The Pen+Gear Sketch Diary—just under $5 and ready for my next masterpiece (or at least some decent doodles).
I was in an art supply store recently to pick up some gift items for a friend, and I thought I would pick up a smallish, mixed media, sketchbook for myself. I was thinking a 7-inch by 10-inch sketchbook would suit me well. It fits in my bag nicely and offers more drawing real estate than the tiny tablets I have been using. I was willing to settle for the less expensive store brand, but they had either pads that were too small or too large — nothing that was just right for old Baldilocks. So I started looking at the name brands of sketchbooks, and I was horrified to see that a 7-inch by 10-inch sketchbooks would eat up most of a twenty dollar bill! I decided that the paper I had at home was perfectly suitable, and I would give my wallet a break. I fled the store with the gift items and nothing else.
Yesterday my eagle-eyed wife and co-host of this site spied the sketchbook pictured above at Walmart for just under $5. She called me to see if I was interested. I was going to tell her to leave it, but I remembered her streak of finding cheap “Sketchbooks from Heaven” in big box stores. This may be another one of her miraculous finds. I decided to trust her instincts and told her to grab it. It is the Pen+Gear Create a Cover Sketch Diary. It wasn’t the ideal size I was looking for but 8.5-inches by 11-inches was close enough.
The really interesting thing about this sketchbook is that it has a plastic sleeve on its front cover so that you can insert your own art or what have you. I sort of wish all sketchbooks had this feature. I can write a detailed index of what’s inside the sketchbook or I could merely decorate it.
The Pen+Gear Sketch Diary with a color copy insert in its plastic cover
I have yet to draw anything in it so I can not yet attest to the quality of the paper. I seriously doubt that it’s archival, and it may not take some medias very well without bleeding or wrinkling, but that all remains to be seen. I’ll take a crack at this sketchbook, and I will share the results. If it doesn’t work out, I have a new notebook.
Stay tuned!
