Best sketchbooks?

I go through a decent amount of sketchbooks, sometimes 2-3 a year. Sadly, I haven't found any that are high-enough quality for me to use pen in without it bleeding through, unless I get very small (as in, not many pages) bristol pads.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

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10 replies since 24th June 2014 • Last reply 24th June 2014

Reply #1:

We use Canson brand sketch pads at school with ink pens and markers and they seem to work okay. I think the ones labeled as 'drawing' pads rather than the standard 'sketch' pads work better with ink.

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Reply #2:

That's really helpful! I'll have to see what I can find Happy Most of my sketchbooks have been Strathmore 400 series. I'm definitely going to look into Canson now!

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Reply #3:

Good luck, I hope they work for you! I managed to erase through bristol board once (I honestly have no idea how I managed that one), but I haven't destroyed these yet so I think that's a good sign. Sometimes the ink shows through on the back of the paper, but it doesn't usually bleed to the next page or anything like that.

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Reply #4:

Canson Mixed media are my favorite unless I hand bind with Arches 130 coldpress.

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Reply #5:

Thanks, Debs! I was wondering if the Mixed Media pads were good. Happy

I get to go home in a couple weeks so I can go to a craft store with my mom. I'll pick up a few different drawing pads and see which works the best!

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Reply #6:

Borden and Riley paris bleed proof paper is great..

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Reply #7:

Otter skin brand (not actually made out of otter)

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Reply #8:

Canson Mix Media are very good for pen work. Even light water color doesn't leak through, although marker does tend to. I use Canson Mix Media for my comics. In the picture you can see I used ink on the whole page and a little grey marker for certain objects, the marker leaked through a lot but the ink didn't at all Happy

Medium snapshot 20141205 1
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Reply #9:

Awesome! Thanks for posting an example. I will definitely have to get the mixed media type. I want to start doing watercolor pencil stuff in conjunction with India ink, so that should work great!

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Reply #10:

I was actually just going to suggest straight up watercolor paper! The main difference between it and mixed media and marker paper is the surface. Watercolor tends to have more tooth so the liquid stays put, but marker papers (and most bristols) have a smooth surface because the texture of the wc paper will make marker lines bleed/dip/wiggle. I know it sounds counter intuitive that rough surface keeps liquid in place and also wicks it around. Mix media paper tends to split the difference so it can be effective for both.

Hope this was helpful! (Only just realized this post is 6+ months old. Whoops lol)

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