Category Archives: Review

Review: Moleskine 6×9 Sketchbook

This sketchbook contains 80 roughly 110lb plain cream colored pages. They are contained within plastic covered hard black covers. The plastic is imprinted to look like leather. This sketchbook is very often suggested for people started out in art journaling.

The paper is stiff and smooth. It’s good for writing and drawing. I find that the paper has a coating that repels wet media like watercolors, which it absorbs but gives a blotchy appearance. It does the same with some inks. It can be quite a pain in the rear. I’ve found that if I got through my sketchbook and spritz the pages with a little water so they are evenly damp and then allow them to dry before working in watercolor or ink the blotchiness is minimized.

The paper responds favorably to pitt and zig pens. They remain perfectly black and don’t show any blotchiness. The paper is also heavy enough to support many layers of collage and acrylic paint. When working with wet media it’s best to be aware that the paper will cockle and remain wavy even after it dries. I like the wavy paper but most don’t.

The heavy weight paper does not show strike nor bleed through except when using sharpies and copic markers. Fountain pens do just fine on this paper. Some fountain pen inks get blotchy.

The sketchbook has a great form factor with its smooth hard black covers, pocket in the back and elastic closure. I can’t say that the paper would be a reason to recommend it. The pages can take abuse but if you erase too much or scrub the pages with a brush you’ll end up will pilling of the top of the paper. I’ve read reports of the spine breaking on these sketchbooks but I’ve abused the heck out of mine and never had a broken or damaged spine, and I’m not gentle with my sketchbooks and journals. The price however is quite prohibitive at $18 for 80 pages.

If you are looking for a sketchbook that handles a variety of media relatively well, with a nice hard cover, at a ridiculously high price this is a good sketchbook. There are others similarly shaped and sized that will work as well at a lower price.

INterested in purchasing a moleskine sketchbook? Follow this link, it was the best price I could find on them:

Thursday Review: MiquelRius Grid Notebook

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MiquelRuis 300page Grid Notebook with Red vinyl cover

I bought this notebook 4 or 5 years ago while searching for a Ciak brand notebook. As a notebook snob and a bookbinder I find this book to be just MEH.

First it’s perfect bound- glue with no stitching. Eventually with hard use pages will fall out. It’s just a matter of when not if. Perfect binding is simply not sturdy enough for the kind of abuse I put my notebooks and journals through. I will say that I’ve been carting this notebook around for 2 or 3 months and it’s held up pretty well so far. Also due to the binding and thickness of the book, it will not open completely flat while writing, which is a nuisance.

The pages are 15 to 18 pound in weight and very thin. Almost every pen I own strike through (is visible on the reverse side) and 90% bleed through. This means I can only use one side of each sheet of paper. So that drops the 300 pages of the book down to 150 usable surfaces. So even if I wanted to brave the non-flat writing surfaces of the left side of the notebook, I could barely read what I wrote. Additionally some of the inks I own feather like mad on this paper. I’m talking about relatively well behaved inks like Diamine Chocolate Brown.

The paper is very smooth and has the best light pale blue grid I’ve ever seen. It’s what drew me to the brand in the first place. After looking at a dozen or so gridded notebooks, I fell in love with the pale blue of this grid. It’s pale enough to blend into the background and not interfere with the writing when you are referring back to your writing. The pen glides over it. It’s not as smooth as Rhodia or Claifontaine paper but its way better than Moleksine paper. Ink is better behaved on the right side of the MiquelRuis paper than moleskine paper. The paper definitely has a right and wrong side for fountain pen use. One side is smooth and the other has a little more tooth to it and grabs the tip of the pen ever so slightly.

The format of the book I purchased is great- at 6×8 inches I’m finding the page size perfect for writing and recording thoughts and sketches. The size is good for slipping into a book bag.The 300 pages is a tad on the heavy size for every day toting about but if it were the only notebook you were to carry it wouldn’t be bad. They come in 100 and 200 page counts as well.

Would I buy another one of these notebooks? Probably not. The bright vinyl cover is nice but doesn’t speak to me the way a leather cover does. The paper’s lovely pale blue grid is about the only thing I really like about this notebook. Using both sides of the page is important to me, using just one side seems very wasteful to me. I prefer a stitched notebook for durability. I have to mention that pale blue grid again; it’s why I keep reaching for this notebook. This would be a good gift idea for the vegan writter on your shopping list. They also offer a host of recycled vinyl options that I'd like to see.

I purchased mine about 5 years ago at Barnes and Noble. I notice that the brand is no longer listed on their website. When I purchased this particular note book it was the last one on the shelf. It cost $10. You can buy these notebooks at the miquelrius website here.

Pros:

300 Pages
Sturdy Vinyl Covers
Cheap $10
Great pale blue grid
Mostly fountain pen friendly o n the right hand pages
Smooth paper is nice for writing

Cons:

300 pages are heavy
Almost all my pens and inks exhibit strike through and bleed through
Not good for a wet nib
Can only write in it- sketching would result in horrible bleed
Forced to write lightly
Perfect bound- not very sturdy
Won’t lay flat when writing.

Some inks that did well on the paper:

Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, Eel Blue, Walnut, Beaver, Eternal Brown and anything BUT Herbin Bleu Nuit in an EF nib.

Review: Canson XL Watercolor Pad

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I picked up a Canson XL 30 sheet pad of CP 140# watercolor paper a few months back with the intent of comparing it to my favorite inexpensive paper, Strathmore 140# CP 400 series. It compares well.

First off, it comes in a glue bound pad which is good for bookbinding not good for art journaling. To me a glue binding is temporary and won’t last, I abuse my art journals and thus this pad would absolutely not hold up to my use. The paper folds in half easily and without cracking. This is a bonus if you are intending to make your own sketchbook or journal. The grain of this paper is along the short side, which again, is perfect for binding.

The paper is thinner and softer in feel to other 140# paper, specifically the Strathmore. It’s still stiff, but is not quite as stiff as cardboard. The cold pressed paper is textured more on one side than the other. The Canson CP is significantly less textured than most other CP papers I’ve used, and I’ve used a lot. The reverse size is significantly smoother than the front. You can feel and see the difference in texture. The amount of sizing is different too. The differing texture and sizing means that when binding you either let the different textures face each other OR you pull the pages out and face them together. It’s an extra step in binding that makes an art journal more pleasurable, versus getting into the journal and realizing each facing page responds to pen, ink, and watercolor differently. I find that annoying.

The paper handled ink like a dream. Even my fine and extra fine pointed fountain pens floated on its smoothish CP surface. Noodler’s bullet proof ink bonded with it well and other inks gave me a wonderful watercolor effect. The pages handled watercolor crayon like a dream and scraped acrylics like it was made for it. I noticed even with repeated brushing and scribbling layers of ink no pilling or pulling up of fibers. Either side handled them well. The reverse and smoother side was much more absorbent, so an even pull of credit card scraped acrylic got less coverage but was decent. The paper is heavy enough that I did not notice any wrinkling. Watercolors of course gave a cockling effect that soon relaxed as the paper dried.

This is a budget friendly pad of paper. I purchased it on sale for around $7; regular price is around $13 for the 11×15 in size. It’s not a bad price, especially for a pad that is easily folded up for making an art journal. I found it on Amazon (see below) for $4.59 in the 9×12 size, which is not bad at all. I was unable to find the 11×14 on Amazon but did find it on the Blick site for about $7.

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Some more stuff for the upcoming year- Reviews

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Part of what I want to add to this blog is a series of reviews. I’d like to review journals, products, books and other items one might use in journaling; both art and written.

I’m developing a format for reviewing journals and products associated with journaling. Obviously journals will have their paper reviewed in terms of suitability for wet/dry media as well as how that paper holds up to the abuse of mixed media. I think that a good art journal needs to also have pages that can be written on with a variety of tools- sharpies, fountain pens, pencils and other markers. I’ll address such things as strike through, bleed through and warping. Obviously this sort of journal review will be vastly different from how paper reviews are done on blogs that focus solely on one aspect of journaling. I have passed over paper that people adore on other sites and adored paper that some people despise.

So I invite people to contact me if they’d like to have their journals and sketchbooks reviewed. Each review will be linked to the seller’s site with plenty of contact info.

I’ve got a ton of products that I used and, sadly some I don’t use. I’m going to reach into my tool kit and evaluate some of these products. The perspective will be that of a mixed media artist. Can I layer the product? Does it stand up to uses the manufacturer suggests and doesn’t suggest? Is it useful? Is the price acceptable or outrageous?

I’ve got a deep bookcase and I’m going to pull some of the stuff off the shelf, not just new books but older books and review them. I’ve been doing this in part for the zine, but I’ve focused on new books. I want to help people build up a book shelf of their own with books that are really useful resources for art journalers.

The reviews will start in January/ February and I’ll be hopefully be able to do one each week.

My hope is to make this blog more of a resource than it already is.

Anyone who is interested in having their product reviewed can email me: leslie(dot)herger(at)gmail(dot)com

Washi Tape reviews

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I have a particular artist’s book/ art journal project in mind. My design idea includes a very specific color of washi tape- white. I initially wanted masking tape colored but I think the white is a better fit for my idea. The secondary part of the project includes green graph style tape. Anyway, this led me down the path of washi addiction.

I always test my ideas before spending a lot of time and money on them. I headed to Michael’s with my 40% off coupon in hand to buy some washi tape. The only variety they had was the Tim Holtz line called symphony. At $8 for 2 rolls I was appalled at the price but figured with my coupon it was only $4. I brought it home and began to test my idea and also do a little art journaling. I was instantly disappointed. The tape didn’t stick to my heavily applied layers of acrylic paint. It also didn’t stick to itself well. I liked the look of the page but ended up having to use double sided tape to get it to stick to my page and itself.

Being a mixed media artist I work heavily in acrylic paint in my journal. Many layers of it some heavily applied. I glue shit to my page and torture it into submission. I often refer to my pages as having been muscled into what I want them to do. So I need a tape that STICKS to acrylic, ink, watercolor, collage as well as raw paper. I get really angry with companies that label their products as MIXED media and it clearly doesn’t work with one of the media. This is not Tim Holtz’s fault. He doesn’t work in crazy layers of acrylic paint like I do, he works in thin layers. I’m sure the tape will stick to dauber applied craft acrylic. I need tape that sticks to artist grade acrylic and gel mediums.

I tweeted my disappointment. (Not one word from Ranger btw…) I got a ton of response from other art journalers- try this brand try that brand, I have good luck with x brand. Though sad I placed a couple of orders on Etsy for 2 different brands of Japanese Washi tapes. One I ordered through Washimatta and another through PrettyTape. Both arrived promptly and very cutely packaged.

The PrettyTape package of the gridded tape arrived first. So cutely packaged! I tore off a piece and found it was VERY sticky. The tape felt stronger than the Ranger tape as well. I stuck it to the first heavily acrylic covered page in my journal and it stuck, no peeling of the corners, no lifting just strong sticking to the page. I also peeled the tape off the packaging and used it to stick a penny to the page, it stuck well, though I had peeled it off a glassine envelope. I poured glaze medium over the top of it and let it dry. No color lifting, no curling of the edges and again just sticking. PrettyTape washi tape has a vote of confidence from me. The tape sticks everywhere and doesn’t peel up.

I decided to take part in a little retail therapy in the clearance section at AC Moore after a rough week at work. I shockingly happened up $3 packages of 7 Gypsies colored masking tapes. These are more like American Masking tape than the washi tape but were super cool. At $3 a roll I could not pass them up. I grabbed a package each of the available colors. Spending $6 for a total of 6 colors was a steam. These are a peel and stick tape with a backing. The colors are grungy and rough, the way I like them. I used them to stick a medication package to my journal page. They stick, with no lifting or peeling. I used them again on another page and added a glaze of color over the top and I noticed some peeling but I didn’t burnish them down well on that page. The verdict: For clearance steals the 7 Gypsies tape was awesome. I suspect that it was what we call in the industry a “miss-pick*” as I’ve never seen any other 7 Gypsies product in that location.

The Washimatta tape arrived last, as it came the whole way from Japan. Again super cute packaging, opening these tapes was like opening a gift. I love it. The perfect white tape is perfect for my project. She also included a super thin roll of bright blue tape. It’s very cool. I pulled a piece off the roll and could feel that it had strong sticking power immediately. I stuck it to the same page as the other tapes and again burnished it with my fingers, it stuck, strongly and cleanly. I peeled up one corner and stuck it back down, perfect sticking. I’ve not added a wash of color to the tape as I’m not planning on using it in that manner. But in a typical art journal application of sticking to acrylic paint, it sticks and well. Washimatta tapes get a double thumbs up. I can recommend them.

I’ve got to tell you, like anything that comes in patterns and colors you can get really addicted to washi tape. It’s super cool, adds a perfect line of color to an art journal page and is fast. I’m looking at those solidly colored pieces of tape I bought and imagining them with rubber stamped patterns, sharpie drawings and other embellishments. No need to buy all the funky patterns, or even that many colors. Buy a few rolls of plain colors and ADD to them the patterns you want or a glaze to alter the colors. I’ve seen a whole host of great tips and hints on how to do this online. I’ll get my rubber stamps out for UStream one of these days. I wouldn't have bought it except for my project but I'm glad I've gotten to play around with it.