images that had a similar feel and contained mysterious elements. The image above, called Pendulum, is my first attempt at what I plan to be a series of pages along this line. In fact, I may just have to tint all the pages in my sketchbook to look like vellum - it is such a great effect!