The Sketchnote Ideabook: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Sketchnote Ideabook is made by AirshipNotebooks.com for Mike Rohde, who wrote two books (The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook) on how to take notes using the Sketchnote method.

The notebook is A5 size (5.8" x 8.3") with a polyurethane hardcover in gray. The cover is soft to the touch and adorned with icons, Sketchnote and Airship branding, and the "Ideas Not Art" logo.

It has a band closure in teal, two book ribbons (one teal, one orange), and a back cover pocket.

The 160 gsm blank paper (128 pages) is almost as thick as card stock. The pages are sewn with a lay-flat binding and the corners are rounded. The last four pages are perforated. The first two have large boxes for icon drawing reference, the third has small boxes, and the last is blank to use as a blotter. I forgot to take pictures of these pages, but you can see them on the Ideabook website.

The front and back end pages contain a brief introduction to the Sketchnote method, including the five basic elements of drawing and Sketchnoting patterns. Having easy access to these instructions is helpful.

The design of the "This Book Belongs To" page isn't appealing, with the "Reward for Return" (as if) and the drawing of Mike Rohde. Sorry, Mike. I'm sure you're a great guy, but I don't really want your likeness in my notebook.

Although the paper is thick and smooth, it's not meant for fountain pens. In my tests with eleven pens and inks, I found that, although the ink didn't bleed through much, it did feather.

Ink swabbing also demonstrated that this paper isn't meant for fountain pens. The colors of the eight inks I tested are crisp, but the paper absorbs the ink and doesn't exhibit any sheen or shading. Plus, the inks bled through slightly, and the paper puckers. Although the Ideabook website says, "You'll love this paper," I don't love it--not for fountain pens, anyway.

I tested a variety of non-fountain pens. The paper handled them well, with the exception of the Sharpie Magnum, but no one expects mega-Sharpies not to bleed. The fine point Sharpie didn't bleed through at all.

I used my Lamy 2000 (fine nib) inked with Iroshizuku Kiri-Same to try my hand at Sketchnoting. First, I practiced the five basic elements of drawing.

Then I watched a YouTube video by DAS Bookbinding on how to case bind a hand-sewn book. For the first two-page spread, I used the Radial Notetaking method. My pages turned out pretty messy, and I had to stop the video several times to write down the details I wanted. The Sketchnote method didn't hinder me. Rather, the instructions in the video were given too quickly for me to keep up. During lulls in the video, I added little pictures of the tools required and utilized some of the recommended drawing methods.

I varied my note taking methods during the course of the video. On my third page, I used the Vertical Notes method.

For the fourth page I used the Path Notetaking method.

I've always been a visual notetaker. I doodled in the margins while taking notes in school, but I never thought to incorporate doodles into the note taking itself. The Sketchnote method combines note taking with simple drawings to create a visual result. This is especially helpful when you're trying to retain information because drawing and writing create pathways to your brain.

I am, however, very much tied to words, and the Sketchnote method emphasizes writing only the main points, not all the details. I can't take notes that way. I need the details, such as the measuring formulas given in the video I watched. With practice I think I could let go of writing full sentences and focus more on using key words and drawings. I'm going to continue using my Ideabook while watching bookbinding videos to practice sketchnoting. But I will switch to a ballpoint pen or pencil instead of a fountain pen.

You can purchase the Sketchnote Ideabook at Airship Notebooks for $24.00 plus shipping.

(Airship Notebooks provided this notebook free of charge for Pen Addict to review. This post also contains Amazon affiliate links.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Roterfaden A5 Notebook Review

My last review was for the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter, a super great notebook cover system that utilizes clips instead of elastic bands or pockets to keep notebooks in place. Naturally, Roterfaden has their own line of notebooks that are made to be used with this cover.

The Roterfaden notebooks are very minimalist. The cover is thin kraft cardstock. The brand is stamped onto the front, as well as an abbreviated infographic of notebook specs. The binding is sewn with red thread (in keeping with the brand name). There is no spine to cover the stitching--it's an open edge that facilitates in the notebooks' main feature: it lays perfectly flat on every page, with no training necessary. It does this very well. With no thick cover and no spine, it feels more like writing on a pad of paper than in a notebook. Frankly, it takes some getting used to.

While there are a lot of benefits to this notebook's structure, it does feel a little flimsy. The kraft cover is not much thicker than printer paper, and the loose binding feels like it's going to fall apart (it hasn't). It doesn't feel like a substantial book. Of course, it's not meant to be used alone. It's supposed to be inserted into the Taschenbegleiter with several of its siblings--and that becomes its actual cover. It does work well when used with the Taschenbegleiter, and I think it would work okay in an elastic system, too, but it would likely not work in a notebook cover where the insert cover needs to be slid into a pocket. It isn't quite sturdy enough to hang on by one cover.

Between the covers are 84 pages of very decent paper. It is a cream color, and this one has a dot grid pattern. Lined and blank are also sometimes available. The paper handles all inks very well with minimal showthrough, and no feathering or bleeding. My Sharpie has run dry, so it didn't bleed through as much as it would have--you can see in the picture that even the dry ink did get through a bit. A fully-loaded Sharpie would do what it normally does to paper: annihilation.

This is a good notebook that serves its purpose well. It works for what it was designed to do, though it doesn't work for me outside of its intended purpose. That is, I wouldn't use this notebook without a sturdy cover system like the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. My biggest issue with this product is the price. $14.50 for an insert is...well, it's too much. It's good paper, and nicely bound, but it's also possible to find A5 notebooks that fit these specs for a third of that price. Buying these, especially in triplicate, as refills is not very cost effective. It's not a bad notebook, and if you like matching brands, it might be worth it, but it hasn't won me over.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Pebble Stationery Co. Traveler’s Regular Sized Tomoe River Notebook (Light Blue Vegan Leatherette): A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

If you're a fan of the Traveler's Notebook, you know that it's a long, thin notebook (8.3 x 4.3 inches) that can be inserted into a leather cover using elastics. Many people love the Traveler's system, because you can keep several notebooks within one cover. See my review here.

Traveler's notebooks come in many different iterations with various kinds of paper. But if you want a higher quality Traveler's-size notebook with more features, you should take a look at Pebble Stationery Company's version.

The notebook comes with either a grey or light blue vegan leatherette cover. The soft, textured cover is engraved with Pebble Stationery's logo, and the cardboard is thick enough that you can use this notebook all by itself, without the need for an additional cover.

The corners are curved and the binding is sewn stitch bound, not stapled like regular Traveler's notebooks. The binding allows the notebook to lay flat. I love this feature, because I hate fighting with traditional Traveler's notebooks which absolutely will not stay open without clips or something weighing them down.

Upon opening Pebble's notebook, you'll find a title page made of card stock with spaces for your name, the date, and contact information. A similar piece of card stock is at the back of the notebook. Each acts as additional backing to support writing in the notebook.

Next is an index page printed with lines for recording entries. One index page is not enough for me. I'd like Pebble to add more index pages to the front.

The inner pages are printed with 5mm dot-grid in light grey. Each page is also numbered, which is a feature I appreciate. Yes, I can write my own page numbers at the top or bottom, but on more than one occasion I've gotten off on my enumeration and had to correct the numbers later.

The notebook has two thick ribbon markers, one grey and one blue. This is another special touch that sets the Pebble version apart.

The last page features a simple ink journal with the date, the pen you've inked, the ink name, and a box for the swatch. Again, I'd like more than one page for recording inks, and the print would be much easier to see if it were darker.

The journal contains 200 pages (front and back) of Tomoe River Paper (52gsm). Traditional Traveler's Notebooks contain Midori Diary Paper (80gsm) but have only 64 pages (front and back).

Traveler’s, left, and Pebble Notebook.

Ink always looks wonderful on Tomoe River Paper. I tested ten fountain pens with different inks and nib sizes. As you would expect with Tomoe paper, the inks show through but there's absolutely no bleed through.

Tomoe handles ink swabs beautifully with lots of sheen and shading. Show through was evident and slight bleed through occurred with wetter inks.

I made a drawing using Robert Oster Peppermint ink and a Sailor MF nib. The dot grid made it easy to section off the space, and the paper was smooth and pleasant to draw on.

I am thoroughly impressed with Pebble Stationery's take on the Traveler's Notebook. They have improved upon the traditional notebook in every way with the lay-flat binding, page numbers, book ribbons, and soft cover. My only suggestion is that more pages be set aside for indexing and ink journaling, but honestly, if you want more pages for these purposes you can just use the dot grid pages.

You can purchase the Pebble Stationery Co. Tomoe River Paper Traveler's Notebook for $17.99. Yes, this is more expensive than regular Traveler's notebooks ($5.50 for 64 pages), but you're getting more pages, Tomoe River paper, and lots of extra features.

(Pebble Stationery Co. provided this product to Pen Addict free of charge for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!