The Well-Appointed Desk

The newest notebook release from Baron Fig is the Trace Softcover Notebook ($15). It’s a 5.4×7.7″ cardstock cover, guided sketch experience created in collaboration with artist Kyle T. Webster. Kyle is best-known for revolutionizing the Adobe Photoshop brushes. So much so that Adobe hired him and made him part of the development and evangelism team.

The new Baron Fig Trace notebook features 72 pages of soft white, 90gsm pages printed with Kyle’s illustrations in a light reddish orange print. As an end-user, you get to bring them to life by tracing the linework. Think of yourself as a comic book inker. Using bolder or thinner lines, change the emphasis of the artwork.

And the artwork is weird, wonderful and whimsical. Some of it is surreal. Some of it is abstract. Some of it is straight-up trippy. But there’s probably something for everyone.

I chose to start with the pile of stones image to trace. I used a brush marker for the wider, outside lines and then used the Pentel Pointliners for the finer, more delicate inside lines. The Baron Fig paper is great with pencil so I think adding colored pencil would be an awesome addition.

When I flipped the page, there was no bleed through and very little show through. Mr. Moustache may be the next trace picture I tackle for fun. Do I like this more than the adult coloring book trend? I think I might.

DISCLAIMER: The notebook included in this review was provided free of charge by Baron Fig for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Paper Review

Sketchbook Review: Clairefontaine Graf’Book 360°

Laura CameronOctober 25, 2019October 28, 2019Leave a comment

Review by Tina Koyama

Perhaps better known for its fountain-pen-loving notebooks, Clairefontaine stationery company has come out with a new book specifically intended for sketching: the Graf’Book 360° ($13.50 for A5 portrait; several other formats available). The A5 portrait-format book I chose contains 200 pages of 100g/45-pound “ultra white, super-smooth French milled paper for drawing, sketching and writing. Perfect for pen, pencil, marker and calligraphy inks.” I was told by a Clairfontaine rep that the paper is archival, pH neutral and sustainably made. The soft cover is flexible and relatively thin; it looks and feels like a heavy file folder.

A unique feature is the book’s exposed spine thread knots, which look very much like the ancient Coptic hand-stitching technique I use myself. A rubbery-feeling substance protects the spine and threads.

The advantage of this binding method (and the main reason I use Coptic to make sketchbooks) is that the spine allows any page spread to be opened flat and fully. This is an essential attribute of any sketchbook I use and makes scanning pages so much easier, too. Oddly, a prominent black band appears in the gutter of every page spread. At first I thought it was some kind of protective tape to keep pages from tearing at the stitching, but the black band seems to be printed on.

I fanned the book open all the way so that the covers touched – proving that the 360 book is aptly named! For sketchers who require a flat-opening page as I do, this binding is fantastic.

Inside, the paper is smooth enough to make fountain pen users happy. I threw my usual arsenal of sketch materials at the pages, and the only ones that bled through were the paint pen and Sharpie (both expected). The paper’s weight and sizing are not appropriate for wet media – watercolor and water-soluble colored pencil hues lost their vibrancy, and mild buckling is permanent – but most inks, especially brush pens, took to the paper well. I was also pleased by the paper’s opacity. Even the bold, black brush marks do not show through much.

For my test sketches, I used a Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen for the bunny and a Blackwing for the pencil sharpener. The Fudenosuke is one of my juicier brush pens that can feather on some papers, but not here. I prefer a bit more tooth with graphite, but the surface is nonetheless pleasant to use. I like this paper best with brush pens, fountain pens and ballpoint.

My objections are mostly idiosyncratic: I’m not sure what the purpose of that black band in the gutter is, but it’s unnecessarily obtrusive because I enjoy occasionally sketching across the gutter to use the full page spread for larger sketches. It’s also a bit on the heavy side – at 12 ounces, the Graf’Book is about 50 percent heavier than an A5-sized softcover Stillman & Birn Epsilon (which, admittedly, has half the number of pages and costs more, too). I would prefer a Graf’Book half as thick for easier portability. The 360-degree-opening binding, though, is an excellent feature that’s hard to find in any commercial sketchbook.

The Graf’Book can be purchased at Jenni Bick, Hyatts or your local retailer.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Exaclair for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Sailor Studio 237

Jessica ColesOctober 24, 2019October 24, 20192 Comments

By Jessica Coles

Sailor Studio has 100 inks in their lineup – plenty of space to explore various nooks and crannies of ink properties that are not usually present in commercially available inks. Because of this freedom, Sailor has created many distinct inks in the Studio line and 237 is one of them. Dromgoole’s is the perfect place to pick up a bottle of this ink ($18 for 20mL).

Today’s ink is 237. Most of today’s post will be photos rather than words – this is an ink that speaks for itself.

The ink shades beautifully and has a golden brown halo.

The shading and halo are both present even in normal writing.

If you have ever tried to purchase Sailor Studio inks, you know how tough it can be to find a store selling it, pay for the shipping and wait for the slow boat to make its way overseas (unless you are lucky enough to live in Japan). Good news! Sailor has recently started allowing sales of these small bottles of sunshine by select retailers in the US. However, Sailor did put a restriction on these sales – orders for Sailor Studio inks can only be taken over the phone. Dromgoole’s was kind enough to provide this bottle of 442 for review and you can find ordering instructions here. The entire staff is great to talk to when ordering and if you are able to stop by their store, the inks can be purchased in person! Here’s a glimpse of that book full of Sailor Studio swatches:

Tools:

Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Refill ($30-35 USD)
Pen: Brooks Water Lily Koi, Stub nib ($175)
Ink: Sailor Studio 237 ($18 for 20ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The ink included in this review was provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Quintessentially Link Love

AnaOctober 23, 2019October 23, 20192 Comments

Whether this is the first time you’ve ever read Link Love (if it is, welcome!) or if you’ve been checking in every week for years (if so, thanks for coming back!), this week’s links are so quintessentially link love as to make me laugh a little. I think the only thing missing is a knitting link, a funny animal photo or cat, and me making fun of Brad from the Pen Addict. Wait… let me see if I can make that happen! Otherwise, we’ve got all the go-tos: ink. Check! Pens? Check! Pencils? Check! Star Wars? Yep. Something Barbie-related. Yes, that too. Calligraphy, NASA and watercolor? Yes, all accounted for. Postal link? I spared you the link about the postal general retiring but I did read it. But you want a funny Brad picture? I got you covered.

Eye Candy: Tesori Nesting Tin Boxes

AnaOctober 23, 2019October 22, 20191 Comment

One of my design heroes is Louise Fili. Her eye for typography and aesthetics is world-renowned. She also helped cultivate the talents of other amazing designers like Jessica Hische who has gone on to be her own epic creative talent. That said, Princeton Architectural Press has worked with Louise Fili to design some products over the last few years that speak to her visually and creatively. She’s made double-ended colored pencils in traditional colors and metallics and now a set of nesting tin boxes called Tesori ($24.95).

Tesori is Italian for “treasure” which is fitting for a set of tin boxes. I imagine one of these boxes in 30 years developing a few dents and rust patina and being filled with various bits of ephemera from a lifetime of collecting and squirreling away of little treasures.

The smallest box easily holds small items like clips, ink samples, hand held pencils sharpeners and the like. I lined the bottom of the boxes with decorative paper to coordinate with the lids and help to absorb sound when items are placed inside. I would like to replace the paper with felt at some point for more sound absorption.

The medium sized box will hold average-sized fountain pens easily. Postcards or letters would also fit nicely in this box.

The largest box is perfect for regular pens, pencils and other regular, writing tools.

The boxes are made of a heavier gauge tin and the edges are rolled so they won’t scratch your desk. The enamel finish is smooth and glossy and the colors are bright but have a retro vibe with a creamy, ivory yellow that reminds me of a vintage candy box or cookie (biscuit) tin. I’ll certainly find a way to put these to good use.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Princeton Architectural Press for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fountain Pen Review

Fountain Pen Review: Pelikan M205 Star Ruby

Laura CameronOctober 22, 2019June 11, 20203 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

As I said a few weeks ago, when I laid eyes on the Pelikan M205 Star Ruby, I knew I wanted it right away. It wasn’t just the color, but the sparkle that got me! I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed.

The M205 Star Ruby is Pelikan’s Special Edition Demonstrator Pen for 2019, and is paired with a matching Edelstein ink of the same name. The M205 is at the less expensive of the Pelikan line, coming in at an MSRP of $210 and available many places for $168. I bought mine from Vanness Pen Shop (pen & ink set for $188)!

The M205 Star Ruby is a demonstrator pen with a piston filling mechanism. The body is inspired by the beautiful of the “star ruby” gemstone and features a special crystal effect that makes the pen sparkly and shiny without obvious glitter or other elements. It is subtle, but beautiful. The pen is finished off with chrome rings in silver and of course the signature Pelikan finial.

This time I decided to try a Pelikan EF nib (standard nibs are available in EF, F, M and B) and see how I liked it. I’ve come to find that in Japanese pens, EF tends to be a bit too fine and scratchy for me, but Pelikan is known for broader Western-style nibs, so in this case it gets me what I approximate as a Japanese fine to medium, and I love it.

The M205 is a really nice pen. I had no problem filling it with ink and it wrote right away and was super smooth! While I wasn’t 100% sold the last time I reviewed an M600, it may have been a nib issue because this time I love the feel.

Overall, I’m super pleased with both the quality and feel of this pen. If this is something that catches your eye, I’d say go for it! It is a limited edition so supplies won’t last forever.

Paper: Ghost Paper Notebook ($25)
Pen: Pelikan M205 Star Ruby (Pen & Ink set for $188)
Inks: Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby (50ml for $28.00)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Sketchnote Ideabook

AnaOctober 21, 2019October 21, 20193 Comments

I’ve been a huge fan of Mike Rohde‘s Sketchnote project and his Sketchnote Handbook and Sketchnote Workshops. In general, he’s an all-around great guy and when I heard he’d created a Sketchnote Ideabook to meet his exacting standards for sketchnoting, I was all-in.

Partnering with Airship notebooks, the Sketchnote Ideabook is a soft-touch, hardcover A5 notebook with all the features you’d want in a sketchnote notebook. It features an elastic band (in bright turquoise) for closure, a gusset pocket in the back for ephemera, lay-flat design and heavyweight, bright white paper (160gsm/110lb). Oh, and TWO ribbon bookmarks: one orange and one turquoise.

The soft-touch covers are debossed on the front with sketchnote icons, on the spine with the brand logo and on the back with the tagline “Ideas not art” and the Airship logo.

Sketchnote Notebook inside cover

Inside the front cover are tips for sketchnoting. These are reminders from the book or a jumping off point. There’s also a place to write your name and other pertinent info.

Sketchnote Notebook inside back cover

On the inside of the back cover are tips for page layouts.

Sketchnote Notebook sketch

My first test in the Sketchnote Ideabook was to do one of my Inktober drawings. Yes, I know… “ideas not art” but Inktober drawings aren’t ART with a capital A. Besides, it was a great opportunity to test a bunch of markers without doing another simple line-by-line writing test. I used Copic markers, a Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen and pencil.

Sketchnote Notebook reverse of sketch

No bleed through! This is almost unheard of with Copic alcohol markers so just pause here for a moment and revel in the fact that both sides of the paper could be used.

Sketchnote Notebook sketchnote test

I also tested the paper with more traditional sketchnoting techniques. I listened to a new podcast called “Nice Try” and took notes throughout the various episodes through the first season: Utopia. Again, I used my Kuretake Fudegokochi marker for the most part and combined it with my Pilot Hi-Tec-C Slim Knock Gel Pen 04 and my new Pelikan Star Ruby.

reverse of sketch

Again, there was no visible show through or bleedthrough. The paper is a bit toothy. If you prefer the glass smooth surface of Rhodia paper, the paper in the Sketchnote Ideabook will definitely feel rougher to you. It reminds me of bristol board to a certain extent, if you could fold it and bind it.

Sketchnote Notebook back cover

Overall, this is a great notebook for the specific type of task it was created for. When I added the more wet media of markers, the paper got a little wavy so this is definitely not the right book for watercolor or other heavy water applications. It was designed for sketchnoting and that’s really what it is best for.

When I submitted my questionnaire for the Kickstarter, it asked what other options I might like to see in the future for the Sketchnote Ideabook. I have had the advantage of actually having it in hand when the question was asked. While one of the options was different colored covers (purely aesthetic), the other question was for printing the paper with lines, dot grid or a combination of blank and grid, etc. I think dot grid might be advantageous for some folks in keeping boxes, lettering and other elements aligned but I think, for it’s purpose, everything else is superfluous.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Sketchnote Ideabook for the purpose of review. In fairness, I did back the Kickstarter with my own money as well, I just got a pre-release edition of the notebook for review purposes as well. Some items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

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