Moleskine Art Watercolour Pocket Notebook (black)

This is my first Moleskine. I now know  why people love these beauties.This notebook is specifically designed for watercolour and has a beautiful smooth 200gsm cold-pressed paper. The size is really pocket (3.5x5.5in = 9.53 x 1.91 x 14.35 cm), meaning that it can be easily carried in a small handbag or a large coat pocket for example. So, it's perfect for travelling or daily commute rides.

 

The cover is really good quality. The binding is fabulous and I can open the notebook fully flat. Besides, the stitching has no holes, so the paint doesn't bleed through them, like cheaper notebooks I own do. 

 

The 200 gsm (135lb) watercolour paper is smooth and a pleasure to work on. I use mixed media, with plenty of wet media, and these pages stand everything. I prep them with a coat of clear gesso to make them more resistant, but I own other journals where the gesso is not enough for the same use. So far, none of my paints, inks or watercolours has bled.  

 

I love the elastic band as the notebook tends to stay self-open after having the pages full open for a while, so, it helps correcting that. Also, it's necessary as most notebooks increase volume when fully painted. I'm not a fan of inner pockets placed looking towards the binding, like in this Moleskin, but it comes handy nevertheless. I miss the notebook having a bookmarking ribbon, something that I always like and use.

 

My notebook came with a quality control ticket in the pocket, something that I really appreciate. 

 

Any watercolour Moleskine is expensive, but I was lucky enough to grab this one heavily discounted. I often look up for catches like this on Amazon, so I was ready to 'shoot' when the sale popped up. 

Read More

Lightwish 100%-cotton 300gsm/140lb Watercolor Journal (4.7x4.7 in)

This is such a cute watercolour journal. It is not only affordable, as most Lightwish products are, but also has a good-quality 300 gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper. It's perfect for both watercolour painting and mixed-media. The size is ideal for travelling or as a carry-on sketchbook.

 

The paper has a bit of tooth to it, so it's a bit rugged. I've tested it with acrylic inks and paints with and without priming. The results are quite good. The paper takes a lot of water in. It buckles a bit when wet, but it recovers its flatness once dry. I've also tried it with  the same materials, adding clear gesso and the inks and paints run more smoothly and I can work the paper harder. 

 

The binding is excellent and I can open the pad almost flat without the stitching coming apart.  However, the colour tends to bleed down through the stitches holes. That might not be a problem if you don't paint the full spread or just focus on motifs on each page, do zentangle or drawing. Painting an inks drip down. Yet, for the price, this is a fab mini sketchbook.

Due to slightly textured surface, the use of fine white markers and Posca pens is not the best, unless the paper is totally dry and they go over a very dark colour.

 

The cover has a fabric-like texture in a beautiful turquoise colour. I like my journals to have the cover in different colours as this helps me easily identify different journals. This is important to me because I use them to explore different colours or materials.

 

The elastic band is a must because, once you start using the pad, this won't close fully. Besides, once the whole pad is used, the band will help close the notebook properly. 

Finally, the pad has a ribbon bookmark, something I really love.

Read More

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.  

Read More

Paul Rubens Hot-Pressed 100%-Cotton 300gsm Watercolor Journal (Black)

I wanted  a compact good-quality small notebook or journal just to do warm-up mixed-media exercises and experimentation, and this item seemed to fit the bill.

 

THE GOOD STUFF

> Very good-looking sketchbook.

> Good-quality off-white 300-gsm watercolor paper. I love its smoothness and tone. See details about my testing below. 

> Stitch perforated paper sheets, which tear off easily. 

>  It has a separator ribbon, something that I love because I use it a lot!

> The notebook measurements are 3.8’’ x 5.2’’, a pocket size that makes it perfect to carry in my small handbag or briefcase. Perfect for traveling as well. I wanted something that is easy to store and this can be stored anywhere easily. 

> Affordable. 

> Very lightweight.

DOWNSIDES 

> The product Amazon-page photo and description and what I got are not the same. I've already given feedback to Amazon as some of the photos and statements are misleading and don't t relate to the product I got at all.  

> Unrefined leather-like cover.

> The paper is excellent, but I wanted a good journal not good loose paper sheets.

> My item doesn't have the elastic band/strap mentioned/photographed in the description page. I find this not only deceiving, but also disappointing because it seems to be an issue not just with my notebook but with many reviewers'. A band is necessary in any small journal with detachable sheets because, eventually, they'll all be loose and the band is needed to tide them all up. 

> Bad quality binding, with some parts just glued and others loosely sewn (see my photos). The product page says that it's loosely stitched to allow the removal of the middle thread to have a double-spread or panorama sheet. That's good, but since the binding is so poor, not all the pages are thread-stitched, all of them are perforated and some of them detach on their own, how is this going to work?

> One of the sheets was already cut off when I opened the product. The pad came sealed (as per my photos) so ain't sure if that's a factory issue or the item was a re-purposed return.

> The separator ribbon edge is already loose-threading itself (see my photos). 

> The back cover inner pouch is glued with the opening facing the spine, which makes it not only difficult to use but also useless to me.

 

PAPER TESTING

I've tested the paper twice before posting this review. Herewith my first impressions. My first test was done with a non-gessoed sheet. As per my photos, I used watercolour pencils, waters-soluble crayons (Neocolor II, Tim Holtz) and markers (Posca, Tombow), oil pastels (Ohuhu), soft pastels (Munyo), acrylic ink (Liquitex), heavy and fluid acrylics (Golden) alcohol ink, alcohol markers(Faber Castell, Copic), archival ink refills (Ranger), Stabilo-All and China black pencils, my fountain pen; FC Pitt permanent-ink markers; metallic markers as well as an UNI white gel pen. The paper stood well, without bleeding, most things, included my two alcohol markers, which is impressive. I found the paper especially lovely and smooth when watercolouring Posca, Tombow, Necolor II and Stabilo All. Soft pastels extended well with water, even though they aren't water-soluble and cheap, but oil pastels were not good on this paper, yet my pastels are cheap. Alcohol inks bled (see my photo) and, in a lesser degree, archival undiluted ink.

 My second test was done on a sheet of paper with clear gesso added to it, as this is how I usually work. I used simple mixed media, acrylic paint mostly, but also aquarelle pencils and markers, and plenty of water. The paper was a pleasure to work with and it doesn't buckle at all. Truth to be told, I usually work heavily on the paper, more than in this case, adding collage, stitching and what's not; yet, I'm very satisfied with the quality of the paper. 

 

IN SHORT

I consider this Rubens journal to be a mediocre journal. The paper, on its own, is excellent. However, I'm not buying loose sheets of paper but a journal, so it defeats the purpose. I wouldn't give this as a gift, but it serves me well for what I need: to experiment with my paints and have everything neatly collected. I will have to supply the missing elastic strap myself and sew the separating ribbon. This journal seems like a degraded version of the advertised product, like a bad batch perhaps, and there are significant discrepancies between what it's described on the product page and what I got. Bear in mind that the same journal is listed on a separated page and marked as 'Amazon choice', but it's a bit more expensive. Either way, next time I buy this journal, if it's as it is now, I will return it.

 

Read More

Quill, Q Series sketchbook, Spiral bound, 110gsm, A4

This is a nice paper pad at a very good price. After using it and testing it, I can say it's only good for drawing with coloured pencils and graphite, nothing water-soluble or needing of the slightly amount of water. I bought this pad due to the price and to the fact that use cheap pads to clean my paint brushes from paint, when I have some acrylic paint left after a painting and then I use the pages as collage paper in my artwork. I also try new water-soluble crayons colours on them. In both cases this paper fails. Even thick acrylics create bumps on the paper back and the paper corners buckle; the same can be said of water-soluble crayons, which barely require any water. If there is some sort of wet area on a page and I close the pad, the pages get stuck and the spot area breaks off badly. Needless to say, the paper is useless for water colour painting or anything requiring of added water or soft body acrylics. For the rest, this paper is warm white paper, as per my photo, not black. Actually, I bought the pad thinking that it was black paper due to the description info so I was quite disappointed when I received a white paper pad. I won't buy it again.

Read More

Watercolour Paper Art Sketch Pad, 140 LB/300 GSM, 20 Sheets/40 Pages

I have this as a warm-up exercise pad to do mixed-media projects. I use a lot of liquid supplies: flow acrylic, inks, water drops, etc. and I've also pre-gessoed the pages before use. The paper is thick enough to withstand most of the media without bleeding and holding the painting pigments quite well. The paper texture is smooth and the colour white. For the price, this is an excellent watercolour and mixed-media paper pad.

My main disappointment is with the binding system. It 's supposed to open and close easily so that one can extract the page, paint on it and then put it back. I haven't been able to open the rings no matter how hard I've tried. Leaving the pages in the pad makes them prone to medium and paint transfer on the edges, even if I use some baking paper behind the sheet I'm using.

For the rest, very pretty cover, very good paper and very handy size to store away and do small projects. I'll buy again

Read More