Hand Book Artist Journal

Our friend Nita Van Zandt alerted us to this new "landscape" style sketchbooks:

"Hand Book Artist Journals are just right for traveling artists. They feature a hand-bound durable cover which has just the right flexibility. Each Hand Book Artist Journal contains 128 pages of heavyweight buff drawing paper with good tooth. Great for pen & ink, pencil and markers. Accepts light watercolor washes without buckling and is 100% Acid-Free. Features a durable elastic closure and a useful clear envelope inside the back cover. Hand Book Artist Journals make a terrific edition to your art supplies..."

At Cheap Joe's

Comments

[Stephanie]

I wrote a little review for these over on Flickr. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2365/2121168888_23c5763fac_m.jpg After using it for a while, I've noticed that I'm not super thrilled with the signature stitching. (Two small stitches in the middle.) Not sure if I will buy again.

[yuki]

Much love for these books! The pages are so nice and thick and textured, wonderful for mixed media books.

[Catherine]

These are also available at Blick's: http://www.dickblick.com/zz118/69/

[Alia]

I've got one of these "hand book" sketchbooks, and just started using it. It's thicker and greener than my old Moleskine, but similar.

After years of using a Moleskine sketchbook, the paper feels oddly rough and almost flimsy. I suppose anything would feel that way after finally getting used to the almost tag-board of the Moleskine. It feels like good drawing paper, yeah. I'm just not -used- to good drawing paper any more! The paper takes gel ink decently (faint feathering around the darker colors), ballpoint very well, Pitt Artist markers better than a Moleskine (again, I'd gotten used to the weird dulling that happens on Moleskine's paper), pencil very well -- erases well, too, though there is a slight fading of the page's cream coloring with heavy erasing. I'll have to break out some watercolors to give that a try soon.

The clear plastic pocket seems as capacious as the Moleskine's; I transferred my stash of "stuff" with no problem. I like that I can see what's in there. The binding and ribbon marker also seem similar. Time will tell if the book survives as well (not that I haven't broken the bindings on the last 2 or 3 Moleskine sketchbooks I've used).

I'm a little...perplexed by the landscape format. Silly, especially since I've become quite comfortable working in the 3x5 format. My urge is to turn the book sideways, to imitate a "reporter" format. Hmm. I guess time will tell on that one, too.

Overall, seems like a good little sketchbook. Certainly worthy of consideration.