StrathmoreArt Journal, Sketchbook, 5.5x8.5 inch, 96 Sheets - Artist Sketch Paper for Drawing, Illustration, Art Class Students

I absolutely love this sketchbook! The pages are nice and thick, so bleed-throughs are impossible! Graphite pencils (even very soft ones such as 7B, 8B, etc.) are very easy to erase (unless you press super duper hard). I mainly use Arrtx Acrylic markers on this one, and the colors look absolutely beautiful on the toned paper! Also, I absolutely love the format and stickers stick well on the cover, which is very durable!I would definetely buy again!

I use this sketchbook (Hardbound Mixed Media Art Journal, 8.5" x 11", Toned Tan) mostly for gouache and watercolor studies, and am super impressed with the quality of the paper and binding. The paper is probably the heaviest I've used and holds gouache really well. I haven't had any problems with buckling or tearing, and only a minimum of pilling with a really wet wash, but that can be easily avoided. The paper is quite smooth and great for sketching. I've also used watercolor pencils with it, and again had great results. Will absolutely purchase again and maybe try other sizes as this one is a bit large for travel. 10/10 love this one!

I have purchased many different kinds of watercolor journals spiral bound you name it but this is hands-down, a five star watercolor journal! It doesn’t break down when you washes. It doesn’t break down when you erase if you sketch before you watercolor, it is a fabulous watercolor journal, five stars hands down.

Great product

Love this mix media art journal!! Love that it’s a hard back so it’s not flimsy at all which makes is great for traveling or drawing on the go. The paper is extremely thick which is wonderful if you use a lot of watercolors or something that’s ink intensive. For markers it absorbs it very well. Very little bleeding. This is also incredible for the price! Plus it’s 48 pages which makes me feel more accomplished when I finish this book. Rather than your usual 200 page which I feel like I never fully fill out. The size is wonderful too, not too big not too small!The only flaws is that the paper only comes in tones grey or this off cream type color. There’s not an option for just plain white paper. I wish there was an option for just plain paper but it’s fun to experiment with the tones grey that I choose, it’s different! The other issue is that, the paper is SO thick that the pages do not lay flat, you have to have a paper weight or something similar to kinda keep the pages from collapsing in on you. Which isn’t a deal breaker for meOther than that, I’d definitely buy this art journal again!!

I read the size description and still didn’t realize how big it would be. As someone who prefers large format portrait sketchbooks, especially for watercolor (which are weirdly hard to find), this is great.The paper is nice & thick with a good cold press texture. Handles watercolor, ink, and pencils perfectly.

I love Strathmore sketchbooks. My favorite ones are the soft cover mixed media books. I must have a dozen of them!So when I saw this hardback mixed media book, I thought, why the heck not?! It’s even got toned tan paper! It’s a great size for me, too. Sold!But there’s a slight issue with it. Oh, it’s a lovely book, arrived unscathed, everything about it is top notch… and therein lies the issue. I can’t bear to use it!It’s so nice, and I’m such a lousy artist that I’m intimidated by the thing, and it sits on my bookshelf, unused, while I sketch away in some cheap ol Walmart job.I mean, if you’re a brave artist with a lot of confidence, I say, go for it! You won’t regret it!But I won’t purchase it again because it’s too nice. Five stars. Happy sketching!

After a few bad experiences with "Mixed Media" papers and watercolors I was hesitant to try this, but after a couple recommendations I gave it a shot and am very happy that I did. I bought the 5.5x8.5" hardbound journal.The binding is very nice. It appears to consist of four signatures of four sheets (8 pages) each and, to me anyway, the covers are a pleasant feeling nice dark brown, completely free of branding. So far the binding is staying snug.In use I've had no problems having it lie flat enough to work comfortably by opening to a new page, firmly pressing it flat and resting something like my small pencil case on the unused half.This is for the 5.5"x8.5' portrait format only so I don't know how easy or difficult it is to work with the binding of other sizes. It's certainly not as easy to work with as a spiral bound journal, which opens completely flat, but I very much prefer the appearance of this type of binding and have found that the pages don't move around like they do in a spiral bound journal.I'm even more pleased with the paper itself. It's 100% cotton (unlike their watercolor journals) and watercolors appear quite vivid when compared with some other good quality papers. It takes ink very well and even a small .2 sized Rotring technical pen writes smoothly. I've done some light wet on wet with no trouble but realize that doing anything requiring a good soaking might cause difficulty, but that's rarely what I'm using a watercolor journal for.For the combination of both watercolor and pen & ink I've used or am currently using the following *journals*: Canson Monval, Pentalic, Field Artist, Strathmore Visual Watercolor (series 400), Stillman & Birn Zeta and a Moleskine watercolor specific, and I think this Strathmore series 500 Mixed Media is my new favorite (of course changes in pricing might change that). For strictly pen & ink there are other journals/papers that I prefer but when adding watercolors to the mix this journal is hard to beat.Strathmore makes watercolor-specific journals very similar to this, but even if all I did was watercolor (no pen & ink) I'd still choose this Mixed Media journal. Their water-color specific journals use a heavier but lower quality Series 400, cellulose-based, watercolor paper, while this Mixed Media paper is 100% cotton.

Excellent. This is where its pages will only contain drawings of my cat. Charcoal sticks adequately.

É muito bom, porém só vale o preço se você for pintar em todas as páginas, na minha opinião. O papel é de algodão e aguenta aquarela, mas canetas a base de álcool passam pro outro lado da folha

Hojas gruesas, color gris, buen tamaño, soportan bien el agua medios mixtos, me hubiera gustado que fueran más hojas.

This was a good buy at fair price.

Excelente