Let's take a look at the
3.5" X 5" Strathmore 140 lb Watercolor Visual Journal that I picked up on a recent trip to a
Jerry's Artarama store.
While I found the text-heavy cover shown in most catalogs a tad garish, I was quite pleased to discover that the actual cover is really a much sober textured brown rigid card stock with a glossy coating.
Decorating the first page with a
Koi waterbrush and watercolors.
While featuring the same off-white 140 lb watercolor paper , the
3.5" X 5" Visual Journal provided almost double the working area of an Artist Trading Card (some surface area was lost to the wire binding).
The
Sakura Pigma Sensei 1.0 mm manga pen drew easily on the rough surface paper.
After applying some coloring with a
waterbrush and
Koi watercolors.
The page warped noticeably after the light washes dried out.
Yet they flattened reasonably well within those thick brown textured covers. This compact 3.5" X 5"
Visual Journal is a good size to carry in a pocket and for testing different materials quickly. While there are plenty of sketchbooks out there, they usually tend to feature light weight papers that don't work well with wet media nor stand to heavy handling.
Strathmore has developed a creative product with quite a lot of potential by simply binding their sturdier drawing supports and watercolor papers in the familiar spiral bound sketchbook format. Might have to pick up one the visual journals loaded with smooth Bristol pages one of these days.
Worth trying.
UPDATE: uploaded a short video showcasing this small watercolor journal turned into a custom coloring book for my nephew and my first pages on the larger Bristol and Drawing Visual Journals.
Let's take a look at the 3.5" X 5" Strathmore 140 lb Watercolor Visual Journal that I picked up on a recent trip to a Jerry's Artarama store.
While I found the text-heavy cover shown in most catalogs a tad garish, I was quite pleased to discover that the actual cover is really a much sober textured brown rigid card stock with a glossy coating.
Decorating the first page with a Koi waterbrush and watercolors.
While featuring the same off-white 140 lb watercolor paper , the 3.5" X 5" Visual Journal provided almost double the working area of an Artist Trading Card (some surface area was lost to the wire binding).
The Sakura Pigma Sensei 1.0 mm manga pen drew easily on the rough surface paper.
After applying some coloring with a waterbrush and Koi watercolors.
The page warped noticeably after the light washes dried out.
Yet they flattened reasonably well within those thick brown textured covers. This compact 3.5" X 5" Visual Journal is a good size to carry in a pocket and for testing different materials quickly. While there are plenty of sketchbooks out there, they usually tend to feature light weight papers that don't work well with wet media nor stand to heavy handling. Strathmore has developed a creative product with quite a lot of potential by simply binding their sturdier drawing supports and watercolor papers in the familiar spiral bound sketchbook format. Might have to pick up one the visual journals loaded with smooth Bristol pages one of these days. Worth trying.
UPDATE: uploaded a short video showcasing this small watercolor journal turned into a custom coloring book for my nephew and my first pages on the larger Bristol and Drawing Visual Journals.
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