Canson 100510850 Pro-Art Artist Series Universal Sketch Pad, 5.5 x 8.5 Side Wire

A bit smaller than I had expected but great item to gift to an artist!

I like it nice and big

I am no professional artist, or even a serious hobbiest. I just wanted a nice sketch pad to play around with when Im in the mood. This is nice and sturdy, the pages are thick and durable, and I do enjoy playing with it! Nice size to hold in your lap if youre outside sketching. I havent had any trouble shading or anything, but again, a pro would know much more than I. Its just a good quality sketchbook.

Mostly I use this for things like landscape, urban sketching, or something where I need to worry about perspective. If youre doing portraits, most of this review past the next paragraph will not be of any interest to you. The binding is good, and Ive not had any pages come loose or any snags. The backing is solid enough to lean on, even if Im sitting on a park bench. The paper is of a quality where it can stand substantial reworking. It has an excellent tooth and holds the graphite, colored pencil, or charcoal quite well. This is a good size. I switched to this size after learning about the 60% rule of two point perspective. You can only use 60% of the page. Anything in the 20% at the top, bottom, left, or right will look distorted. Dont beleive me? Draw a row of crates in 2-point perspective end to end along the page. Given that, you need a page large enough to support both your drawings and the required margins. But you dont want a sketchbook so large its unmanagable, hard to lug around, or prone to flopping open under its own weight. This sketchbook hits the sweet spot between both concerns. Its large enough, your drawing area is roughly 9x12 if your doing that kind of perspective. Its small enough its easy to manage and easy to work with. As I said, I use this a lot on park benches. The combination of quality and convenience is fast making this my urban sketching go to when Im just using dry media. I do have to point out, not only is it not meant for wet media, it doesnt handle it very well.

Was a gift. He loved it. Gave it to him with some colored pencils.

Worth it

Good price

Gifted. Shipped on time.

Nice easy pad to carry in case the feeling to sketch something hits you.

Came super fast and as expected