Hahnemuhle Creative Notebook, Sketchbook 40 Sheets 120gsm A5 Portrait Hardcover, Brown Looks Like Fine Wood.

This is a wonderful sketchbook. There aren’t a lot of options if you want toned paper (and don’t want to pay the inflated prices for Strathmore in the UK), but I suspect I’d buy this one even if it had more competition. The paper is a useful mid-tan shade and although only 120 gsm handles light washes perfectly well. (It has no tooth, however, so if that’s what you want, this isn’t the book for you.) Although the book does not lay flat on it own, it doesn’t require a gorilla grip to hold it open. It’s not huge, but that’s an advantage, since it takes up less room in a bag and is lighter in the hand. I’m not in love with the colour of the cover, but that’s trivial. When my current grey sketchbook is finished, I’ll be buying the grey counterpart of this one.

Such a unique style of paper I hope doesn’t go away any time soon

My daughter asked for a sepia sketch book for Christmas. So we bought this and she loves it.

The sketchbook is in my daughter’s Xmas list and she wants this brand in particular. The binding is sturdy and the layout is cool, but I don’t think the paper is as high as 120gms, for it felt much thinner than her other 130gms books. It’s a little expensive for a very thin book though.