Hi guys!
If you paint with watercolors probably you're searching for a good watercolor sketchbook. Unfortunately there are no so many 100% cotton sketchbooks and practicing with pulp paper is not always the best to learn watercolor technique.
With my (honest) art supplies reviews I want to introduce the supplies I tried helping you to find the right products for your needs and today I want to talk about the sketchbook by Etchr.
I've been using it for a while and I could appreciate the qualities, if you are curious please continue reading!
ETCHR
Etchr is an Australian company that produces watercolor sketchbooks but lately they extended their products range to brushes, paints, travel sets and more.
The sketchbook line includes the Etchr Sketchbook (230g), The Perfect Sketchbook (300g) and the TPS Signatures Series made with Fabriano Artistico paper (300g) in limited edition.
On their sito you find the full products range, the blog and the link to the podcasts.
Il taccuino
Etchr kindly sent to me an A5 Etchr Sketchbook with hot pressed paper. Let's see what it is!
At first the packaging: it arrived into a recyclable closable paper envelope that I'm still using to protect the sketchbook (I'll tell why later).
It's hardcover and it's covered with white cottone fabric, with their cute llama logo embroidered on a corner. There's even the ribbon bookmark, the elastic band to keep it closed and an exandable pocket at the end.
The Etchr Sketchbook has 52 pages (26 sheets) made with 230g 100% cotton paper, acid free and vegan friendly. The paper is white.
It's landscape format (stitched on the shorter side), cotton thread binding.
Keeping it in my hands I can see it is a quality product, the pages open flat and the white fabric cover with the embroidered logo make it unique. Of course, the white cover gets dirty quite easy (that is the reason why I kept the envelope), but you can overcome by painting it! The Etchr team suggests it on their site and I saw some artists on Instagram doing nice covers!
The landscape format is the only one available. Not everybody like it so I hope Etchr will add the portrait or square formats in future, I guess many artists would love them!
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| Etchr Packaging |
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| Binding |
Quality of the paper
Besides the illustrations I used a page to do some tests. In the below picture you can see the texture of the hot pressed paper. It's smooth but with a very slight roughness that allows to use colored pencils with no trouble. I used this paper to make detailed illustrations and the colored pencils touches give a kind of silky final effect. I think it's the perfect paper for illustrators.
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| Texture of the paper |
I tested wet on wet and wet on dry techniques. Paints blend easily and colors look vibrant, being and hot pessed paper the coloring is very smooth.
I even did a glazing test. I did six layers, always waiting for the necessary time two layers, and the paper has resisted greatly.
I dedicated a page to bending test, I added a lot of water (a kind of lake) and despiting the 230g weight it bended just a bit and it got flat after an overnight with closed sketchbook.
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| Glazing and blending test |
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| The bending test sheet just after the painting |
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| The bending test sheet after overnight with closed sketchbook |
Price and reperibilty
You can buy Etchr products by their site. They offer free international shipping and they have warehouses in Miami, Cina and Great Britain.
Because of the Brexit who lives in Europe will receive the products from the UK and should pay for import fees.
The Etchr Sketchbook is sold in three pieces bundles and you can choose between A4, A5, A6 formats or a set with all three. Currently the A5 bundle is 66,95€, so each sketchbook is about 22,30€. I think is no a bad price for the quality of the product and the shipping is always free.
Pros and cons
PROS:
-Hight quality both of cover and paper;
-Free shipping;
-Uniqueness of the cover;
CONS:
-You can't buy them singularly;
-The landscape format is the only available;
-Importation fees for Europen customers;
-The white cover gets dirty quite easy.
Some "cons" points can be overcomed, for example you can paint the cover and you may share the bundle with an artist friend sharing expenses.
If you have passion for watercolors I suggest you to give a try to the Etchr sketchbooks, I haven't tested the cold pressed but the hot pressed paper is great!
Here the link to Etchr site.
Below some examples of artworks I made on the Etchr Sketchbook.
Have you ever tried this sketchbook brand? Which are you favorite watercolor sketchbooks?
I hope this review has been useful!
See you soon!
Sara
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