This is on the first page of my latest sketchbook. It’s a tiny one, but I’m halfway through it and only just got around to coloring and posting this. I inked with microns and colored with Copics. If you are not familiar with my old webcomic, gone into the internet ether as it is, this is Katii. She’s got… baggage. And finds her brother, who might be dating her new friend, to be super annoying. Oh my goodness, I think I started Tomodachi Forever on Angelfire at first. I remember making an HTML page for each strip and then hand-coding the previous and next links each time like some kind of animal.
The book is a very small Moleskin that I got in a two-pack for a few bucks, and I’m not very impressed with it. There’s some sort of weird coating on the sheets that makes my inks smear very easily, plus the size is just too small for me (that part is obviously my own damn fault). The pages are also pretty thin so you really can’t use both sides without a LOT of bleed-through. As it is, you can see each page through the one before it if it’s got ink on it. Pencil doesn’t seem to show through.
I don’t think I’ll buy another one of these for drawing in, but I still haven’t found a replacement for my old Paperchase books. I can’t find them anymore and the stores that carried them went out of business. I found other Paperchase journals, but they were all lined. I used to be able to get these nice unlined, bound sketchbooks. The paper was thin, but it didn’t smear and the size was perfect.
I tried to order a new book to try from Amazon but it apparently took them an entire month to figure out that they couldn’t actually order it. I never find sketchbooks I like at the craft stores, so I think I’m going to have to make an order at DickBlick.com soon.
It’s probably meant for pencils only, with the coating designed to protect from moisture. I used note pads like that in the Army. Great for field use, where regular paper would fall apart and be useless.