Daler Rowney makes many types of sketchbooks. There are spiral bound, perfect bound and stapled versions. They come in varying sizes and paper weight.
The different product lines are:
The Ebony sketchbooks are designed for artists. They use 150gsm cartridge paper. There's also one with 180gsm black paper.
The sketchbooks come in sizes from A6 to A3, in both landscape or portrait formats.
A4 sizes and below have 122 pages including 2 behind the cover. The A3 size has 94 pages.
The hardcover is covered by canvas-like textured paper. After prolong usage the hardcover will become worn. It gets worn easily if you get it in and out of the bag often. My friend's sketchbook was worn out at the top and bottom edges of the binding. Those are the areas of contact when you put it into a bag.
The binding is great. It can be opened wide and flat. This is important when it comes to scanning. I'm using a Canon LiDE 210 scanner and it can't deal with surfaces that aren't completely flat and in contact with the glass of the scanner.
The sketch above is drawing with Noodler's Ink and Graphitone.
The cartridge paper is the smooth type without grain. It's great for pen and ink sketches.
The 150gsm paper is thick enough to take light washes but warps slightly with water. Since it's not really watercolour paper, applying brush several times over the paper will damage it. It's better to wait for the paper to dry before applying another layer of wash.
As the paper surface is smooth, non-textured, water when applied generously, will sometimes glide on the surface instead of being absorbed. It's difficult to achieve flat washes.
On the right is a pen and marker sketch.
The marker almost bleeds over to the next page. The sketchbook is not really suitable for markers. The paper isn't completely white and is a slight warm yellow.
My sketchbook is the A5 portrait size and it opens up to A4. The landscape format will be even wider.
The sketch on the right was drawn on the train while commuting to work. It's not easy to sketch with the sketchbook in hand because of the size. It gets tiring quickly while trying to get a firm grip. The spiral bound sketchbook might be better for those who don't have any surfaces to rest upon. All the sketches above, except the one on the watercolour box, are sketched while standing.
Overall, this is a quality sketchbook. It cost about the same as two pads of Fine Grain Heavyweight cartridge paper, also from Daler Rowney.
It requires more discipline when using sketchbook as compared to paper pads. You can't just tear off pages you don't like. It's good in the sense that it trains you to be more careful, more keen with your observation and to be more patient.
The sketchbook is sold at most art stores. You can find them also on Amazon.co.uk
Also check out other sketchbooks from Dick Blick Art Materials.
6 Comments
This is the sketchbook (or an
Submitted by Liz Steel on
This is the sketchbook (or an Australian equivalent) that I have used almost exclusively for 3 or 4 years. I love them and survive with using watercolour (sometimes quite wet!) I always cover my books as the covers are not very robust. The Stilman and Brin Alpha and Gamma series sketchbooks are very similar but nicer paper and more robust covers.
The Ebony sketchbook's also
Submitted by Sean on
The Ebony sketchbook's also come with a spiral bound back, in which case the paper is a slightly thicker 160gsm, same as the softcover Graduate sketchbooks. I really like that paper, much nicer than most sketchbooks. Seawhite of Brighton also puts out similar sketchbooks to the Ebony HC, the paper is thinner (140gsm) but I find it takes water slightly better. whatever you do, don't go for Winsor&Newton Heavy Weight sketchbooks! the paper might be thick (180gsm) but they switch paper producers a few years ago (from Malaysia to China) and the paper quality is now very suspect, with lots of bleeding/blotting with pens/fineliners.
If you want a sketchbook with excellent quality watercolour paper, I'd recommend searching for Fabriano Venezia sketchbooks. although the binding can get messy due to the thick paper (however, I've never had pages fall out despite the pages coming away from the glue: the stitching is very good), but it's one of the few sketchbooks I know with proper watercolour paper (at least 200gsm).
Thanks, Sesn, for the info.
Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on
Thanks, Sesn, for the info.
I've actually ordered some Winsor & Newton sketchbooks for review already. They are hard to find.
I like the Ebony so far. I wished the paper had more texture though.
If you want more texture, I
Submitted by Sean on
If you want more texture, I really recommend looking for the Fabriano Venezia books, since it's filled with Fabriano Accademia paper with a fine grain (it's 200gsm, so that should help with watercolours as well).
A very good review, indeed.
Submitted by Zoe on
A very good review, indeed. I just got an Ebony as a gift but only tried out one or two pages. Your tests will serve me while whilst using it, and Liz' addition of adding a cover may come in handy as I do tend to toss sketchbooks into and out of bags.
Thanks so much, Parka.
Sadly, the A4 Ebony I just
Submitted by Peter on
Sadly, the A4 Ebony I just bought (in Australia) has some really poor quality paper in it. The ink bleeds badly on some pages and not on others, so the same line drawn with the same nib can be double the size on some pages. I was really disappointed.
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