Well, I’ve finally filled my 8th sketchbook of my sketchbook challenge, and there’s two months to go. I will be honest, having concentrated on copying political cartoons from the turn of the 20th century meant that even when I took up my pens again having taken a break in the second half of April it has taken a long time, because it takes so long to copy a cartoon properly.
So what’s the verdict on this Nassau A5 sketchbook?
Well, it’s certainly from the cheaper end of the market. If
you shop around you can get this sketchbook for less than £6. For that you get 62
sheets/124 pages of ivory coloured 130gsm paper. It’s 13x21cm, and looks very
similar to a Moleskine sketchbook, although the corners aren’t at all rounded
and there’s no document pocket attached to the inside back cover.
I primarily use fineliners and this isn’t that great for
them. The lines you get aren’t as crisp as you get in books like the Seawhite, Leuchtturm
or Moleskine. At 130 gsm it really should be able to cope with ordinary black
fineliner, but on many drawings I got telltale dots showing through on the
other side of the page. The paper buckles with watercolour but then I expected
that anyway.
You can buy the book separately, but I received mine as
part of a 12 piece urban sketching set I was gifted for Christmas 2024. And I
don’t want to be too harsh about it, because the set also has fineliner pens ,
pencils, rubber and eraser, al for less than £12. Which maybe makes it a decent
place to start if you’re thinking about giving urban sketching a try and want
to get all the basics in one go. But I don’t plan on buying a Nassau sketchbook
again any time soon myself.
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