Moleskine Star Wars Lightsaber Duel Review and My Journaling Habit

Yesterday I finished a Moleskine Limited Edition “This is London” notebook. It took me a little less than 2 months to fill its 240 pages.

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My journal is a personal, private thing that I create for myself, both to log each an every day and to process things — from various frustrations to purchasing decisions. It’s a brain outside my brain and it can take a lot more than my brain can oftentimes handle.

This is my second journaling notebook filled for 2018. My first was a Moleskine Limited Edition Denim “Hand Wash Only”. It took me a little over two months to fill (I started in the end of 2017). The Denim Moleskines are probably my favourites ever, which is why I have four more lined up on my shelves. The texture of the cover and the design is just stunning.

And here they are stacked:

I wasn’t sure which Moleskine to use next, so I listed them all and just rolled a dice to see.  The Star Wars “Lightsaber Duel” came up, and it’s a lovely edition as well. Here they are old and new:

I love Moleskine’s new use of the flip side of their wrapping bands. The “This is London” band had lovely illustrations and instructions on how to make tea (this was an exclusive edition for Moleskine London stores).  The Star Wars Lightsaber Duel has illustrations and the Pantone colours of the various lightsabers used in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Look at those endpapers!

And of course Star Wars stickers. One can never have too many Star Wars stickers.

I use a Ti Arto pen with a Uni-ball Signo UMR-85 gel refill, and I fill four pages a day every day. When I started out I filled a half-page, page a day and gradually worked up as I started to get more out of the journaling experience. I write for myself only, I glue various bits and pieces inside my journal (business cards, cool wrappers or fliers, stickers), and sketch in it sometimes, even though it’s lined and not my main sketchbook by far. I use it to plan things, from my running goals to my writing goals, but I don’t try to make it bullet journal/Instagram pretty. It’s a working journal, and it’s first and foremost meant to be a tool, not a museum piece.

I use Moleskines because I enjoy using them and because for some reason beyond me these are the only notebooks that I’ve managed to consistently journal in. I tried Baron Fig, Rhodia Webnotebooks, Leuchtturm, Exacompta, Field Notes, and others and I haven’t been able to stick with them, even though some of them allow me to use my beloved fountain pens. There is just something about these notebooks that makes it a joy for me to use them (and at least when it comes to the LE lined versions, Moleskine has improved its paper stock). I pick up the regular black notebooks for work, but I love a lot of their stunning LE designs, so I splurge on those for my journaling needs.

Which brings me to the bottom line:

Use the notebook that you enjoy using, without giving a damn what other people say, so that you can journal for yourself.

That’s really all there is to it.

This week’s long run

It’s Israel’s 70th Independence Day next week and there was an exhibition celebrating this in Ben Gurion Boulevard.

The weather was perfect though it did heat up a bit later on. Sunscreen season is upon us.

You know you’re doing well as a fisherman when both a cat and an egret are waiting for you to fail.

Ain’t she pretty? I love Tel Aviv so much, especially on days like these.

All this made for a fast and fun 7k.

This week’s long run

Quite a short long run this week, since I’m easing back to running after being sick. The weather was perfect, if a bit greyish and misty, as you can see from the view:

There’s a smart little egret (Egretta garzetta) who likes to stalk talentless fishermen and beg for the small fry that they catch, and if I run early enough in the morning I get to see it in action

All in all a good 6k run on a perfect day.

#urbansketchers Swing and Draw #oneweek100people2018 Day 6

Urban Sketchers Tel Aviv met up outside Beit Chana, a local community centre, for a special Swing and Draw event. Around 20 dancers danced to Swing music out of old records played on two turntables while around 30 of us Urban Sketchers drew them. It was a lovely event and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (I managed to reach my one week 100 people challenge goal during the two and a half hours I was there). I had to leave early due to family obligations but I was so glad that I participated anyway.

Things took a while to get going so I drew some fellow Urban Sketchers as I waited:

Warmup dancing:

Used the Sanford no-blot for the first time here:

Then moved to an 0.3 Staedler pigment liner and a fine Kuretake brush pen:

A lot more couples had joined in at this point and they were moving fast.

I turned to quick gesture drawing to get the most out of the event. Moved to a Faber-Castell blue brush pen for a bit of a change:

Finally broke out a Faber-Castell purple coloured pencil for the last few gestures:

Here’s a little video of the super talented dancers to give you a bit of a sense of things:

All in all a fun event and great drawing opportunity.

#oneweek100people2018 Day 5

Yesterday was a busy day, it being the 7th of Passover, so I only had less than 20 minutes to get these down.

#oneweek100people2018 Day 4

Back to Jaffa’s flea market this time, though I hadn’t much time to draw too many people. Every sketch here was done in two minutes or less, as the subject was moving.

#oneweek100people2018 Day 3

As I thought, yesterday was a busy day and so I had very little time to draw. Went to the Olamot Sci Fi and Fantasy convention and managed to get a few quick sketch in though.

Morning Run, April 3, 2018

I usually run in the evening at this time of year, but I love morning runs more, and the Tel Aviv promenade is so packed during the evening on Passover week that this is the only sane time to run.