The Artist’s Way – no, it’s not just “morning pages”

Over the last three months, I decided to finally pick up, read, and participate in Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way.” A book I’m sure quite a bit of you have heard of over the years.

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For some reason, this book has been hitting a new kind of popularity out in the social media-verse. I’ve seen lots of YouTubers talking about doing it or thinking of doing it, etc. After seeing a few of these experiences shared, I remembered I had my own copy of “The Artist’s Way” sitting on my bookshelf. Long forgotten and gathering dust.

I first picked this book up 16 years ago. Good grief, it’s crazy even saying it’s been that long, knowing all that has come to pass during that time frame. A divorce, a move, a new job, and my diving into living a more creative life.

The first time I started “The Artist’s Way”, I only got about three weeks in, then I stopped. For good reason. My life got turned upside down by my ex-husband’s alcoholism. I don’t talk much about my personal life on here, since, really, this is supposed to be an art blog, not an autobiographical accounting of my life.

But after having made it all the way through “The Artist’s Way” this time, 16 years later, I’ve found there’s no arguing that our creative lives are deeply intertwined with our personal lives. We’re human beings, after all. Not robots.

16 years ago, there just was no way I was in any sort of a place to work with “The Artist’s Way”. I was grappling with how to survive around active alcoholism in my life. In hind sight, I feel like my Higher Power was watching out for me and said “No… I’ve got a different path for you right now. We’ll come back to ‘The Artist’s Way’ later.”

I think the timing ended up being just right, because through those years with the alcoholic and eventual divorce from him, I found myself a support network that guided me to find and define a God of my understanding that I could trust and to whom I could give over the care of my life.

That Julia Cameron references 12-step recovery often in the pages of “The Artist’s Way” is quite convenient. I found it easy to entertain her gentle nudges to put my creativity into the hands of a power greater than myself.

In short, the “woo-woo-ness” of this book that many people often complain about didn’t bother me at all. I’m comfortable with my spirituality, and have come a long way from having my hackles rise anytime someone mentions the “G” “O” “D” word around me.

Believe me, I was very adverse to discussions about God in the past, immediately dreading that someone was going to tell me I was going to go to hell because I’m a terrible sinner at my core. This shaming would then immediately be followed up with an announcement that I could find salvation so long as I joined this person’s religion. There’s no faster way to turn me off from something than to tell me I’m a horrible person at my core.

I confirm, there is plenty of discussion about “God” in this book. But then, what should you expect when you pick up a book with a subtitle that says “A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”?

Julia does not threaten you with damnation, however. She doesn’t tell you her understanding of God is what you should believe. She gently guides you to define what your own Higher Power is supposed to be. And for many of us, that Higher Power isn’t some jealous, vindicitve deity up in the sky. It could be the power of the universe, nature, love, etc. And absolutely, that Higher Power can instead be loving and supportive.

I can honestly say that this book managed to add to my ever-evolving relationship with God, and in good ways. That was an appreciated, unexpected perk.

So now having had this experience of working all the way through this book, I just wanted to touch on a couple common misconceptions about this book.

Often when you see people’s reviews about doing “The Artist’s Way” they magnetize to and get stuck on talking about doing the Morning Pages and the (oft-dreaded) Artist’s Dates.

This 12-week course is way, way more than just writing three pages in your notebook every morning and fretting about what your next Artist’s Date is supposed to be. People tend to hint that those exercises are the true work in the book, but I disagree.

Each week, Julia dives into further and further descriptions, details, and exercises that help you look at yourself and your creativity as a whole, rather than as a separate part of you.

There are many, many more exercises in the book beyond the Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates, where you are encouraged to dive really deep into what makes you tick and what subconscious things, people, behaviors, etc. keep you shying away from spending time being creative.

If you think you can skip all the reading and just dive into doing Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates and reap the benefits of the book that way, you’ll be missing out on a lot.

I blocked out out entire Sunday mornings to dedicate to reading the start of each week’s chapter, and took the time to answer her many questions and participate in her detective work and other suggested exercises throughout the weeks.

One surprising exercise from Week 2 was to list 10 simple changes I’d like to make for myself. (Bonus is that some of these things can absolutely become a future Artist’s Date.) I wrote some things down like “declutter”, “rearrange my bedroom”, and “honor my commitment to have lunch with my parents.” At the end of that list, she tells you to pick one item and do it. Well, ta-da – I had lunch with my parents. And finally, not long after finishing the book, I also got around to rearranging my bedroom.

This book really is about taking action. Tosha Silver writes a suggestion to her readers in her wonderful book “It’s not Your Money”. I’m paraphrasing here, since I have it on Audiobook and it’s difficult to pinpoint the chapters that way, but she says something along the lines that her book is about taking action. Sure, you can choose to just read it and be like a group of people safely sitting on the sidelines, sunning themselves on the side of a riverbank. But you’ll get more out if it if you take action, dive in, and frolic in the cool waters.

I’m looking for positive change in my life, always, and I recognize I need to do the footwork. I can’t just sit back and expect the universe to do everything for me. God, the Creator, the Universe, whatever you want to call it/her/him desires participation. I read a funny quip in another piece of literature not long ago where someone complimented a person on their garden, saying “Wow, God has done such wonderful work on your garden!” The gardener retorted “Really? You should see what it looks like if I only leave it up to God.”

I’m looking to participate in my life, and that means doing all the exercises in “The Artist’s Way”, beyond the Morning Pages and Artists’s Dates. Those are critical, too, but not the backbone of the book, in my humble opinion. If you want to get everything out of what the book has to offer, don’t think you can shortcut it by only doing the writing and taking little field trips.

Get brave and read her essays in relation to the additional work she asks you to do. Sit down and write your answers to the difficult questions. One of my favorites is “what’s your favorite creative block” from Week 4. Yes, we have “favorite” negative behaviors. (For me, that block is sitting and watching television or YouTube for far too many hours of my day. It’s a small wonder that I end each day wondering where the day went and why I feel like I never have any time to take care of important things.)

Did I become creatively unblocked? I’m not so sure about that. But then I’m an artist and practice art a lot of the time, and to be honest, a lot of the discussion in this book seems geared a little bit more towards people who pretty much never practice art for all the reasons she lists: “it’s unpractical”, “there’s no time”, “I’m not good enough”, etc.

I did manage to squeeze in a few illustrations and paintings while actively working through the book. I even shifted gears and made some Coptic stitch sketchbooks for a change of pace. Part of what kept me going there, however, was hosting and participating in World Sketchbook Month. I honestly may have done less were it not for WSBM.

That said, I still felt a bit on the uninspired side, and maybe that’s really only because I just needed to give myself a bit of a break from constantly creating for probably the last nine or so months.

What I DID get out of this book were some valuable exercises on coming back to myself and giving myself the attention I need and deserve. This book guided me towards becoming more available to myself, not just emotionally, but also in just quality time spent with myself.

The Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates help with this, as well as a lot of her other weekly tasks she assigns at the end of each chapter. Identifying areas where we continually block ourselves, toxic relationships, etc.

This book is much more than just “get out a sketchbook and draw” or “sit down and write a new chapter every day”. In fact, it seems she spends little time on pressuring us to actually do specific creative exercises, but instead encourages us to be kinder and gentler to ourselves and clear out the obstacles we have in our lives that prevent us from pursuing our creative dreams.

I’m glad I finally picked this book up and gave it my full attention and participation. I do feel like I’ve grown in positive ways and that I’m a different person now than I was 12 weeks earlier.

I enjoyed the book and the exercises so much, I picked up her second book “Walking in this World” to continue the journey. I’m someone who seems to always require a project to be working on/towards. I’m looking forward to discovering more and more about myself and this beautiful world, and taking part in more purposeful activities that encourage me to take good care of myself, and, in the long run, support my creativity.

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Have you read and done the work in “The Artist’s Way”? How long ago? Have you gone through it multiple times? What did you get out of it? Or have you heard of it but not been interested?

Share your experience in the comments below.

Thanks for dropping by and taking a few moments to read about this experience. I hope it clears up some misconceptions about this book and you feel encouraged to give it a try yourself. Who knows what will come up for you?

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

“The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron
“Walking in this World” by Julia Cameron
“It’s Not Your Money” by Tosha Silver

Paul Rubens 100% Cotton Hot Press Sketchbook Review

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

I’ve finally come around to trying out one of the Paul Rubens brand 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks. I stayed away from them for so long because of the perforated edges in the sketchbooks. When I work in a sketchbook, I generally want the pages to be permanently secured inside.

Well, while shopping for new sketchbooks to try, I came across this sketchbook and was really drawn to the price (about $10* at my time of writing this for the small 3.8″ x 5.2″ size. *Remember, price can change!)

When I went to purchase this sketchbook, I wasn’t paying any attention to the description beyond whether it was 100% cotton, so I’d forgotten about the perforated pages. So here I ended up with this sketchbook after avoiding it for so many years. Destiny, I suppose.

I’m kind of glad I forgot about the perforations, because this really did give me a chance to try out the paper and see what I thought of it. This actually turned out to be a nice sketchbook for the most part, perforation aside.

These are competitively-priced when comparing them to some of the other popular brands out there, like the white canvas-covered Etchr Sketchbooks. That’s a big draw when you can find yourself paying upwards of $50 for an A5 sketchbook with top-of-the-line paper in it (looking Koval’s way. Not a dig at them, though, they do use best-quality paper and their craftsmanship is beautiful.)

So lets get into what this sketchbook is like.

This is a hardcover sketchbook which appears to be covered with faux leather. They either come in black or pink, so depending on how daring you’re feeling, you can let your personality shine with your color selection. The front of the sketchbook has their logo printed on it in metallic gold.

It comes shrink-wrapped in plastic with their branding wrapped around the book. The book features a more-than-generously long ribbon bookmark, but no elastic closure band.

I could do without the bookmark and would rather have had a closure band, as this sketchbook tends to alligator open.

Sample of the book fanning open due to lack of an elastic closure. Stickers not included!

Instead of watercolor end pages, this sketchbook uses black paper. I suppose it’s a kind of nice aesthetic touch, although it prevents you from doing any sort of a wet media opening spread.

The back of the sketchbook features a pocket where you can stick business cards and the like. I tucked the packaging label inside here in case I want to refer to it for future reference, although most of it is in Chinese. (Paul Rubens brand art supplies are manufactured in China.)

I reserved the back end pages for scribble tests and the like.

This book is case-bound but features perforated pages. Not ideal, I think, for permanent storage of your artwork in a sketchbook, but ideal, perhaps for those of you who like to use sketch pads and remove your artwork.

As is typical with most case-bound sketchbooks, the first and last spreads in the sketchbook will not lay flat. I consider those pages sacrificial any more and just use them for scribbles, ink tests, etc.

On to the paper itself.

It’s a nice, thick 140-lb (300gsm) paper, very similar to the paper in the Baohong sketchbook I reviewed last. I definitely appreciate thicker paper in my sketchbooks since it helps reduce warping.

From what I can tell, these 100% cotton sketchbooks only come in hot press (and maybe that was another reason I’d never bought one before, as I tended to work exclusively on cold press for quite a while.) They have a cold press paper, but it’s 50% cotton.

This paper was really nice to work on. I did a few watercolor-only paintings in this, and it did a great job. The texture of the hot press paper supported all my work with Neocolor II pastels wonderfully, as well as my Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor colored pencils. It also took ink nicely. I didn’t really see any feathering where the ink was concerned, and the paper did just fine with layers of wet media. It even did a beautiful job showcasing granulation with my watercolors. Colors looked beautiful and vibrant.

It held up nicely to masking fluid and washi tape, too, although I didn’t use either much in this sketchbook except maybe a couple times at the most.

There was a little bleed-through when painting an entire spread across the center. It’s just pretty impossible to make something water-tight when you have stitch binding. This is something to also watch out for when painting over the perforations. While paint didn’t just rush through the perforation marks, you can definitely see it peeking through on the back side of the page where you painted over the perforation.

The page count is 38 pages front and back. 40 if you want to count the somewhat unusable pages at the ends of the book that I mentioned earlier.

There’s very little difference in the texture of the pages from front to back, and I found I encountered minimal warping and bucking of the pages where I painted with watercolor.

So, would I recommend these sketchbooks? I think so, so long as the perforation doesn’t put you off. The price is really good compared to similar brands and really, the paper itself Is pretty nice. These sketchbooks also feel very well put-together.

In conclusion, this is a great product for any watercolor artist who enjoys working in sketchbooks on nice 100% cotton paper.

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Thick, 300gsm paper Hardcover Lay flat binding	No elastic closure Perforated pages

Have you used a Paul Rubens 100% cotton student grade sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Paul Rubens 100% Cotton Hot Press Watercolor Journal
Etchr Sketchbook
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Pastels
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes
QoR Watercolors
Platinum Carbon Ink
TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen

Baohong Academy 100% Cotton Hot Press Sketchbook Review

Another quality watercolor sketchbook.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

Just when I was starting to think the market had maxed out on 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks, I come across this little gem: the Baohong Academy Watercolor Sketchbook.

I’ve heard about Baohong paper maybe once before. It’s not something I see talked about much, at least in the artist circles I follow. However, a while ago, I stumbled on a YouTube video by Kris DeBruine talking about Baohong paper being one of the best, “student grade” 100% cotton watercolor papers you can find. Mind, she was talking about the paper itself, not sketchbooks.

First, my mind was blown. A student grade 100% cotton watercolor paper? Well, thanks to Baohong, yes, such a thing exists. Are you paying attention, Canson, Arches, and others? Truly, I’m used to student grade being terrible cellulose blends, so this was really amazing to me.

I was intrigued by her review of the paper so decided to try my luck to see if they actually made any sketchbooks. Lo and behold, they do! They are available in both hot and cold press. As of my writing this post, the cold press version comes in two different sizes, as well, while the hot press only comes in something close to an A6 (4.7″ X 6.2″). The product page for this on Amazon actually showcases both hot and cold press in at least three different sizes, but the Amazon store didn’t have them all. Perhaps they’ll stock more in the future.

Price-wise, I was a little disappointed to find that the sketchbooks weren’t really less expensive than some of the other popular brands out there, like the white canvas-covered Etchr Sketchbooks. I still wanted to try it out regardless. After all, I seem to have created a niche for myself in reviewing sketchbooks, especially watercolor sketchbooks. One more sketchbook to add to my review list!

This is a hardcover sketchbook which appears to be covered with faux leather that has a sort of “puffiness” to it, for lack of a better description. The back of the sketchbook has their logo embossed on it.

When you receive this sketchbook, you’ll note that they package it in a way to make it appear that the logo is on the front, with the elastic closure getting wrapped around the back of the sketchbook, instead of how you usually see most western brand sketchbooks wrapping the elastic closure around the front. I couldn’t get used to that reverse use of the elastic closure, so I flipped the book so the logo was on the back and used it that way.

Because of how they package this, they also put their UPC sticker on what I consider the “front” of the book. And, unfortunately, the UPC sticker does not peel off easily. Mine ended up leaving residue behind. I’m sure I could have probably removed it with maybe a razor, but I made my life a little easier by just putting a decorative sticker over the top of the residue, instead. Problem solved.

The elastic closure is pretty nice. One side of it is a smooth ribbon texture, while the other is very soft to the touch. It also feels really sturdy. It did a fine job of keeping the sketchbook closed while I traveled with it.

The end pages of this sketchbook are not watercolor, like you see with most watercolor sketchbooks. They’re a thick card stock. You can still draw on it – I even did an illustration with water soluble Neocolor II pastels and a light wash of watercolor around it, and the paper held up fine.

This sketchbook does not contain a pocket at the back like you see with some other brands. I usually tuck the labeling into those pockets when they’re available. Since this one didn’t have a pocket, I taped the label inside the back cover instead. I’m glad I do this, because who knows when I’m going to want to refer back to one of these several sketchbooks again later and wish to remember the details of the manufacturer.

I reserved the back end pages for scribble tests and the like.

This book is case-bound like most decent hardcover sketchbooks. It does not have a ribbon bookmark. I think I’ve mentioned in the past that a missing bookmark really isn’t a big deal to me. It’s not too hard for me to find my place as I work through a sketchbook…usually it’s just a matter of flipping to the last page that’s warping slightly.

This case-binding did end up creating that similar issue I see with most sketchbooks, where the first and last spreads in the sketchbook will not lay flat. I just considered those pages sacrificial and jumped straight to the pages that did lay flat in the rest of the book. This may be a point of frustration for some of you, so I thought it worth mentioning.

Now let’s talk about this student grade 100% cotton watercolor paper. I loooooooved it.

It’s a nice, thick 140-lb (300gsm) paper. What other sketchbooks have that weight of paper? My really nice, expensive sketchbooks, such as the Etchr Perfect Sketchbook and my Koval sketchbooks. And performance-wise, I’d say this student grade paper held up and performed just as well as those professional grade papers.

This makes this book a bit more of a value when you consider the cost of those other brands’ sketchbooks. For instance, the Baohong A5-size sketchbook runs about $30 on Amazon (while I’m writing this), while the A5 Etchr Perfect sketchbook would set you back $40. A similar-size Koval sketchbook runs about $50. But then I consider Koval sketchbooks to be in a league of their own. (Please remember prices and availability may change.)

Keep that quality in mind if you’re considering purchasing one of these sketchbooks.

This paper was wonderful to work on. Since I’ve sort of gravitated over towards doing more work with water soluble media and inks, I stuck with their hot press version. I did do a couple watercolor-only paintings in this, and it did a great job. The texture of the hot press paper, however, supported all my work with Neocolor II pastels wonderfully, as well as did a great job supporting ink. I didn’t really see any feathering where the ink was concerned, and the paper did just fine with layers of wet media. It even did a beautiful job showcasing granulation with my watercolors. Colors looked beautiful and vibrant.

It held up beautifully to masking fluid and washi tape, too. (I think I still have PTSD from the Viviva watercolor sketchbooks’ terrible paper that ripped off in chunks when removing washi tape.)

As with most stitch-bound sketchbooks, there can be possible bleed-through when painting an entire spread across the center. It’s just pretty impossible to make something water-tight when you have stitch binding.

I do want to back up a bit and talk about the size of the sketchbook again. I mention it’s an “A6” sketchbook, but I’m finding more and more that those sizing guides tend to be arbitrary, depending on the manufacturer. This book is actually a little larger than the Etchr A6 sketchbook, if you’re curious. This actually made this sketchbook a little bit of a challenge sometimes to pack with me, especially if I was trying to keep my bag of art supplies small.

The page count is 46 pages. 52 if you want to count the somewhat unusable pages at the ends of the book that I mentioned earlier. This is also the same amount of pages you get in an Etchr sketchbook.

There’s very little difference in the texture of the pages from front to back. You can spot the texture when working with dry media (or water-soluble media.) It’s nothing too terribly distracting in my view. Note, too, that they have “BAOHONG” watermarked on various pages. I don’t feel the watermark did too much to disrupt any work I did on those pages.

I found I encountered minimal warping and bucking of the pages where I painted with watercolor.

So, what’s my verdict? Would I recommend these sketchbooks? Absolutely. The price and the paper are just fantastic. I think the puffy faux leather cover takes a little getting used to, and it’s slightly larger size might throw some people off, but those are really honestly not big issues at all, as far as I’m concerned.

My only word of warning with these sketchbooks is that there appears to be widely varying shipping times on these. I assume they come from China. When I purchased mine, it arrived fairly quickly. But that was several months ago. As of my writing this, the product page on Amazon warns it could take one to two months to ship. That might not be all that appealing for some of you, especially if you’re itching to work in it right away.

These sketchbooks feel very well put-together and the paper is really nice to work on.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful product for any watercolor artist who enjoys working in sketchbooks on really nice 100% cotton paper.

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Thick, 300gsm paper Hardcover Lay flat binding Elastic closure	Not consistently available on Amazon Not a standard A6 size (larger) Possible long shipping times

Have you used a Baohong 100% cotton student grade sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Baohong Academy Watercolor Sketchbook
Etchr Sketchbook
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Pastels
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes
QoR Watercolors
Platinum Carbon Ink
TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen

Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook Review

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

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I’ve got one more sketchbook review for you, friends, before this year comes to a close!

I picked up this sketchbook since I’ve been on a bit of a dry media / ink-and-wash kick lately and wanted to continue venturing out beyond familiar 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks. Because I’d been so pleasantly surprised by the Arteza sketchbook I’d worked in last, I thought maybe there were other hidden gems out there waiting to be discovered.

This sketchbook came recommended by a few YouTubers as their favorite to work in so I decided I’d give it a try.

For reference I judge these kinds of sketchbooks on how well they handle various media, especially being capable of handling some watercolor.

The description on this sketchbook’s packaging says it is “natural white sketch paper with fine grain for defined pen control and delicate hatchings. Suitable for use with all dry-painting techniques in addition to wet colours.”

I’m not sure what “dry-painting” is, unless by that they mean colored pencil, pastel, etc?

The sketchbook contains 80 pages of 90-lb (190gsm) paper.

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I put several media to use in this sketchbook including ink, watercolor, colored pencil, water-soluble ink, a truly failed attempt at gouache (not the paper’s fault, but mine, as a terrible gouache artist), water-soluble pastels, and watercolor colored pencils.

The book is hard-covered with dark-grey stiff canvas. It is very sturdy and handled being crammed into my purse on multiple occasions just fine. The back of the cover is embossed with their logo.

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Size-wise, I feel this is a fairly “large” A6 at 4.1″x5.8″. It was certainly taller and a bit wider than my Arteza.

Arteza sketchbook pictured sitting on top of the larger Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook.

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Unique in most sketchbooks in this vein, this particular sketchbook actually does not come with an elastic closure. While I feel like elastic closures are kind of pointless in ways because they eventually deteriorate over time, I found myself missing this feature while working in this sketchbook because it tended to fan open when I had the book closed while not in use. I found myself stacking heavy objects on top of the sketchbook to keep it closed.

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You will also not find a back pocket popular with lots of sketchbook brands. I don’t feel back pockets are 100% necessary, however, I wanted a place to tuck some business cards so I took a small greeting card envelope and taped it in at the back of the sketchbook to provide myself with some storage.

The book appears to be case bound with stitch binding that allows it to open flat anywhere in the book. I found I had to do a bit of forceful pressing to get spreads to lie open all the way, but once they were open, they stayed that way. I do think the binding on this book feels really solid and like I won’t have issues with it someday falling apart.

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As with lots of sketchbooks, this one included a ribbon bookmark. At one point, however, I felt like the tail of the bookmark kept flopping in the way so I eventually tucked the tail in the back of the book and secured with with a little washi tape while I worked through the book. You’ll see from the photo that the ribbon had a really hard crease in it that it just wouldn’t relax out of. I’d probably need to put it under an iron to get the crease out. I’m still on the fence as to whether bookmarks are necessary in sketchbooks.

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The paper is smooth and a lovely white color. I wouldn’t say it’s bright white, but definitely much whiter than the paper in the Arteza sketchbook I reviewed previously. Because of its weight, it feels nice and sturdy, too.

The end pages in this sketchbook are the same paper as you find through the rest of the book, so that means you can start creating on the inside front cover of this book, if you desire. Since there wasn’t a built-in pocket on this sketchbook, I used the inside back cover to tape in the labeling for the sketchbook (I didn’t add the envelope until after).

The paper itself was kind of disappointing for me. I don’t think I’ll ever purchase another of these sketchbooks, unfortunately. The first thing I noticed is that it wasn’t great with multiple layers of wet media. Additional color over the top of existing color usually resulted in the lower layers of color starting to lift. It was pretty much impossible to achieve smooth gradients, for example. I’ll throw it a bone and say that it was nice that it at least tolerated wet media, even though it did a poor job of letting said media shine.

Another quirk I noticed with this paper is that my watercolors came out looking dull on it. They kind of greyed out, for lack of a better description. It was difficult to achieve much vibrance, as a result.

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It did a pretty good job not buckling, however, under lots of water. That was a nice feature.

As for other mediums, I think it handled them all fairly well. For ink, I noticed it would sometimes feather on some of the pages.

For colored pencil or wax pastel, I noticed the paper’s texture would show up underneath.

For water-soluble media like my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II pastels and watercolor colored pencil, I ran into the issue again of either the texture of the paper showing through when I didn’t wet the media, and then the issue of the color lifting when I did wet it. It felt like a “damned if you do or damned if you don’t” kind of scenario with these.

As far as value for the money, these are priced pretty similarly to other sketchbooks at about the $15 range for the A6 size. (Price quoted as I currently write this review. Prices may change.)

Unfortunately, I find myself not wanting to recommend this sketchbook. At least not if you like to work in sketchbooks the way I do. I’d rather default to the Arteza sketchbook, even though it’s paper is off-white. I just find the quirks of this sketchbook to be too many.

After all this experience of working in various sketchbooks I’m starting to realize that probably my “perfect” travel sketchbook for all of my ink-and-wash approaches would actually be a 100% cotton hot press watercolor sketchbook. They’re a bit more expensive, yes, but I think they’re just superior in every way.

In conclusion, I think if you really want to get this sketchbook, I’d probably stick with ink and only watercolor washes where you’re not expecting lots of vibrant pops of color with smooth washes.

Pros	Cons
Sturdy cover Heavyweight, smooth paper Hardcover Lay flat binding	Watercolors look dull Some ink feathering Doesn’t support multiple layers of wet media No elastic closure

Have you used a Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Hahnemühle Nostalgie A6 sketchbook
Platinum Carbon Ink
Noodler’s Heart of Darkness Ink
QoR Watercolors
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water soluble pastels
Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor colored pencils
TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen
Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen

Arteza Sketchbook Review

A surprising little budget-friendly dry media sketchbook that gets along with wet media, too!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

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Do not adjust your screen. You’re seeing it right. Another sketchbook review for a dry media sketchbook. What is this world coming to? (I’ll answer that… it’s a world where I start branching out and reviewing more than just watercolor sketchbooks!)

I finished filling this sketchbook in record time. About a month exactly. And if you’re observant, you’ll know when I fill a sketchbook quickly, it usually means it’s because I really enjoyed working in it. That was exactly the case with this surprising little sketchbook.

I’ve known about Arteza brand art supplies for a few years now. I think they came out strong on the market around 2018-2019.

I’ll admit I wasn’t too interested in them because they didn’t just focus on and specialize in one or two particular art supplies. Here’s a list of everything that they create (that I know of so far):

• Sketch pads and sketch books
• Colored pencils
• Watercolor pencils
• Graphite pencils
• Gel pens
• Brush pens
• Markers
• Fabric markers
• Acrylics
• Oils
• Gouache
• Watercolor
• Fabric paint
• Water brush pens
• Paint brushes
• Fineliner pens

Usually, when I see a business provide everything under the sun, it means they’re cutting corners, which means sub-par products. I dismissed Arteza as a low-grade budget art supply business. As a result, I pretty much steered clear of them. The only exception being that I purchased this sketchbook as a set – one of the pair was given away in a past World Sketchbook Month prize bundle. The other exception was a set of their gouache that I purchased because I wasn’t too sure if I’d really enjoy gouache, and artist grade gouache is hella expensive. (My enjoyment of gouache remains up in the air.)

I was pretty biased against this sketchbook from the start. I was expecting pretty shoddy paper that would feather with ink, bleed through, and disintegrate if I put even a hint of moisture on it.

I was greatly mistaken, and I’m happy about that!

So let’s talk about this sketchbook, shall we?

The sketchbook I purchased was a pocket-size sketchbook, measuring 3.5″ x 5.5″. It contains 88 pages of what they market as “premium” acid-free, heavyweight paper (118lb or 175gsm). Their branding states this sketchbook is “ideal for a variety of dry media”.

Dry media, hmmm? Well, you know what I do to dry media paper. We’ll get to that later, though.

The book is hard-covered with a black-dyed fibrous-looking material. It feels nice and sturdy, like it could take a decent beating and not get damaged. It was stuffed into my purse on multiple occasions and held up just fine. The back of the cover is embossed with their logo.

The book comes with an elastic closure, which I’m learning is a feature that I actually appreciate, despite that most elastic closures deteriorate over time and with use (I say that because the new sketchbook I’m working in now, a Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook, does not have an elastic closure, and I don’t like that the book has a tendency to fan open when not in use.)

I don’t think the elastic enclosure is as significant as the one on the Hahnemühle 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook I reviewed a couple months ago, however. I’m pretty sure the elastic on this Arteza sketchbook will wear out as time passes.

The book appears to be case bound with stitch binding that allows it to open flat anywhere in the book.

I had some issues with how this book was bound on a few spreads throughout. I believe what happened is the glue at the spine seeped through some of the bound edges between signatures, sticking them together. In order to get those particular spreads to lie completely open while working in the sketchbook, I had to pull them open, resulting in the paper tearing along those edges. Not ideal, by any means. I’d definitely much rather not have the sketchbook’s manufacturing create issues like this that leave me with damaged pages.

It includes a red ribbon bookmark and, interestingly, the back pocket is clear plastic, instead of the usual paper ones you find in similar sketchbooks. I’m not sure why they went with that material, other than that it’s sturdier than paper. But not so great when it comes down to being environmentally-friendly in the long term.

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The paper is off-white with very, very slight texture to it. I’m not particularly a fan of off-white paper. I’ll work with it, yes, but mostly I feel like it mucks with any color you put down on the page, and, when I’m taking photographs to share on Instagram, the yellow-ish tinge throws me off sometimes, making me think I need to adjust the lighting in the photo, when nothing’s wrong, it’s just the color of the paper.

The end pages in this sketchbook are the same paper as you find through the rest of the book, so that means you can start creating on the inside front cover of this book, if you desire. I actually did do an illustration that spanned across the entire first cover spread.

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The inside cover page includes a little pre-printed section for you to write your contact details on. One thing I didn’t like is that they added a section that says “As a reward…” (meaning I’m going to give you money if you give me back my sketchbook.) I don’t like that at all. If someone wants to state they’re going to give someone $5 or $500 for returning their lost sketchbook, let that be a decision to add at the artist’s discretion. Don’t pre-print a line in the book that forces people to put a dollar value on their work (and encourages people to feel they’re owed compensation for doing what a decent human being would normally do for free.)

So, let’s talk about the paper itself, because it deserves some serious accolades. And why is that? Because this dry media sketchbook handles wet media! And I’m not saying it tolerates just a single light wash of watercolor. It can handle layers of color, even wet-on-wet approaches, if you’re really wanting to make that happen.

This was super important for me because I really don’t like being stuck with only dry media. My primary medium is watercolor, and that means I love to play with it and utilize it wherever I can with my art.

Does the paper handle watercolor like a 100% cotton sketchbook? No. Perhaps probably more like a student-grade cellulose blend. So, do keep that in mind. I do not feel this sketchbook could ever replace a 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook. But it fills in nicely if you want to have a less expensive sketchbook for all your various mediums.

I cannot say for certain if the paper will warp and buckle under heavy applications of wet mediums since I stayed fairly conservative with those when I used them. I primarily did a wet-on-dry approach with most of the colored illustrations in this sketchbook. The one exception was a painting of leaves where, for the first layer, I tried out wet-on-wet, but it was only within the shapes of the leaves which means I didn’t saturate an entire page, which is where one typically sees warping.

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Speaking of other mediums, I tried my best to test several, including ink, water-soluble ink, watercolor, colored pencil, watercolor colored pencil, water-soluble graphite pencil, and a little gouache. It handled everything very nicely. Ink didn’t really feather much if at all, water-soluble mediums activated and blended easily, and the paper texture grabbed colored pencil pigment pretty well.

My only complaint with this paper, again, is that it’s off-white, so I do find colors come out a little less luminous than they would had they been on bright white paper. If Arteza came out with a bright white paper sketchbook some day, I’d definitely buy it.

As far as value for the money, these are very competitively priced. As of my writing this, you can purchase a set of two of these on Amazon for about $20, putting individual sketchbooks at $10 each. In comparison, a single Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook at this size is about $18, and a single Moleskine sketchbook is $18, as well. So you get a pretty decent sketchbook for almost half the price if you go with the Arteza.

So, do I recommend these sketchbooks? Absolutely. Given the choice, I will definitely purchase one of these over the previously mentioned Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook because the Arteza handles wet media while the Leuchtturm1917 does not. And, in comparison to the Moleskine, this sketchbook is simply much less expensive.

Finally, these sketchbooks also come in a variety of sizes, so if you want to go larger, you can. Sizes include this small 3.5″ x 5.5″, to a mid-size 5.1″ x 8.3″, and a larger 8.3″ x 11.7″.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful product for any artist who enjoys working with a variety of both dry and wet mediums without the expense of a 100% cotton paper sketchbook.

Pros	Cons
Paper handles wet media Heavyweight Hardcover Lay flat binding Elastic closure Competitively priced	Off-white paper Glue from binding causes some tearing when opening spreads Plastic back pocket

Have you used an Arteza sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Arteza 3.5″ x 5.5″ sketchbook
Platinum Carbon Ink
Noodler’s Heart of Darkness Ink
QoR Watercolors
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Colored Pencils
Derwent Water-Soluble Graphite Pencils
Arteza Gouache
TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen
Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen

Leuchtturm1917 Sketchbook Review

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

This is probably a shocker to you. I’m reviewing a sketchbook that’s not a 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook.

As I’ve been writing the review for this sketchbook, I feel I should say right now that I’m approaching the use and review of this sketchbook from someone who likes to switch up her media, and really, really likes to use watercolor. If you’re the same, then read on. If you really only like to use ink in your sketchbooks, I’ll save you the trouble of reading this entire post and tell you right now that these sketchbooks handle ink just fine. Go get one, because I’m sure you’ll love it.

While it’s true that the majority of my artwork is done using watercolor, I also keep a pocket-size travel sketchbook on hand for those creative “emergencies” when I feel like doing some really quick artwork. And while, yes, there are pocket-size 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks, I prefer to reserve those types of sketchbooks for watercolor work since they’re significantly more expensive (usually almost twice as expensive.)

These kinds of pocket-size sketchbooks are actually what I started with when I transitioned slowly from doing mixed media art journaling to watercolor. That means that I did “force” watercolor into these books by varying means, especially towards the beginning of my using them. I eventually gave up on using watercolor in them, however, because I didn’t care much for the results, or didn’t care for the extra work involved in preparing pages to handle watercolor.

This watercolor painting was achieved by putting gesso down on the page first.

I’ve filled two of these Leuchtturm1917 sketchbooks now and I feel I’ve been able to get a good feel for their capabilities and what it’s like to work in them. You can view a flip-through that I did of my first one here on my blog. (And I have another flip-through of my latest completed Leuchtturm1917 coming up on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled!)

Since it’s a bit tedious typing out “Leuchtturm1917”, I’ll be referring to these sketchbooks as “Leuchtturm” here on out.

I was first introduced to Leuchtturm sketchbooks via the bullet journaling community. I have a few of their dot grid notebooks that I use strictly for journaling, as well as other pocket size notebooks with standard writing paper for general note-taking. I really do enjoy their quality and the experience of writing in them.

I decided if I liked their writing notebooks, then maybe I’d enjoy their sketchbooks, too.

I was at first pretty impressed with their sketchbooks, however, I’ll say that my only basis of comparison with these types of dry media sketchbooks is a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. (No, not the watercolor sketchbook I abhor, but their dry media sketchbooks.)

When compared to the Moleskine pocket sketchbook, these pocket-size Leuchtturm sketchbooks are a bit more hefty. Not only are they a little larger than the Moleskines, (about 1/4-inch taller), but they have more pages (Leuchtturm has 96, Moleskine has 80), and their paper weight is heavier (Leuchtturm is 180 gsm, Moleskine is 165 gsm.)

(Above, Moleskine sketchbook on top, Leuchtturm on bottom.)

Another thing I appreciated in the Leuchtturm over the Moleskine was the white paper. Moleskine’s paper is off-white.

Finally, price-wise, these two sketchbooks sell for around the same price. So, when I have the choice between a $16 sketchbook with 96 pages and a $16 sketchbook with 80 pages, you can bet I’m going to opt for the one that’s giving me more value for my money. (Prices only valid at the time of my writing this.)

So, lets get into the construction of these sketchbooks. The Leuchtturm sketchbooks I purchased where both hardcover in black. According to their website, they say the cover is made from “latex-saturated paper with a protective colour coating on water base”. Now, that’s a mouthful. So, they’re not leather, at least. Something I prefer when possible.

The fun thing about Leuchtturm sketchbooks is that they come in a variety of colors, so you’re not just stuck with black. They seem to come out with new colors every year.

The back cover comes embossed with their logo, and the book features an elastic band closure to keep your cover closed. I do find that over time and repeated use, this elastic closure starts to become loose, however, so don’t expect something that’s going to last indefinitely.

These sketchbooks have a back pocket for tucking away scraps and business cards and the like. Another nice touch that the Leuchtturms come with is a small set of stickers that you can use on the cover and/or spine of your sketchbook. I’ve used the spine stickers, but again, after they’ve been sitting for a while, I am finding that the sticker is starting to peel. I may have to eventually resort to just pulling the sticker off and writing the details of the sketchbook on the spine with marker (I use metallic marker for black-covered sketchbooks.)

These sketchbooks also come with a fairly long ribbon bookmark.

They are case-bound, which means they use a combination of stitching and glue to keep the signatures together. Their binding allows for these sketchbooks to lie flat when open so they’re not a headache to work in while drawing.

Overall, their production quality is pretty top notch, unless you want to subtract points for the elastic closures eventually giving out.

Now let’s discuss the paper itself. As I mentioned earlier, I started using these sketchbooks when I was still doing some mixed media work, so I approached my first Leuchtturm with that kind of intention and technique.

These sketchbooks hold up to mixed media approaches well, especially if you’re tackling it from an art journaling angle. Which is to say, putting down a layer of gesso on the page first before adding your wet media—be it acrylics or watercolor—for example.

Mixed media art journal approach in the Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook.

I did try a little watercolor here and there directly on the paper before prepping it with gesso or watercolor ground. The results weren’t satisfactory, so whenever I knew I was going to use watercolor in the sketchbook, I put down the aforementioned base first.

I’m going to emphasize here that this paper does NOT like water. It soaks in immediately and then the paper’s texture changes. This is even when you’re trying to be really conservative with how much water you’re using. It still will react unfavorably.

Sample of how the paper responded very poorly to light application of watercolor.

If you’re thinking maybe you can get away with using some watercolor pencils in this sketchbook, laying down color then going over it with a damp brush… think again. (Yes, I tried it so you don’t have to.)

Results from wetting watercolor pencil.

This is not a good sketchbook if you like to throw down just quickie splashes of color in wet mediums, unless you’re okay with the paper starting to wrinkle and warp and its losing it’s initially smooth texture.

You’ll see in my first Leuchtturm I did plenty of such approaches. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and went with the flow. But at that time I was okay with the quirkiness of it. Since I’ve grown pretty spoiled with 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks, I have less patience for such quirks. But, I’m mentioning this because I’m sure there’s plenty other artists out there who don’t mind quirky things like what I described, either.

Now, when it came to putting down ink, it handled it beautifully. It barely feathers, so if you’re wanting nice, crisp lines, this sketchbook shines. It handled Pigma Micron pens fine, Faber-Castell PITT artist pens fine, and fountain pen ink fine, with absolutely no bleed-through or ghosting.

I caution if you want to use bottled india ink in juicy washes, you’re going to run into the same problems I had with watercolor. Prep the paper first with gesso if you want to go that route.

India ink “galaxy” painting fail.

When it came down to graphite and colored pencils, I’m going to give this paper a “meh”. This paper is really, really smooth. I find, personally, that I prefer my paper to have just a little bit of texture (closer to say, hot press watercolor paper), than having the paper super smooth when putting down graphite or colored pencil. I find the texture helps grab the pigment from the pencils a little better. When I gessoed a page first then put down colored pencil, it worked really nice. (But again, unless you love using mixed media, who wants to put down gesso and wait for it to dry every single time you’ve been hit with creative inspiration? I prefer to be able to get to the creative work right away instead of having that barrier right at the beginning.)

I’m only mentioning the above challenges with wet media because I’ve found another pocket size sketchbook that actually handles watercolor okay, despite the sketchbook being marketed for dry media use only. The Arteza brand is really impressing me so far. (I’ll review that sketchbook after I’ve filled it and have put it through its paces.) I know there are a lot of artists out there, like urban sketchers, who combine ink with light washes of watercolor who also might not want to spend lots of money on a 100% cotton sketchbook.

Of course, one could argue just using a sketchbook with student-grade cellulose watercolor paper, too. And I’ve thought about that for the kind of work I put in these particular sketchbooks. However, It think I could run into the trap of starting to expect the paper to handle watercolor better than it does. At least with sketchbooks like the Leuchtturm and the Arteza I just mentioned, I’m very very conscious that the paper isn’t really watercolor paper, so I need to adjust my approach and expectations accordingly.

So, would I recommend this sketchbook? It’s a toss-up. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, if you’re only going to use ink in it, then yes. The smooth paper is great. If you like to use graphite or colored pencil, then my answer is “not really”. I feel the paper is too smooth for nice coverage from your pencils. If you want to use it for mixed media, I say “yes, only if…” the “only if” meaning only if you put down gesso on the paper first. If you want to put down wet media right on the paper without prepping it first, then I say “definitely no.”

Personally, I don’t think I’ll ever purchase a Leuchtturm sketchbook again, simply because I don’t want to be limited to only dry mediums in my sketchbooks.

It was fun to write this review because it forced me to go back to my earlier sketchbooks and open them up and look at the works I’ve done in the past. I have to say my first Leuchtturm particularly has a lot of pieces in it that I still really enjoy.

This painting was done with acrylics where I prepped the paper with gesso first.

Pros	Cons
Hardcover Inside back pocket Lay flat binding Elastic closure Smooth, heavy white paper Handles ink beautifully Good for wet media if you gesso paper first	Paper does not handle water at all Smooth texture not great for pencil

Have you used a Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Leuchtturm1917 Pocket Sketchbook
Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook
Arteza Pocket Sketchbook

Hahnemühle 100% Cotton Sketchbook Review

More 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks on the market!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

I came across this sketchbook by chance a few months ago when I was looking for new 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks to include in the giveaway bundle for this year’s World Sketchbook Month. It didn’t make it into the bundle since I wanted to test it out for myself before including it in a giveaway.

Usually, I swing by Amazon to check the latest stock, but only the usual suspects like the Etchr Sketchbook were showing up. I was looking for something new, so I swung by Dick Blick’s web site for a change of pace. Maybe they had something new?

Much to my surprise and excitement, they did have something new! The Hahnemühle 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks. I’ve seen Hahnemühle sketchbooks before, but none of them were ever 100% cotton, so I never bothered with them. I knew they made watercolor blocks in 100% cotton, however, and that many artists seemed to enjoy their 100% cotton paper.

As of my writing this, these sketchbooks seem to primarily only be available at art specialty stores like Dick Blick. In fact when I purchased it several months ago, it was only available there. Checking their site today, however, I found Amazon has limited stock right now. Hopefully these sketchbooks will be more readily available in more sizes on Amazon in the future. That way Prime members can take advantage of free shipping!

One of the bonuses to these sketchbooks is that they’re pretty competitively priced. A similar-size A6 Etchr Sketchbook with the white canvas cover goes for about $20 on Amazon. As of my writing this, the A6 Hahnemühle 100% cotton sketchbook at a slightly larger size goes for about $18 on Dick Blick.

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical of the sketchbook at first. I wasn’t sure how I felt about its hard canvas cover, or the fact that it didn’t have the usual pocket on the inside back cover like you find in other popular hardcover sketchbook brands. Mostly, I wasn’t sure about the paper. I’d never used Hahnemühle paper before so I had no previous experience with it. The paper also felt a little thin to me, despite its being 250g. Its texture was minimal, too, considering it’s marketed as being cold press. Sometimes when I at first experience paper with a thickness and texture like this, it makes me think I’m dealing with cellulose paper—my watercolor nemesis.

It didn’t take me long, however, to start to really appreciate this little sketchbook.

First, let’s talk about the cover. I discovered I really enjoyed the hard black canvas cover. It felt sturdy through all its use and abuse during World Sketchbook Month. I even took it traveling with me and it held up just fine to being stuffed in a bag.

The elastic closure on it also feels significant. I daresay that it feels like it will hold up better over time than the elastic closures on my other sketchbooks like the Etchr and, while not a watercolor sketchbook, the Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook. (I use my Leuchtturm1917 for dry media work – never watercolor. And right now, out of absolute astonishment, I just realised I’ve never posted a review on the Leuchtturm1917. That will have to make my “to do” list.)

The back of the cover is also embossed with their logo. Something that seems like a standard anymore with most hardcover sketchbooks.

Now, on to the interior. The book appears to be case bound with stich binding that allows it to open flat anywhere in the book. A couple pages felt a little tight throughout the book, and I think that was primarily the glue just giving way when I opened to a few of the spreads.

You do need to be mindful of possible bleed-through when painting an entire spread across the center. This seemed to happen most often at the stich points in the middle of a given signature (water would run through the punctures where the thread was stitched through.) Anymore this seems to be pretty typical of sketchbooks, so I no longer feel like a sketchbook should get docked points for this happening. It’s just pretty impossible to make something water-tight when you have to use stitch binding.

And, while this sketchbook does not contain a back pocket, like with a couple other sketchbooks I’ve tested (the Koval and the Strathmore), this sketchbook did, at least, include a ribbon bookmark.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I can ultimately live without a back pocket. Although I do think they serve as a nice place to tuck away the branding sleeve that goes around the sketchbook so I can refer back to it. I solve this problem with such sketchbooks by just taping the label to the inside back cover.

One issue I found with the ribbon bookmark was that it apparently left a ghosted mark inside the sketchbook where it had initially been tucked away before being sold. I suspect maybe the paper itself was still very very sightly damp when they closed the ribbon into the book. The marks it left behind only affected the single spread where it had been stored, so it wasn’t too terrible. Hopefully this was just a random book that missed quality control. I saw this happen in one of my Etchr Signature Series Perfect Sketchbooks. That was more upsetting considering how expensive the book was. (I admit I haven’t even yet begun to paint in that book!)

Just like with the Koval sketchbook, you can paint in this book literally from cover-to-cover since there is no pocket on the inside back cover. The inside cover pages of the book are the same watercolor paper that you find throughout the rest of the book. You can start your painting immediately on the inside of the cover, if you’d like, and carry it all the way through to the inside back cover. I didn’t do that with mine, but it’s nice knowing I have that option.

The paper in the sketchbook was ultimately very pleasant to work on, despite my initial doubts considering its texture and weight. There’s a very slight difference in the texture between the front of the paper and the back, but not so much that it creates a completely different painting experience on opposite sides. In short, you can paint on every single piece of paper front and back. That is always a huge deciding factor for me when it comes to choosing to purchase any given brand’s sketchbook again. If I can really only paint on one side, forget about it. I don’t like half of my sketchbook being basically useless because the back side of its paper is a nightmare to paint on.

The paper handled all of my typical usage and demands very well, with only one exception when it came to removing tape. Unfortunately the paper would tear if I wasn’t very slow and careful when removing tape. This seemed to happen regardless how tacky the tape was. Masking fluid, however, seemed to come up fine – thank goodness, because I used masking fluid quite a bit in this sketchbook.

It also handled multiple layers with heavy washes just fine, and it even did pretty good with colored pencil (watercolor colored pencil) and ink. The smoother texture, at least, ensured my pens didn’t skip too heavily when writing or sketching with my Pigma Microns in the book, and the tooth was just enough to allow me to lay down colored pencil without heavy skipping, too. It even handled gouache just fine (I did a lot of timid playing with gouache in this sketchbook.)

Colors looked beautiful and vibrant on the paper and it did a decent job showing granulation, as well.

Because the paper in this sketchbook isn’t extremely thick, it did warp and buckle a bit, but not so much that I wanted to chuck it through a window. I found that simply closing up the book and putting it under a heavy weight after finishing a painting helped flatten out the pages a bit, just not completely (note, I did this when the page was completely dry, of course). I do imagine, however, that in larger sizes the warping and buckling might get more pronounced.

To be honest, when I consider the paper quality in these sketchbooks, it actually feels more similar to the paper in the Etchr Perfect Sketchbooks, which is really nice paper. So when it comes down to pricing, the Hahnemühle sketchbooks come out as the winner, because an A5 in the Etchr Perfect Sketchbook runs closer to $40, whereas an A5 in the Hahnemühle is about $30. Plus, Hahnemühle doesn’t require you to purchase a bundle of three sketchbooks. That’s very appealing, in my book.

Now we’re on to the question: would I recommend these sketchbooks? I definitely say “YES!” In fact when I’m in the market to purchase another watercolor sketchbook, I’m thinking I might actually go for one of these over the white canvas-covered Etchr sketchbook (which I’ve really, truly enjoyed). I think that says a lot to how pleasantly surprised I was to work in this sketchbook.

These sketchbooks feel very well put-together and the paper is really nice to work on, especially considering the minimal skipping when using ink and colored pencil. One of the bigger selling points for me is that they’re very competitively priced. These are not an expensive splurge like the Koval sketchbooks (which I also love, but my bank account does NOT…)

Finally, something I didn’t discuss earlier, but these sketchbooks actually come in a nice variety of sizes and orientations in both portrait and landscape, from A6 – the size I tried (4.1″ x 5.8″) to A4 (8.3″ x 11.7″). Plus they actually have square sketchbooks (5.5″x5.5″ and 7.7″x7.7″)!

In conclusion, this is a wonderful product for any watercolor artist who enjoys working in sketchbooks on really nice 100% cotton paper.

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Stiff paper that is sized well providing a similar experience from front to back Hardcover Lay flat binding Elastic closure	Not consistently available on Amazon Paper tears easily when removing tape

Have you used a Hahnemühle 100% cotton sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Hahnemühle Sketchbooks on Dick Blick
Hahnemühle Sketchbooks on Amazon
Etchr Sketchbook
Strathmore Travel Watercolor Journal
Koval Sketchbooks
Pigma Micron pens
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes
QoR Watercolors

Viviva Inktober 2020 Special Edition 100% Cotton Sketchbook Review

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

“Uhmmm… Why are you reviewing a sketchbook from 2020 when it’s 2022, Kelly?”

Great question! I’m glad you asked.

Because it took me two years to finally finish working in it.

Because I didn’t particularly enjoy working in this sketchbook.

Because I really grew to dislike the paper in it.

I can assure you that this sketchbook might have taken me two more years to finish if I hadn’t dedicated it during part of 2021 to use for lessons in the Modern Watercolor Botanicals book I received as a gift at the end of 2020.

I’m really disappointed, too, because I really wanted a square watercolor sketchbook to work in, and at the time, this was the only square 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook out on the market.

Thankfully, that has changed in recent years. Hahnemühle and Koval both have square sketchbooks available now, with much, much nicer paper. I’m currently working in a massive 9.8″x9.8″ Sketchilla sketchbook by Koval and it’s a dream to work in because its filled with Fabriano Artistico paper.

I dislike the paper in this Viviva sketchbook so much I’m close to demoting its worthiness to that of a Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook. And if you’ve been following me on this blog at all, I think you’ve learned that I do not like the Moleskine Watercolor sketchbooks. (Again, their dry media sketchbooks… great. Watercolor sketchbooks… terrible.)

So, lets get into the details of this sketchbook. There’s a few things I liked about it, despite my distaste for the paper. This was a special Inktober 2020 edition, so it came branded with that information on the front cover.

I didn’t buy this sketchbook because I’m a massive fan of Inktober. As an artist who primarily works with watercolor, you probably get that I’m just not that in to ink. This 2020 edition also came out, unfortunately, when the Big Scandal broke out with Inktober’s creator and another creator over a dispute about plagiarism. Two years later, I’m really not sure how the issue got resolved, if it did at all. Feel free to go down the rabbit hole yourself some other time if you’d like, though, to figure that out. Again, I didn’t purchase this book because it’s a special Inktober edition. I purchased it because it was the only square 100% cotton watercolor sketchbook available at the time.

Special edition branding aside, this sketchbook came with a black leather cover. It includes an elastic closure and a pocket on the inside back cover. No ribbon bookmark (not a big deal to me, since I don’t utilize ribbon bookmarks much in my sketchbooks.)

One of the first problems I had with this sketchbook was that it arrived damp. Yes, damp. I think this happened because it was during a special edition launch and they were in a big hurry to get the ordered sketchbooks out the door ASAP. Because it was damp, the cover actually bent and warped and it’s pretty much stayed that way ever since. Even two years later. It’s probably difficult to tell in the photos, but trust me, the warp is there.

I don’t know if that continues to be a production problem for them or not. I hope for other artists’ sake, it’s not.

This sketchbook is bound in a manner that when you open the book, the signature block is not attached to the front cover, only the back. I think this is actually a pretty smart approach, as it spares the user from having to possibly fight with the first page or two being almost unusable depending on how the book was secured to the front cover.

In looking at the book, I feel like it uses perfect binding, meaning the signatures are all just secured to one edge by glue. I cannot find any evidence of stitching. In fact, I don’t think this book actually consists of signatures at all. It’s just a stack of single sheets that are perfect bound.

This binding, however, allows for the pages to lay nicely flat when you have the book open.

The first page of the sketchbook is also a sheet of normal (non-watercolor) paper. I think it’s there as a means to be a protective barrier.

All the aforementioned things (aside from the sketchbook arriving damp and having the cover warp) were all pretty decent pros to the sketchbook. Meaning, structurally, it’s pretty nice, and if they made these sketchbooks like this with really good 100% cotton paper, I’d be willing to try them out again.

But alas, now we come to the paper. The sad, sad paper.

The first thing I noticed about this paper was that it reminded me of handmade paper. It has a super bumpy texture, and here and there little dark flecks of some kind of material in some of the pages. The bumpy texture isn’t really toothy like the Winsor & Newton watercolor journal’s paper. It’s a sort of smooth bumpy if that makes any sense. It also feels, for lack of a better description, soft. I saw one reviewer on Amazon describe its being like a paper towel.

It was really odd to paint on. Yes, it handled watercolor okay…ish… but this felt like a mix between cellulose and cotton. It held up okay to some layering, but I did find my colors seemed to blend weird if I got really heavy with them. Sometimes it just seemed like the water just sat there on top of the page and I had to wait for it to soak in. Other times it absorbed but then just seemed to create really muddy results.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t do a lot of paintings with layers in this book. Most of what I did involved one two two layers max. I think I would have got even more frustrated with this book had I tried more layered paintings in it than I did.

Where I really saw red was when I did a small painting in the book with watercolor colored pencils. I masked off the edges of it with washi tape because I wanted it to have clean edges. After the painting was dry, I started to remove the tape and found that the tape had ripped off the top layer of the paper with it! Just… ugh! I also found I ran into similar problems if I got a little too vigorous with my eraser. Up came the paper.

No. Just… no. This is not an experience I ever want to have in a sketchbook. Sketchbooks should be able to handle abuse. They’re a place for hashing out ideas and experimenting, after all.

The paper ripping up was the final nail in the coffin for this sketchbook in my opinion. I really lost much motivation to do any further work in it after that. I decided to keep it aside just to use for mandalas and wreathes since the square shape works nicely for those sort of compositions. Since I don’t paint wreathes or draw mandalas often, that meant this sketchbook didn’t get much love up to my final artwork in it.

Another note that might be a drawback for some of you, but the paper is a cream color, not bright white. I was indifferent to the color of the paper. I see the benefits of working on off-white and toned paper versus white paper. I think they all have their uses. But if paper that’s not bright white isn’t for you, then this sketchbook should be avoided (even after I warned you about the paper quality.)

So, would I recommend this sketchbook? No. Definitely not. If you’re used to quality 100% cotton watercolor paper like what’s found in Koval sketchbooks, and even in the white canvas Etchr sketchbooks, this will not be a pleasant painting experience for you.

I will throw this sketchbook a bone and say that it’s a small step up from cellulose blend papers like what’s found in the Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook, but it’s not really a massive improvement, in my opinion.

In conclusion, I recommend avoiding this sketchbook unless you’re feeling experimental.

Pros	Cons
Hardcover Inside back pocket Lay flat binding Elastic closure	Bizarre cotton paper does not handle watercolor as should be expected Paper tears when removing tape

Have you used a Viviva 100% cotton sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Viviva Sketchbook I provide this link only if you really insist on trying this sketchbook out. But I encourage you to consider the other following sketchbooks instead:
Hahnemühle Sketchbooks
Etchr Sketchbook
Koval Sketchbooks

Koval Sketchbook Pro, Saunder’s Waterford 100% Cotton Watercolor Paper Review

Amazing, high-quality sketchbooks by a small business.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. A list of materials can be found at the end of this post. As usual, please note that any links to Amazon products within this post are affiliate links, meaning I make a minute commission should you choose to purchase something via the link. This is at no additional cost to you. That said, I appreciate your patronage by using the links to purchase products. While small, any amount of money helps me to keep making art and sharing it with the world.

At long last, it’s time for another watercolor sketchbook review. This one took me a while because I went on a brief hiatus earlier this year where I wasn’t doing much artwork at all. I also got sidetracked using a different sketchbook in which I did a bunch of art practice. I’m glad I didn’t use my Koval Sketchbook Pro for the practice, however. Although, when I think of it, all my art is simply practice. Perhaps some art is just more focused practice than others. For those more “focused” pieces, however, I definitely like to use my higher-quality sketchbooks.

So how did I learn about Koval Sketchbooks? Honestly, I’d probably have never known they existed until I’d watched a YouTube video by Teoh where he reviewed his collection of 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks.

As you know, I am always on the lookout for 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks!

I did a quick internet search and found Koval’s website. I’ll be honest in that I was a little concerned how purchasing and shipping would work out since Koval is a business based in Poland*. At the time, I was also ordering the sketchbook shortly after the onset of the global pandemic. Shipping was a nightmare even within the United States, so I was apprehensive how it would work from out of the country.

*UPDATE August 2022: Koval is now selling one of their sketchbook designs through Amazon! Hopefully they’ll stock more of their sizes with Amazon, but now you have an option aside from buying direct from his Poland shop.

Putting my shipping anxieties aside, however, I drooled over all the options Koval was offering on their site at the time (they now have even more amazing options). All hand-bound sketchbooks made with varying weights, qualities, and brands of watercolor paper. I wanted the cream of the crop, however, so I opted to get the 5.5- by 7.8-inch sketchbook made with 100% cotton Saunders Waterford paper with a weight of 300gsm.

(At the time of my writing, this particular sketchbook is not available. Koval appears to have a rotating inventory of available products, so check their site often for updates and changes. Consider this review as something that should give you an idea of the quality craftsmanship of these sketchbooks, and a recap of the customer experience more than a paper review.)

The sketchbook arrived after what felt like a lengthy time-frame. When it came in the mail, the package seemed bulkier than I expected. When I opened the package, much to my surprise, the owner, Tomasz, had included a free 50% cotton watercolor sketchbook with a note apologizing for the time it took to get the sketchbook sent out to me.

I was very impressed with his proactive approach. I wasn’t even upset with the time delay in the shipping – again, remembering we were in the midst of a pandemic, I wasn’t expecting lightning-fast turnaround. I sent him a thank you message for the kind gift. I paid his generosity forward and included that sketchbook in 2020’s World Sketchbook Month giveaway.

The Sketchbook Pro itself arrived in a nice custom-size box. Inside the box, beneath the sketchbook, were also several sample-size cards of their various paper stock. A great little detail that can help you perhaps decide what paper you’d like in your next purchase with them.

Shipping and customer service experience aside, let’s talk about the sketchbook.

This sketchbook is absolutely beautiful. It comes as a hardcover book with a pretty blue faux-leather cover. The back of the cover is embossed with their logo. The book appears to be bound in case binding-style, a manner which allows the pages to lay flat while working in the sketchbook.

I did experience a bit of separation between signatures where I could see the glued section at some of the seams, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker for me. Although, I wonder how well the book will be holding together a decade or two down the road?

I’m also happy to report that there appeared to be fairly minimal bleed-through at the seams when I did any full-page spread paintings.

One of the differences with this sketchbook compared to other popular brands is the removable band closure. Similar in functionality to the Strathmore Watercolor Travel Journal I reviewed previously, the band is not attached to the sketchbook. Meaning you can remove it completely while you work. I opted to keep the band off and stored away until I was completely finished using the sketchbook.

The elastic of the band feels sturdy (it’s not rubber like the Strathmore’s). They included a cute little illustrated insert with the sketchbook showing suggested uses for the band (the insert calls it a “Rubberband”, but again, it’s elastic, not rubber. The discrepancy just could be a cultural thing… like how eggplant are called aubergine in some other countries).

Also different from the larger manufacture brands, this sketchbook does not contain a back pocket, nor a ribbon bookmark. Things that were absent, also, from the previously mentioned Strathmore sketchbook. Things that I also mentioned previously that weren’t a very big deal for me. I can live without those features.

Because of the absence of the back pocket, this also means you can paint in this book from cover-to-cover. Literally. The inside cover pages of the book are the same watercolor paper that you find throughout the rest of the book. So you can start your painting immediately on the inside of the cover, if you’d like, and carry it all the way through to the inside back cover. I didn’t do that with mine, but it’s nice knowing I have that option.

I chose to use the inside back cover, instead, to paste in the label that came wrapped around the exterior of the book. This is the best way for me to remember all the specifics about this sketchbook, short of writing it down.

The paper in the sketchbook itself was, of course, wonderful to work on. I’ve not used Saunders Waterford before. Not necessarily because I was avoiding it. I’ve just always gravitated toward Arches where it came down to a brand choice for papers. This sketchbook presented a perfect opportunity to test the paper out and see what I thought of it.

I feel like it handled all of my typical usage and demands very well – as I would expect a premium 100% cotton watercolor paper to do. Masking fluid, multiple layers with heavy washes… it even did an okay job with supporting colored pencil and ink. In particular, it didn’t skip too heavily when writing with an ink pen, as was the case with the really toothy Winsor & Newton 100% cotton watercolor paper.

Colors looked gorgeous on it and it showcased granulation beautifully.

The thickness of the paper meant it also held up well on the pages where I used a lot of water. Excessive buckling and warping is something I really dislike in my sketchbooks. Sticking with heavier paper usually mitigates this. There was some warping, as pictured below, but not to the extent what you’d find in, say, a Moleskine “watercolor” sketchbook. (I put quotes around “watercolor” for Moleskine because I stand by my opinion that their “watercolor” sketchbooks are horrible.)

I’m also pleased to report that painting on either side of the paper felt like the same experience. Even the texture seemed the same. This is important to me because I feel if you get stuck with a sketchbook that really only has one workable side, you’re basically paying double for the book. In the case of this book, I had 44 pages (46 if you count the inside cover pages) to paint on. Had the back side of the paper been unusable, I would have been stuck with only 22 pages, instead. Given the cost of these sketchbooks, it’s pretty important all paper surfaces are usable!

Since I mentioned earlier that this particular sketchbook with this particular paper isn’t available at the time of my writing this, I will just take the time to say that what this speaks to is Koval’s educated selection in premium watercolor paper in their sketchbooks. They don’t cheap-out and go with a mystery brand. So expect good-quality paper in your Koval sketchbook.

Would I recommend these sketchbooks? I give an emphatic “YES!” These are high-quality with wonderful craftsmanship and attention to detail. The only drawback to these is their price-point. They are pretty expensive. They are comparably priced with the Etchr Signature Series Perfect Sketchbook. That said, I don’t think they’re gouging their customers, however, given that these use high-quality 100% cotton paper, which is expensive on its own. Consider the added time and materials to hand-bind these books then the cost feels more reasonable.

As of my writing this, they have also launched a new line of sketchbooks using lighter-weight papers, called their “Art” series. The highlight is that they still use high-quality 100% cotton watercolor paper, just with a lighter weight. I’m not sure I’d purchase any of those sketchbooks since, as I mentioned previously, I really dislike having my paper buckle. Lighter weight paper does that, as was my experience with the original Bynd Artisan Perfect Sketchbook.

In conclusion, this is a perfect product for any watercolor artist who enjoys working in sketchbooks on premium 100% cotton paper.

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Heavy 300gsm Hardcover Lay flat binding Removable, thick elastic closure	Expensive International shipping required for most sizes Rotation of stock means you might not find the same sketchbook twice

Have you used a Koval Sketchbook Pro? What are your thoughts on these sketchbooks?

Be sure to follow my Instagram account @kellyro77 to stay up-to-date on my creative endeavors.

List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Koval Sketchbooks
Koval Sketchbooks through Amazon
Strathmore 500 Series Watercolor Travel Journal
Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Paper Journal
Etchr Sketchbooks
Dr. Ph. Martin’s India Ink
Pigma Micron pens
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Binder Clips
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes
QoR Watercolors