This is one of the several sketching books by Global Art Materials (GAM), a manufacturer who also makes a bunch of other art materials.
It's called the Watercolor Book on Amazon, and the trav•e•logue series watercolor journal on the GAM website. trav•e•logue is the name you use when you don't want your travelogue sketchbook to be found when people search for "travelogue".
The cover is bound in natural linen that feels much tougher compared to the cloth of their Hand-book sketchbooks. It seems to only come in this light grey colour. Corners are rounded.
The clothed rubber band holding the covers together is not very durable. Mine had some stray strands coming out already, similar to my experience with the Hand-book sketchbook.
Inside, there are 60 pages of white, acid-free, 200GSM coldpress watercolour paper. There's no mention of the cotton content. I like that both surface are almost of similar texture which this means you can get consistent results for your washes when drawing across pages.
Right at the back cover is a plastic pocket that you can use to put stuff like namecards, paper, etc.
The travelogue watercolour sketchbook comes in five sizes:
- 3.5 by 8.25 inches Pocket Panorama
- 5.25 by 8.25 inches Large Lanscape
- 8.25 by 10.5 inches Grand Portrait
Mine's the A5 size, aka Large Landscape. It's almost similar in size to the popular 5x8.25in Moleskine watercolour album (72 pages).
The pages are white as compared to their hand-book sketchbooks which is off-white creamy. The coldpress paper has a slight texture that works well with watercolour.
The stitching is good and you can open the sketchbook flat.
That's the hand-book vs the travelogue watercolour sketchbook.
I finished the whole book during a 7-day vacation in Hanoi, Vietnam. Below are some of the sketches I drew.
The white paper will make colours more striking.
This is the unedited scan.
Granulating pigments work well with the paper. I'm used Daniel Smith watercolour paints for all these sketches.
The sketchbook opens to quite wide and it will have an even wider format with the Pocket Panorama size.
200GSM isn't exactly thick so there's definitely some warping when you apply lots of water. The paper absorbs water well enough but I do not recommend heavy washes because this is after all not 100% cotton.
I like how the colours turn out on the paper.
Video review
Conclusion
This watercolour sketchbook is worth the money. Highly recommended.
I'm not sure if I prefer this or the Moleskine watercolour album. This one has white paper and Moleskine has off-white creamy paper, so they are different in that sense. I like the feel of the linen cover though. Moleskine has more pages at 72 but they are also more expensive.
Availability
Check out more reviews for the travelogue watercolour sketchbooks on Amazon on the product pages below
