Spiral-Bound 140lb/300gsm Cold-pressed Watercolour paper pad (26.5x26.5 cm, 20 sheet)

This large-ish pad is not only affordable and good looking but, most importantly, it has a terrific smooth watercolour paper. I've used it with Posca pens, collage, acrylic paints, water soluble materials, and stands most media without any gesso layer. Needless to say, I gesso the pages when I want to make sure that I can rub or lightly scratch the surface of my paintings. Acrylic inks will bleed if the pages are not gessoed.

 

I've  tried many watercolour pads and art journals as sketchbook, and this one is at the top of my list due to its quality and price. The only downside is the fact that I cannot open the spiral rings, which is a bit of an annoyance as I'd like to do that to work on each sheet individually without worrying about how to protect the pad from staining. Yet, I've found my way, and this is still a great sketchbook pad for watercolour, water-soluble media and acrylic paints of different viscosity.  

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Paul Rubens Hot-Pressed 50%-Cotton 300gsm Watercolor Journal (Pink, 5.2’’ x 3.8’’)

This is the second small journal I buy from this brand. I reviewed a slightly different journal in the past. This version has some of the design deficiencies I criticised in the other version sorted out.

The most important thing is that this journal has a wonderful thick smooth watercolour paper that is great for both watercolour and mixed media. I always gesso my pages with either white or transparent gesso, which protects the paper, gives it some tooth and allows me to apply wet media or scratch the paper a bit without any worry.
 
The satin pink cover is really pretty and girly; not the best quality but befitting the price.  I'm happy that this journal does not have the awkward inner pocket the other has because the journal opens/closes more naturally. The journal comes with the promised elastic band, which is necessary to keep all the sheets together once they've all been torn apart.
 
The main downside is that the dotted tearing indentation is not consistent throughout the journal pages, and some of them are badly punctured. That being the case, the tearing is not always clean and neat.
 
For the rest, a great mini journal for experimenting, doing small paintings or just as a travel sketchbook. The separated pages make great postcards too.

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The Wild Unknown Journal Hardcover by Kim Krans (Author)

I was super excited to get this art journal as I love Krans' tarot imagery and artwork. The excitement lasted while I browsed the book, but then, when the reality of the journal quality sank in, I felt equally disappointed.

EXCITED
> The whole journal design, colour scheme and Krans' artwork are very much my liking.
> This a great practice journal to get your creativity started, flourished or regained. You can use the journal to write, paint or collage, or all of them, whatever you want.
> I see this journal as suitable for children and beginner artists.
> The cover image (an eye in the centre of the labyrinth) really resonates with me because the creative process is just an insight into a soulful labyrinthine path that expresses itself through our eyes, psyche, and hands.
> Great hard-cover binding. The journal can be fully opened without you feeling that the pages are going to come off at the turn of the page. Besides, the hard cover makes the journal more elegant and durable.
> Fear of white page no more.
> I can use some of the pages in the book as collage paper into my artwork.

DISAPPOINTED
> The journal is intimidating, in a way, as the author's artwork is already done, and, in my case, I feel like a frog beside a princess.
> The paper is not especially good for anything liquid or inky unless you apply translucent/white gesso primer beforehand. Pencils are OK. Oil pastels need of a fixative as they don't hold well onto this paper surface.
> I don't find that prompts help me create anything meaningful to me. In that regard, to me, the journal is more a level-up colouring book than a journal.
> The hieroglyphs (decipher exercises) in the book, which I find delightful, are wrongly done. If you create a symbol and give it an equivalent letter, as Krans does, you then transcribe any text following this system. However, that's not the case and if you use the same equivalents you won't be able to transcribe some of the texts because the same symbols are given different equivalents in different pages.
> No ribbon bookmark. How could the editor forget that?!

OVERALL
I Love Krans' introduction and artwork, but the bad quality paper and the simplistic prompts do not help me create on this book. However, I owe to this journal the rekindling of my artistic pursuits on proper paper surfaces and with my own intuition as prompt. I will be using some of the pages to transfer images into my artwork or to incorporate them as collage elements into my artwork.

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