Review: Moleskine Pocket Storyboard

This is the Moleskine Pocket Storyboard notebook. 3 1/2″ by 5 1/2″ with 80 sheets of thick card stock-like paper. I bought this when I started getting into name brand notebooks and naively thought Moleskine was a high end brand. Well I guess it is, but as you all know the quality isn’t what it used to be but I didn’t know this when I bought it until afterwards.

I fell for the expert brand marketing that these notebooks were used by “Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.” It looks like they updated their site information that the brand was created in 1997 and clarified that they were bringing back the legendary notebook. Still there are a bunch of articles floating around that still say they were used by the famous artists and thinkers.

A typical Moleskine notebook that fits in your pocket/bag easily. Still it’s not a bad notebook but I was actually looking for a Moleskine sketchbook, not the storyboard but the storyboard was cheaper on eBay and I got two of them. lol I was hoping to find a blank sketchbook to use but decided this would be adequate because it has the same amount of pages as the sketchbook and had thicker paper which I prefer.

The notebook came in two sections, two large rectangles on one page.

Or 4 rectangles on one page. 

The paper is a nice warm cream color which I don’t mind but I seem to prefer white paper. I like the thin outlines, it’s good enough as a guideline but subtle enough to not bother you.

It’s a hard stiff cover but for some reason the cover was permanently dented by either the shipping or the person who shipped it to me. I didn’t mind too much except the pages also had dents from the permanent indention. No amount of bending the notebook back and forth would fix it. Not sure how much pressure the person put in it to make it do that but I didn’t want to test that out. You can see the dents in the first rectangles on the top left. It’s not noticeable enough to bother me when I use it.

I ended up using this notebook as a personal daily comic for myself. I call it my “Vive in Praesentia”(aka VIP) journal. That means “Live in the Moment/Present” in Latin, which I found online. lol The goal was that everyday I would try to sketch/draw a comic about a highlighted specific moment in my day worth writing/drawing/remembering about. Some are good, some are bad, some days were just weird. lol

I tried not to get on myself too much about bad drawings but to just get it down. I realized I write a lot more than I draw when it came to these. Probably to prevent any bad drawings. I noticed I draw a little and then write in the rest of the space to explain the image. lol I also tend to draw them in a cute “Chibi” style because it’s easy, fun, and it works. I’m proud to say that I’ve been doing one almost everyday since the beginning of the year(2012). Even if I have to catch up every couple of days. lol

This was my first entry for my VIP comic. You can see more of the details, or whatever details you can decipher. None of these were meant for public viewing so don’t take them too seriously. lol It was also done in a BIC Crystal Ballpoint pen.

Some more examples. lol Kudos to you if you can decipher my handwriting! Have to write pretty small in this pocket sized notebook.

Tested the paper out to see how it handles fountain pen ink. As you can see, not well at all. The ink kind of just sat there beaded, floating on the paper and took awhile for it to dry. I didn’t keep track of how long but I think awhile because it marked the opposite page when I closed it thinking it was dry. Not a fan of that. I think this is Noodler’s Black that I tried on it. The “Cryp” was written in mechanical pencil. The paper seems to take pencil and ballpoint fine. Did not try gel inks.

The bookmark is already fraying at the ends so I should probably fire the ends to prevent that… I don’t even take it outside and it’s just fraying from sitting on my desk and being moved around a little. Not a good sign either… Oh I also found out there is a hack to make your Moleskine sketchbook into a storyboard which just involves a template if you’re interested.

Pocket shot. I always stick that little packet with the quality control number in the pocket. Haven’t really used it for much else since I usually stay at home when I use it.

For my first experience with Moleskine, I’m not a huge fan but I don’t hate it either. The notebook is fine and does its job. It’s great for pencil and pen but not good for fountain pens.  I will still use it and the second one too but after that I’m not sure if I would purchase it again because of the price vs. performance factors. Just didn’t seem like it was worth the price when I could purchase a bigger, better sketchbook at the price it was for a pocket Moleskine notebook.

I also don’t care about brands that much but if the quality is good I’ll remember and stay loyal to it. I wouldn’t even mind using Moleskine alternatives like Picadilly or Quo Vadis Habana as long as they are a good quality and decent price. That said, I do have a few other Moleskines to try, either from a giveaway or picked it up on sale, that may change my mind about the brand. I never say no to a free notebook. 😀

 

Have you used this type of notebook before? What do you guys think? Let me know! Also let me know if you have a review of this type of notebook. I’ll link you to this post. 😀