(left) Many of my sketches in these sketchbooks appear in the Plein Air Sketches section of this website. I've painted out my favourite 12 Urban Sketching colours on the paper, and shown it here. I've used six of my stock so far and just love them. It fits into my handbag and opens to a manageable size.
#Watercolor sketch books portable#
The B5 size is a really portable and flexible format. The cover is recycled leather with a minimum of 70% cowhide fibers. Montval s natural whiteness and double sizing is well suited for all wet techniques, including watercolors, wash, gouache and acrylics. The pages are hand torn with a deckle edge and the paper grain is parallel to the binding on each page. It is case bound, reinforced with ribbon and glue. These are 200gsm 100% cotton paper - Fabriano Artistico - sized on both sides. This really is my perfect sketchbook and I love that it was created through the passion of an individual. I bought more when it was re-released in 2017 with a limited edition of 900. It was created by Erwin Lian in conjunction with Bynd Artisan bookbinders and I bought quite a few when it was released as a Indiegogo crowd funding campaign in 2015. The Perfect Sketchbook B5 was such an item. I have fallen in love with materials only to see them discontinued or changed, so when I find something I really like, I tend to stock up. It would seem to be a good 'marriage' and apparently nothing will change in the Stillman & Birn paper or bindings. I have always liked the paper from both those ranges as it is very fountain pen friendly. The paper for the Stillman & Birn sketchbooks is made by the Schut paper devision of Clairefontaine. In October 2019, Stillman & Birn was acquired by Clairefontaine Rhodia. While not perfect for more completed watercolour studies, I find the Alpha books to be a great everyday paper, and I like the fact that you get lots of pages to play with. There is a new square format that I have yet to try. I have a pocket version that I've used as a portable notebook and I've used a number of the spiral 10" x 7 " landscape books with 50 sheets (100 pages). I've also enjoyed the larger 8" x 10" portrait soft cover book, with 46 sheets (92 pages) for workshop demonstrations and larger test pages. I have used a number of the 9" x 6" portrait hard cover books, as they are a good size for transporting and they have a lot of pages - 62 sheets (124 both sides). The Alpha comes in so many shapes and sizes that it takes some thinking to decide which to get.
I have used many of them as my 'play' books, where I test colours, do quick sketches, create demonstrations while teaching, take notes and so on. However it is designed for 'dry media, light washes, ink' and works very well for these.
As you might guess from the photo above of just some of my Alpha sketchbooks, my favourite Stillman & Birn is the 150gsm Alpha, which is a bit of a surprise as it is not, strictly speaking, a watercolour sketchbook.
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