Hi Dina, We never changed the paper. It has always been 122lb | 180gsm white paper. The only way the paper has changed is if our paper supplier is pulling a fast one on us. We have addressed it with them and they told us the same thing. That it has not changed. I hope that it was some sort of freak accident at the warehouse that caused this. I am more upset than you are, I assure you. We will get to the bottom of this. Anthony, Founder of illo sketchbook
Thanks for responding to the community, I planned to get an illo but I’ll have to wait till this is fixed :( Plus I’m in Canada and its even more expensive.
Just a thought from someone who knows a very, very small amount of how things are manufactured, but is it possible that it's from a different machine or that the manufacturer used a new supplier for the stuff they need?
awe I feel so sorry for the founder, Anthony. It must be tough to not understand what's going wrong with his product and that he's disappointing his customers.
Would you be able to do a full sketchbook tour when you finish that one? It looked really cool when you were just paging through it, and I’d love to be able to see it more thoroughly.
obviously the freckles aren't good when using watercolors.. but I think it it's kind of cute on this illustration at the same time (: Glad to see that the founder has acknowledged and is looking into this. May pick one of these up in the future.
Omg! I noticed the same thing! I got an lillo sketchbook in August and the paper worked wonderfully with watercolor (which I primarily use). Then I got a new illo in February and evertime I use watercolor it gets the little freckles that dont go away after drying. I thought for the longest time that I got a faulty sketchbook, and that it was only mine. I wish I were right, but I guess they did change the paper. I love illo sketchbooks and I hope they realise their mistake and change it back! Awesome video btw :)
Nope it seems to be in all newer 2019 sketchbooks and its so sad... I'll email the company and show them this video as proof that something has changed! Rin (drawingwiffwaffles) was the first one to tell me it was different and I refused to believe her haha xD Maybe the newer model that is on pre-order now will be changed again? :D Crossing my fingers we can fix this!
@@DinaNorlund This is what I am hoping because I bought a 2 pack on pre-order last month because I loved how they looked in so many people's videos and it seemed like a great multi-media illustration option :'(
Same I was just using mine last night and I noticed the freckles and since it was my first time purchasing Illo sketchbooks and I’m a little upset that I got two of them when this is going on 😔
also forgot to mention: i love love LOVED the speed sketching!! i always get so sad when things get cut, i hope you do it for more videos!!! (i also understand that it's probably time consuming and stuff to edit more things but i personally would not complain if there was more speed stuff instead of just completely cutting it out)
It's good to see that a few RU-vid artists are starting to say the same now about these Illo sketchbooks. It's helpful for us sketchbook hunters 👍😊 I'm thinking they made the paper slightly cream colored to help "sketches" stand out more but by doing so.... It's reduced the paper quality sadly. Lovely illustration 👍😊
I'm so glad you did this video- I was just literally looking on amazon and seriously considering getting a few illo sketchbooks and people /were/ saying it was different. Thanks for testing to make sure! (*´꒳`*)
Yay you are welcome! I'm pretty sad it was true though xD I will continue to use the one I have but I really cross my fingers they fix this.. going to send them an email haha
wowwww! i nearly bought one yesterday, so that makes 2 reasons why im glad i didnt go through with it! 1st and major reason i withheld is because the shipping cost to the UK said it would come out to $53.95, making the total $68.19.... like what the heck is that about?!!! for one 8x8 sketchbook that is craaaazy steep!
Thank you for making this video! I've been thinking about getting an illo sketch book and had heard the rumor of them changing it. This was very helpful to me! Loved the artwork! I always love your color skemes! Keep up the good work!💕
Thank you for watching! Definitley a problem that needs to be fixed.. You can still use them ofc but its so sad that the watercolour seems to react to the paper now :( But thank you
It's so sad... I was starting to warm up to the idea of getting one of these or the smaller one eventually, but I don't think I could risk it. They are quite expensive (and shipping to Canada literally doubles the price).
OH NOES! Thank you for the comparison. I hate it when paper does that, I've seen quite a few suffer from this freckling. Sometimes my watercolor papers don't have an even layer of sizing on the surface and it does this too. Booo :(
@@DinaNorlund sadly more than just illo. I had it happen in sketchbooks with mediocre paper like moleskine, but also in nicer ones like my Strathmore and Bee sketchbooks made for watercolors too :/
I'm a big believer in making my own sketchbooks... you have complete control over everything- size, shape, paper... I just made two more for myself this week, a 3"x9" and a 6"x9". I love both of them!
This I suspect may be a sizing issue looking at the level of seepage to the back of the page. All paper has some degree of size due to the binder used to bond the fibers - then additional sizing is added either at the pulp stage, to the surface at pressing or both depending on it's intended purpose. Drawing papers are usually surface sized to provide a hard surface and tooth as well as preventing ink feathering. Cartridge papers intended to stand up to a wide variety of media will usually be internally sized too. I suspect this is not the case here based on how absorbent the paper becomes once the surface sizing has dissolved. There has also been a trend to move away from traditional gelatin size to appease the vegans. Some of these vegan friendly sizings, often starch based, I do not think work as well as a surface size with wet media.
Wow, you really did a great job with this video. And You may have really helped the illo company, by bringing this to there attention. I too like this sketchbook & am very grateful to you for letting us see this info. I will be waiting for illo to resolve the issue B4 I purchase another one. It seems as though they are very concerned & grateful to know what has happened as well. It makes me like the company even more that they were speedy in getting back to you, & there response to the issue. So we will keep our fingers crossed that they can get things back to normal, & we can all keep getting the sketchbooks we had come to love. TYFS
Thank you so much for making this video and contacting the company! I was so disappointed when my new sketchbook wasn't working like my old one from last year, especially since illo says nothing changed! I'm not just crazy hahaha
I didn’t have an original Illo sketchbook because they sold out before I could get one, but I ordered one immediately when they came back in stock and mine DEFINITELY gets speckles with watercolor. I tried several brands of watercolor with mine and every one of them got the speckles. I’ve just been using markers in mine, but I’m so disappointed because I bought it specifically because of how pretty watercolors looked in these sketchbooks on various artists’ channels.
aaaaa i get so excited when you upload!!! loved the unicorns as always and shame about the paper, but i'm glad your okay with it and willing to work with it so i hope that goes well!!
It's cool to hear your thoughts on this sketchbook. I haven't actually tried the Illo sketchbooks before, but it's not good that they have seemed to make such a drastic change to it! :O Hopefully they go back to the older design!
This is my first time using a illo sketchbook and I have the exact same one that you have on the right. I have not used water colors but I use copics and I've seen Drawingwiffwaffles use illos, that's why I wanted to test it out, and bought one. I've been trying to finish my current sketchbook, an canson mix media XL sketchbook. That's been one of my favorite brands so far. Now I can't wait to try out my first illo sketchbook.
This is actually really interesting, because I’ve been preparing to do a paper comparison of the sketchbooks I normally use, the hand•book travelogue, because I recently noticed after buying a new one that speedball bought the company, and I was curious if the paper has changed. I have a suspicion that it may have. The one thing that really concerns me about your test is that the color bled through to the back of the page. Darn.
I’m gonna be honest, I think that the freckling is really pretty. It gives your drawing a lot of texture that the first one lacks, and it also makes the creatures skin seem a little more rough and real! Love both though ❤️
I liked the reaction of the right sketch book! I think you can learn from that reaction for your advantages of how to handle it and make beautiful things.
Same here, bought two after seeing Rin use them and loved them. Later bought two more and these behave very differently. I am glad they will be looking into it because I did really love this paper.
I personally don’t do much watercolor. As long as it still works with copic markers and pencils, I’m all good! I’d be super interested in seeing you test the differences with alcohol markers!
Yeah, I got a sketchbook because of how it handled watercolor since I like to do light washes here and there. It freckled immediately. Which confused me because so many people with the old ones said it didn't. Sadly I ended up with 3 of them-- two I plan to use since they still handle inks very well. The other I am giving away with a warning :/ I really like them for the 8x8 size. And the square. It just... makes me so happy. (RETRACTED), I see they state officially they did not change it-- I can accept that, but there is a clear quality issue. Which I see they are investigating and hopefully can shed some light on. I am no expert by aaaaany means, but it seems to react violently with water in particular, so I wonder if there is a sealant portion of the paper or something that did not get to settle properly, or was exposed to something like heat/ moisture/ etc etc. Hard to tell without knowing the recipe. Won't lie, I just thought I had a bad book-- two in fact. I heard Rin mention it and that got me thinking as well.
Get a pentalic aquajournal. They are a million times better. Or just start using proper watercolour paper. Each your beautiful pieces deserves to stand alone or possibly be sold/framed anyway :)
@@DinaNorlund They are 300gsm cold press watercolor paper. Very little texture though (I've often sketched in pencil and/or used colour pencils on top of my watercolour work with them). I also find it easy to do ink/link work on that paper. Easily the best commonly sold watercolour sketchbook that I've found.
hmm interesting. I had seen other people complain about the freckling so wasn't surprised about the results but its good to see a comparison between the old sketchbook and the new :)
Ugh. That sucks. Obviously, something changed because the color of the paper is slightly off. Even if illo doesn't say they made a change, I think maybe something did without their knowledge. I feel the same way with the Strathmore 300 Series watercolor paper. I bought a pack for the first time and absolutely loved it, it was thick and I could put a lot of water on it and the paper would still be firm. But when I ran out and bought another pack, it was so different. I'm talking like, obvious differences, it was thinner, it would bend differently and warp more, and when I layered watercolor it would react differently, also the texture was different and flatter. UGH. Anyway, I hope you find another sketchbook that takes watercolor well!
I have not used an illo sketchbook before but I have noticed a similar problem with the Canson XL sketchbooks. I normally use the mixed media version of the sketchbook, originally the first ones I used took watercolor really well and it was great. but the recent ones I have used hadn't handed the watercolor the same. The watercolor dried more spotted and was bleeding through the paper. Very similar to your problems with this book. Maybe it's just a bad batch or two. Either way it is very disappointing so I can understand that feeling. Hopefully, the next batch of the Illo sketchbooks turns out alright!
To me, it looks like the same paper, but they got some with inconsistent sizing. If there are parts that are sized differently, the same amount of water/scrubbing would cause drastically different absorption rates, and could definitely cause damage to the paper with minimal working. It's very possible that illo's manufacturer/paper suppliers had a bad/inconsistent batch at some point. :/
I heard that the paper in the illo-sketchbook isn't acid free? Which is a problem because of preservation of the artwork inside? This video was really helpful though
Something thats SUPER interesting to watch is around thirteen minutes - 13:01 - there's a lone freckle on the OG paper - right above the crease line of the thigh, but if you watch it while you are colouring in the new page's rump, it slowly fades out. By 13:41 that spot is completely gone. I wonder if this is something to do with the paper being somewhat resistant to water - like those little freckles are happening because the fibers around that spot are more hydrophobic than the freckled part? But on the old paper it seems to accept the water eventually/more easily, whereas on the newer one maybe the water and pigment are getting stuck there because of inconsistencies in the paper itself? No matter what... your unicorn is absolutely precious, and whats happening with the paper is bonkerdonkers. I see that the company replied, hopefully they get it all sorted.
I actually like how the "defective" one handled the paint better. The way the paint blended and some of the speckles made it look cool to me. But I get how it's disappointing and confusing to get something different that what you expected.
I was watching the way she painted the rump of the unicorn on the right. She did go quite hard on the paper and you relies if that's something you know could cause freckling.
Oof! I bought one a bit ago but I don’t plan on using watercolor in it at all after seeing this, those freckles would absolutely drive me crazy. I’ll still use my current one with other mediums and seeing that the Founder is trying to fix this I look forward to buying another in its original glorious state!
I bought this sketch book because of you an Rin. I thought it was user error or I got a defective one. I’m happy that Illo is going to get to the bottom of this. It makes the freckles a little better! Lol
Hi! I was wondering if you'd re-tried an illo sketchbook recently, and whether it is worth buying one? This video is so so helpful! And your art is so beautiful. Thank you :D
Thank you for this video!!! I live in Canada so it’s VERY expensive to get these books. I don’t like how the paper warped... I will likely not be buying these anytime soon.
My first illo does the freckling thing too. I got mine in January I believe. It's still a great sketchbook but watercolor is not the best media on the paper. I still love my illo I just know it's not the best for watercolor. I hope they get to the bottom of it I'd love to use my watercolors in my illo! They have great customer service so I'm sure they will figure it out!
Annnnnd I now don't want to try Illo.... thank u for this video, I am glad I got to see if the pages freckled. So sorry about your beautiful unicorn. It's still beautiful, but I can understand why you feel sad.
I think their paper supplier is the same as moleskine's, because I expertienced the exact same paper change issue in them. They have this strange freckling.
There's definitely either less sizing, or different sizing applied in this paper. It may just be an issue with manufacturer quality control and they aren't making consistent paper sizing production technique batch to batch. Hopefully future batches are corrected.
I can definitely see the difference, definitely prefer the first one :/ I hope the company can fix this rather than just tell people nothing has changed.
So unfortunate! D: I've seen this freckling effect on poor quality papers elsewhere (adult coloring book "Pop Manga Mermaids" as an example), and it's the worst. It seems to be small bits of the paper pulp itself absorbing pigment differently to the rest of the paper, and I am so sad these sketchbooks are bad now when they were fine before!
It looks like the batch of paper the book was made from takes on the water more than the other one ,because it’s sucking the water a bit faster it’s leaving the pigment a bit freckled..You can see a marked difference between the two drawings and the colour difference..in fact the brighter white should make the colours pop more than the other one..I think it’s all about the absorbency ..the pigment being thicker will be left behind in darker small spots..I agree with you it looks and acts totally different ..Have you tried just pencils or markers on it yet to see how it reacts to that..it might just be the batch that went out ..hope you still can use it I know sketch books don’t run cheap 😀
I am so glad you did this ....... there are several artists that I follow that swear by this sketch book so I purchased some this year and all of my watercolors are freckled just like yours in the ones purchased this year. I had to use gouache in mine finally because my watercolors all looked horrid with the paper freckles. I will be contacting them because I purchased like 4 of them and they are horrible...........
High demand and long pre-order waiting lists made the company to source their paper from a different supplier or same supplier but slightly different quality.
darn, that sucks, I just ordered two of these, but it doesnt affect that much as I don't use watercolor that often, so that's great. This is a beautiful piece, by the way!
I love your channel so much! Thanks for comparing these two together. I hope they figure out what's going on with the art book, cause the new one is yuck! D:
Well on the bright side, at least the freckles looked cute on the unicorn. Like some natural fur color ticking. I guess just only use it for textured animals, lol.
Hrmm. May be an issue with the sizing, if that is something used in this mill’s process. Or, something in the process that just didn’t quite get the fibers to quite stick together right. Might be a fun experiment to cut out a sheet in each book and try to wet ‘stretch’ it?
I would imagine the illo is minimally sized (despite not being made for watercolour,) and this looks to be a sizing issue - either faulty sizing or a change in formulation or even less sizing.
Maybe they subtly changed the temperature that their paper is being pressed at, or the ambient temperature in their factory, and it's affecting the paper?
I'm so upset. Im having the freckle problem severely in mine. Like huge freckles. I've tagged illo and sent them stuff. No comment from them. (I did it nicely). I really hope you sending this video does something.
My sketchbook soaks up water like tissue paper, so I get a LOT of freckling. I think it might not have happened on the head, because the area is smaller. And for some reason some colours create a lot of freckling while others do none. I mostly have to be very quick and let it dry between every layer. And honestly, I just got used to spotty paintings. It's only sketches after all... Edit: That also happened to my favourite sketchbook. I could use watercolour without any problems and in the new ones it freckles. (The one I'm using now is a completely different one.)
How strange! And yes we definitley hav eto keep in mind that is a sketchbook and it's not supposed to be masterpieces :) I guess its just a shock when it reacts really differently and weird!
How do you use a 8b pencil to outline your sketches without it smudging when you put the watercolor on top? I loved the video by the way and you have inspired me to experiment with watercolor more.
Have you tried using a kneadable eraser? I’ve been told that the rubber type of eraser can affect the way watercolour absorbs into the paper. I noticed that your swatch page doesn’t seem to have the speckling. Thank you for your video and I hope this helps!
it seems like the paper isn't taking the amount of water you've laid down. Or they added a tooth to the paper. I haven't used it before but I know a bit about paper. Hope they help you!
21st comment. Your art is always beautiful Dina 💕💕 Here Is some random name suggestions. Persephone, Tulip, Pinkie, Lavender, Astrid, Comet, Whiskey, Gemini, Libra, Liberty, Marbella, Petal, Egg and Chloe. 💕💕
