The most expensive sketchbook I've yet bought

Over three decades ago I remember attending my oldest daughter’s first parents’ evening in school. One of the comments that was made was that the teacher thought that at this stage of her education she had a bit of a butterfly mind – that is, she hardly settled on something before looking for the next interesting thing. Now, let me stress that she has since gone on to earn a University degree and is holding down an important job, so it has in no way held her back. I mention it because I’m pretty sure that it would be me that she gets it from. Throughout my life I have flitted from one interest to the next – and it’s only drawing and quizzing that I seem to have stuck with for any great length of time.

Which brings me naturally enough to sketchbooks. I usually use two types of sketchbook. For really detailed sketches I use casebound A4. I particularly like Winsor and Newton, Daler-Rowney and Mont Marte, and I usually finish each of these before moving on to another. For an everyday sketching journal I like hardcover A5 (or 21x13cm) casebound journals, of the kind popularised by Moleskine (elastic fastening, book mark – document pocket at the back). It’s this sort that I’d like to talk about.

My first travel journal was a cheap and cheerful own brand with a soft vinyl cover from defunct UK retailer Wilkinsons, and to be fair I did finish this. After that though I’ve used several different brands and not used up a whole book before switching to another. I have an unfinished Moleskine, an unfinished Seawhite of Brighton, an unfinished Royal Talens and an unfinished Amazon Basics. The stupid thing is, it’s not because I don’t like any of them. It’s just, I’ll get a ‘butterfly’ thought in my head that I’d like to buy myself a new sketchbook to try, so I do. Once I’ve bought it then I feel I ought to give it a decent trial, so I use it until I buy another one. The last but one sketching journal I bought was a Canson graduate mixed media journal, and for once I managed to stick to a resolution not to buy another until I’d used all of the pages.

I have now done so. I did enjoy using the Canson journal which coped pretty well with several different media. You can read more about it by following this link -

Travel Sketchbook

So, you’ll probably have worked out that this means I kept my resolution and was therefore free to buy a new sketching journal. Up to now I’ve been driven by the desire to find value for money. I’ve never actually bought a Moleskine, but aways been given them as presents. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that the Moleskine journal is a perfectly decent product and I’ve enjoyed using them. But I’ve also enjoyed using the much cheaper Royal Talens Art Creations equivalent. The very competitively priced A5 Seawhite of Brighton sketching journal seems even better than the Moleskine and I’ve already mentioned the Canson Graduate mixed media journal. But the Moleskine is the most expensive journal I’ve used to this point. So last weekend it occurred to me – what if I went for something even more expensive than Moleskine? Would it necessarily mean I’d get something better? I did a bit of research and settled on a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 Sketchbook. It’s the same size as the Seawhite journal, slightly bigger than the 21x13 format used by Moleskine et al.

On today’s prices this sketchbook is about 10 percent more expensive than the equivalent Moleskine and about forty five percent more expensive than the Seawhite. That’s quite a lot. On first glance it has all the classic features of a travel sketching journal – elastic fastening, book marker and document pocket on the back cover. In fact the only obvious extra is that it has two bookmarks rather than just the one. You do get a lot of pages for your money – 112. This compares with the 72 in the Canson (which is 200gsm). The paper is smoother than in the Seawhite, although it has a little more tooth than the Moleskine.

As always, though, it comes down to how well the paper takes the medium you’re using. The cover claims that it is perfect for pencils, felt pens, markers, charcoal, pastels and chalk. Dry media. The implication being – if you want to use watercolour, on your own head be it. Fair enough. As you know, I’m mainly a fineliner guy.

I’ve only made one sketch so far in the book, so all I can give is a first impression. I am wary that what I say may simply be confirmation bias – you’ve spent all this money on this sketchbook, so you have to justify it somehow. But I made this sketch of Port Talbot’s Round Chapel in the Leuchtturm yesterday, and I really enjoyed the feel of the fineliner on the paper.

I like the way that the paper has taken the ink. This was made with a very cheap 0.05mm fineliner (the whole pack only cost £5).It looks better than similar sketches made in the jack of all trades Canson,and the Royal Talens and maybe even the Seawhite as well. The sketch below was made a day earlier with exactly the same fineliner in the Royal Talens.

Even allowing for the off white colour of the paper in the Royal Talens, you can see that the lines the pen produces here are a little cruder, and less subtle.

Sometimes you enjoy making a sketch, but aren’t fussed on the results. Sometimes you don’t enjoy using the sketchbook so much but you get good results with it. In this case, on this first sketch the Leuchtturm has given me both the enjoyment and the result. Is it worth the money, though? Well, I’ll need to use it for a bit more and see how it stands up to life in the rucksack before I can answer that one.