Sketchbook Challenge Update

Okay, so let me tell you where I am with the sketchbook challenge. I finished filling my Leuchtturm 1917 sketching journal last Wednesday.

Now that I’ve finished the journal I’ll summarise my feelings about it. The covers do feel quite a bit thinner than those of Moleskine or Seawhite, and they do look to be bowing out slightly. Having said that though this didn’t get any worse all the time that I was using it. The book coped well with no ill effects from living in my rucksack for five weeks and that time included a sketching trip to Tallinn in Estonia.

112 pages is a decent amount. The paper is white, which I prefer to off white. I’d say that it’s the best journal I’ve used for making sketches in coloured fine liner, better than Moleskine and even better than the Seawhite journal, and this surprised me. It copes with Watercolour in a similar way to the Moleskine, which is okay but it’s not as good as the Seawhite on this score. It works perfectly well with black fine liner. I won’t lie, it’s a book I enjoyed sketching in. But then at the price, that’s the least I’d expect. The way that the book is constructed, though, the pages don’t really open flat in the way that both Moleskine and Seawhite do and that’s a surprising drawback considering that it’s priced as a premium product

I’m afraid that I can’t get away from that price. I do make jokes about being a member of the International Cheapskates Union and I do like a bargain, but I am prepared to spend over the odds when it is a guarantee I’m getting something I wouldn’t get with a cheaper product. But I just don’t see what it is about this journal that makes it twice as expensive as the Seawhite. It’s not twice as good. In fact, as a sketchbook of all trades, I think the Seawhite has the edge even if you don’t even think about the price. In that way it’s similar to the Moleskine.

Nassau Urban Sketching Set. This contains my next daily sketchbook for the challenge

My next main sketchbook then is a brand I haven’t used before. For Christmas 2024 my youngest daughter Jess gave me a Nassau Urban Sketching kit. A little research shows me that Nassau Fine Art is owned by CCV Companies BV who are based in the Netherlands. I believe that the emphasis with Nassau is on affordable art supplies. After all, the Urban Sketching Kit contains the 120 page journal, 8 fine liner pens, a 2 pencils and an eraser. All for an average price of £12. You know, it strikes me that it’s a pretty good idea, putting all you need to start urban sketching into a kit. After all, it means you can buy the kit, try out urban sketching to see if you like it, then maybe spend a bit more money on equipment when you know that it’s something that you’re going to keep on doing.

Nassau Urban Sketching Sketchbook.
Bigger than Moleskine - smaller than Seawhite.

The size of the sketch book is a little unusual. It’s a tiny bit bigger than the Moleskine book, but not quite A5. I do think that it’s trying hard to give a moleskine vibe, as it looks very similar. It doesn’t have an interior document pocket but you can only expect so much for the price.

Spot the Difference.
Left - Nassau - Right Moleskine

As it is I’ve only made about a dozen sketches in it so far. Almost all of them have been in black, Unipin fine liner. I haven’t tried the fine liners that came in the set yet. I did use a bit of shading in coloured fine liner in one sketch, and it didn’t show through, but it was pretty light shading so we’ll see how it works in other sketches. The paper doesn’t feel very rough but my first impression is that the pen doesn’t quite skate over the paper as it does with some of my other sketchbooks. The results look quite similar to what I was achieving in the Amazon Basics book, which isn’t bad at all.

Talking about the pen not skating over the page, I’m persevering with two sketchbooks on the go. If you missed my post about this, basically while I’m working in a main sketchbook, in this case the Nassau, I will also try to make one sketch a day in the Crawford and Black (The Works own brand.) This has 160 pages in it, so I reckoned that if I can use 40+ pages in it before it becomes my main daily sketchbook then I can reduce the number of pages left to manageable proportions. Smart, eh? Well, please yourselves. If nothing else, at least it proves that I will be able to use the C and B as a main daily sketch book when the time comes. It’s not great, the paper is rough and just too thin. But it’s just about usable.