That $15 sketchbook I bought at the art store is falling apart

I spent like $15 on a "premium" spiral sketchbook for my daily doodles and the pages just started ripping out after 3 weeks. The cheap $3 one from the grocery store held up better than this thing. Has anyone else had luck with a specific brand that actually stays together?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_holly5d ago

Actually read somewhere that some premium art brands use cheaper bindings now because people don't sketch as heavy as artists do. The Moleskine ones got really thin pages too from what I heard. My buddy swears by the Strathmore 400 series, says the spiral binding doesn't pop apart and the paper holds up to markers fine. Might be worth checking the thickness of the paper before buying, the heavier stock tends to stay in the coil better.

cole3565d ago

Kind of a lot to get worked up about over a sketchbook. Like, unless you're gouging the paper with a chisel or something most of those brands are gonna hold up fine for a normal doodle. I used a Moleskine for years with a ballpoint and a light hand and never had pages fall out. The binding gets loose if you shove it in a backpack full of bricks, sure, but that's on you. Strathmore is nice and all but the price difference for a spiral pad is like three bucks, feels like a stretch to call it a game changer. People get real intense about paper grain and coil gaps and I just cannot keep up.