Royal Talens Art Creation - 21x13cm

Yeah, I know, this is getting a little out of hand. So, let’s recap. You know that I bought a Royal Talens Art Creations sketchbook – portrait 9x14cm which arrived on Wednesday? I did like it a lot, and I’ve already made half a dozen sketches in it, all copies of some of Mervyn Peake’s simpler illustrations from Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Okay.

Yesterday I fulfilled a very short notice commission. It was a one-off detailed pen and ink drawing for a birthday present and it involved five hours’ work. Thankfully the client was delighted – and let’s be honest, I was very pleased with myself as well. It capped off a great day. I mentioned in the previous post that I have recently retired from teaching. I’ll have my teacher’s pension, but in order to cushion the drop in income I’ve taken a temporary job, and yesterday I went in to meet the team I’ll be part of. They were great and I’ll be honest, I just can’t wait to start in a couple of weeks. So I’m sure you get the point – I was feeling happy and satisfied with myself yesterday evening.

Well, that can be a dangerous state to be in. In the couple of days I’ve had my Royal Talens book I’ve been thinking about buying the larger 21x13cm sketchbook. Last night, to reward myself I bought one from Amazon as a present. I did a little bit of research and found out that Royal Talens is a Dutch company, founded in Apeldoorn in 1899. They were just Talens then, until Queen Wilhelmina, obviously a fan, gave them the designation Royal in 1949.

Now, here’s a funny thing. A lot of travel sketchbook manufacturers seem to follow Henry Ford’s dictum of – you can have it any colour you like as long as it’s black.- He was talking about the Model T, which did eventually come in a range of colours, but you know what I mean. Well, not so Royal Talens. I was just about to click to buy a black one when I noticed that the coral-coloured book – exactly the same as the black one in every other way apart from the colour of the covers – was being sold for a pound less than Amazon were selling the black book. All I can guess is that the coral pink version does not sell as well as the black, light blue, green or yellow – which are other colours I’ve noticed that Royal Talens do. Well, look, I have never made a secret of the fact that I am a cheapskate of many years’ standing and my Scottish ancestors would never forgive me if I passed up the chance of saving a mickle in this way.

Royal Talens 21x13 Portrait sketchbook (left) alongside Moleskine equivalent. Spot the difference apart from the colour.

Actually it’s no hardship opting for this colour – it certainly marks it out as different from the Moleskine for example. I use Moleskine for comparison because in terms of physical dimensions this is very, very similar to a Moleskine. Even being a different colour these look very, very similar in most other ways. Even the matte finish of the covers feels similar – maybe the Royal Talens is smoother, but there’s nothing in it really. The paper inside, as we saw with my smaller RT sketchbook is of a very similar ivory tint to the Moleskine. It’s thinner, at 140 gsm to the Moleskine’s 165 gsm, but it’s hardly noticeable to the touch.

The most obvious difference between this Royal Talens sketching journal and other products competing for the same market like Moleskine and Seawhite is that there’s no document pocket at the back. I mean, this is not a huge thing. I like having the document pockets and they do come in handy when I’m travelling around. But it’s not really a deal breaker for me. If I wanted to I could glue a home-made pocket onto the back cover. But if the good people at Royal Talens were to ask me for my opinion I’d tell them it’s just a shame that this one omission makes their journal just slightly less appealing than it would have been.

This is not a review as such, since the new book only arrived this afternoon, and I’ve only had time to make 1 sketch in it. I haven’t tried watercolour on it yet, and I haven’t taken it out on the road yet either. Well, that’ll come and then we’ll be able to see where it ranks against Moleskine, Amazon Basics and Seawhite of Brighton.

Oh, that sketch? Right. Well, you know how I’ve returned to making my own copies of illustrations of Alice in Wonderland that I really like? I’ve made 6 copies of simpler Mervyn Peake illustrations in the little RT book, 1 copy of a simpler Mervyn Peake, 1 Ralph Steadman and 1 Charles Robinson in the Moleskine. In order to christen the new book I decided to have a go at one of Mervyn Peake’s much more complicated and detailed illustrations, which accompanies the chapter ‘Wool and Water’ in ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. It’s just the first sketch in the book, but I was pleased with the results. It’s a pleasant surface to draw on, just like the smaller RT book. There’s no show through on the other side at all.

Close up of the sketch

Like I said, this is not a definitive verdict yet, but I’ll post again about it when I’ve really put it through its paces.