Maruman S161 Croquis Pocket Sketchbook Observations

Time to try the Maruman S161 Croquis Pocket Sketchbook that features 100 sheets of 24 lb (52.3 gsm) white drawing paper (packing almost double the drawing surface area of the S163 version in the same compact format).
The 24 lb (52.3 gsm) light weight paper is quite thin, so the dragon head sketch can still be seen clearly on the back of the page and across the front page covering it.
The Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pens glided smoothly on the S161 paper, and the different colors come across nice and bright.


While the Faber Castell Pitt Artist's inks did not actually bleed through any of the sheets, the colored drawings could still be clearly seen through the back of the paper especially if held against the light.
The S161 paper also accepted graphite of different grades quite nicely without getting deformed as you might expect from such a thin sheet of paper, and a Sakura block style eraser XREC-100 erased it cleanly without marring the paper surface. Thus while this Maruman S161 Croquis Pocket Sketchbook might have paper thinner than your usual sketchbooks, it is still a fine choice for a field sketchbook journal given its paper performance and sturdy cover design. Though if you plan to use some watercolor on it, you should probably stick to the S163 instead.