The Visual Journal watercolor sketchbooks are my absolute favorites - good texture - great size & very affordable. No worries about preciousness either 👍❤️ Thank you for sharing 🙏
Solution for spiral binding: remove it. Hold the book together with book rings. Depending on how many you use it can be a little wobbly if just 3. But I open the rings to remove the sketch to scan. It lays flatter in the scanner than in a spiral binding.
For watercolor or any media I am using a lot of water, the Etchr Perfect, and I also just got the Hahnamule 100% cotton and I really like it. I’m very picky with watercolor, so whether it’s practice/fooling around, or serious work, I only want to use the best paper I can get. Those two are about it right now. I have plenty of reject journals for notes and color swatches. Want to try Koval, which comes with a few different papers, one of them Arches. About same price range as Etchr Perfect - so not cheap! Not a fan of Moleskine paper, and I do not get the love for the Etchr white canvas sketchbooks…..but do love Stillman & Birn Alpha for drawing and/or light wash. I want to try Kilimanjaro and also one Jackson’s Art sells….maybe it is called Seabrite?
I'm over from Brie's and just wanted to say Hi! I like the challenge to fill our sketch journals. When I'm really "playing" I use very cheap journals -- Sketch Diary by Pen & Gear or lined composition journals from Walmart , not watercolor or mixed media. Otherwise I do like Strathmore watercolor journals. Great info, thanks!!
The Strathmore Visual Journal is their Series 500 mixed media paper which IS 100% cotton. It’s just not sized for watercolor. I got this info from area at a vendor show.
Kat, thank you for the sketchbook review. Are you using the watercolor or plain moleskine sketchbooks? Also, your ink work is amazing! Would you please do a little demo for us on one of your painted pages?
Sketchbooks are for fun. People forget that. They aren’t for Louvre masterpieces. Doodle, notes, ugly stuff, ideas, practice, swatches, urban sketches, ink, colored pencils, etc. A student can see the progression from ‘Oh my, to Yeah baby!’ Too much stressing over something that’s a stress reliever. Use it, and have some fun 😊
Strathmore makes a 500 series for the same price as that coil bound one. Only 90lbs and smooth paper but its 100 percent cotton. Never seen it over 10 dollars. It's an absolute steal. I just hate wire bound, but I do get it for playing in.
i really appreciated your detailed reasoning for why you liked or didn't like a particular sketchbook. I loved loved loved seeing all your artwork. Just wanted to let you know, your course link on teachable is not working though and you should fix that when you can.
