Books and pads in seven sizes, across our own STUDIO, ENVIRO, INDIGO and DENIM ranges, alongside stocked names like Hahnemühle, Daler Rowney and Canson. The paper matters more than the cover, so start with what you're going to put on it.
Six routes into the range, by medium rather than by product type.
Pencil, charcoal, pen, dry marker
170gsm white cartridge, with enough tooth to hold graphite and enough weight to take pencil, charcoal and most pens comfortably.
Washes, gouache, diluted ink
300gsm cold pressed with 35% cotton, or 100% cotton rag. Heavy enough that it won't cockle when the paper gets properly wet.
Ink over pencil, marker, collage
240gsm heavyweight takes a wash over a drawing without buckling. For alcohol markers there are bleedproof surfaces that stop the ink going through.
Soft pastel, gel pen, metallic, white pencil
270gsm black paper that turns everything on its head. Working light on dark changes how every colour reads, and it's worth trying at least once.
Pocket books and journals
Small enough for a coat pocket, tough enough for a rucksack. Soft leather journals and pocket books, including handmade covers from our artisan partners in India.
Studio work, school, life drawing
Honest, hard-working books for filling page after page, whether that's a term of studio work or a quiet weekend of drawing. Take one, or a set for the whole class. Softback kraft covers, 130 to 135gsm cartridge, and gummed pads you tear sheets from.
The same range, sorted how you prefer.
Dry media: pencil, charcoal, dry marker. 170gsm white cartridge is the everyday standard and what most of our range is built on. It has enough tooth to hold graphite and charcoal, and enough weight to handle pencil and most pens with ease.
Wet media: watercolour, gouache, diluted ink. You want 300gsm, and you want cold pressed. Anything lighter cockles as soon as it gets wet. Cotton content matters too: the Studio ‘35’ range is 35% cotton, and the handmade INDIGO books are 100% cotton rag.
Somewhere in between. 240gsm mixed media takes a wash over a drawing without buckling, which is usually what people mean when they ask for a watercolour sketchbook. For alcohol markers you want a bleedproof pad rather than a sketchbook, since the ink will go straight through cartridge.
Dark ground. 270gsm black card for soft pastel, gel pen, metallic and white pencil. Working light on dark changes how every colour reads. It's the one thing on this page we'd push you to try even if you weren't planning to.
A word on the recycled ranges. ENVIRO is recycled fibre at the same 170gsm as our standard cartridge, so you aren't trading performance for conscience. The DENIM covers are made from intercepted denim factory off-cuts, pulped without dye or bleach, which is where the blue comes from, and no two are quite the same. Dry media only.
Where they come from. We design our ranges here in Melksham. The INDIGO books and the tree free papers are handmade by artisan partners we've worked with for years in India; the rest is made to our specification overseas and comes to us by sea rather than air. You can read more about how we keep all of this low-impact on our sustainability page.
