I Don't Need Another Sketchbook . . . but . . .

Since Monday I’ve officially become a retired teacher. Never a teacher of Art, I hasten to add – I have no qualifications in Art, and I leave it to people to make up their own minds up whether I have any talent or not. I start work in a completely different field in just over a week. But still, having finished teaching a strange sense of wellbeing and pride overtook me at the weekend and I decided to reward myself. At the moment, I don’t need another sketchbook, and I don’t need to try out brands I’ve never used before. But I wanted to.

So this is why I bought my first Royal Talens Art Creations Sketchbook. I’m currently using two A5 or nearly A5 sketching journals so I decided to go with the 9x13cm format. It arrived yesterday. For comparison I have photographed it with the Moleskine large (slightly smaller than A5 (left) and the Winsor and Newton A6 (top right)

I was surprised just how small it is. It’s significantly smaller than the Winsor and Newton A6 sketchbook I bought a while ago. It’s an appealing object. Basically it’s just like a smaller Moleskine style portrait travel journal, complete with bookmark and elastic although it doesn’t have a little document wallet inside which is a bit of a shame. The paper is 140 gsm and the colour of the paper is very similar to the rather ivory hue of the Moleskine. I did a couple of copies of simpler Mervyn Peake illustrations from Alice, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I didn’t quite get the first sketch right in terms of proportions, possibly due to having to get used to using this smaller format. The white rabbit ad the dodo are  more faithful copies. But I have to say, after all the recent sketching since the mega trip where the sketches have been taking two or three hours each, I really enjoyed these.

It made me want to dig out the Winsor and Newton A6 book. I went off this book a bit. The reason why I bought it – apart from curiosity – was as a way of completing the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge in June. I was struggling to make watercolours pretty much for the first week of the month and I thought making quick watercolour sketches in this little book would enable me to catch up. Only, I just didn’t like the paintings very much. The colours all seemed washed out and I lost interest. For the first time since 2020 I did not complete the challenge. I put the book to one side and thought, I guess sketchbooks this small aren’t for me.

I did dig the book out. Instead of making a copy of a Mervyn Peake Alice illustration I made a copy of one of my other favourite Alice illustrators, Ralph Steadman. 

It was fun, but purely based on enjoyment I preferred working in the Royal Talens. The paper in the W&N book is 170 gsm which is all to the good, and it can certainly handle light watercolour without buckling. But it’s very white compared with the more ivory paper in the Royal Talens. The texture in the Royal Talens book is just slightly smoother and I prefer that too. I do like having perforated pages which is what you get in the W&N.

This doesn’t mean that I’m going to be using this smaller format extensively. But it’s fun and very handy to carry.