Ever wanted a watercolour sketchbook for taking around with you? We noticed a mysterious in-depth review on a Stillman & Birn Sketchbook, by a customer simply named Evelyn, saying how she found it weighty and yet that the paper was lovely and could soak up oodles of watercolour, while the colour stayed beautifully fresh. The detail that Evelyn went into about her requirements, meant we thought she’d be a great artist to describe the differences between sketchbooks and how to make sure your one is portable enough for your needs.
By Evelyn
Some thoughts on Stillman & Birn (gamma) sketchbooks, compared with a Handbook Journal, for watercolour and pen sketching.
Why is the right sketchbook important?
It is one of those deep mysteries of life that I haven’t yet managed to solve – how much blame can I reasonably lay at the foot of my materials? While I am well aware that not even the most astonishingly perfect sketchbook ever created will make up for lousy skills, I’m also aware that bad paper is dismally unrewarding to use and sucks the life out of your painting. I began my watercolour sketching habit using cheap basic bargain books, which function perfectly well as a gateway drug, until you are hooked, slightly obsessed, and are then forever on the prowl for the perfect pad.
By way of explaining what it is I’m looking for, here are a few examples of the kind of use my sketchbook gets. I mostly draw with a fountain pen, though occasionally with a Pitt / Staedtler waterproof pen or a brush pen, which I expect to be able to run smoothly across the page with no bleed. My paints are mainly Winsor and Newton artist’s watercolours, with the odd Daniel Smith thrown in for luck, which I would like to be able to apply liberally on occasion without too much paper buckling, and I’d like the colours to retain their vibrancy. I sketch on location sometimes, so portability matters, and I often sketch across two pages, so they should ideally lie flat. When I’m being good and sketching regularly, I can flake through books quickly, so price is an issue.

Bramble leaves on a Handbook Journal – across two pages, with some densely applied paint.

Courtauld sketch on a Handbook Journal – on location, across two pages, using fountain pen and ink

Buttonhole kale on Stillman & Birn -quite wet paint application.
After working my way through a few books I didn’t get along with, I found and was quite content with Handbook Journals. I thought my search was over, but then, rather annoyingly, I kept coming across glowing reports of sketchbooks from a company I had never heard of – Stillman & Birn – and well, what could I do except buy one!
First impressions of the Stillman & Birn Gamma Sketchbook
I bought the Stillman & Birn, hardback, gamma, portrait format book measuring 14 x 22 cm. (This review should also apply to the alpha, as the weight and surface are the same as the gamma, but the alpha is white rather than ivory). When it arrived I promptly set off on an excitedly keen sketching binge, however, in no time at all, I developed a deep dislike of it!
Firstly, it is astonishingly heavy. The similarly sized hardback Handbook Journal weighs in at 330g, the Stillman & Birn, with its incredibly ponderous cover, is 430g. That is a whole 100g heavier, despite having only 48 pages compared to the 64 of the Handbook. When you are trying to pare the weight of a portable sketching kit down to a minimum, that extra weight really matters.
My second major gripe with the S&B was that no matter how hard I pressed down and forcefully leaned upon the spine, I found it impossible to flatten down the pages. This matters as I often work across two pages and I found it very frustrating when the pen snagged in the gully of the spine instead of skimming seamlessly across it. Although the blurb promises that the spines ease in and lie flat, mine remained resolutely stiff and stubbornly solid, resulting in sketches that had nasty gaps down the centre, as in the first example, and also in sketches where the paint seeps into the gully and formed an unsightly puddling, as in the second.

Stillman & Birn, hardback, spine gap

Stillman & Birn, hardback, pooling
Looking at the spine of the sketchbooks
These differences are apparent when looking side on at the spine; the Handbook is more flexible, while the Stillman & Birn is quite rigid.

Handbook Journal Spine

Stillman & Birn Spine
Paper weight and buckling in both sketchbooks
On paper weight: The S&B paper is the heavier of the two at 150g vs. the 130 g of the HB. One of the things that piqued my interest in the Stillman & Birn was the oft repeated reassurance in many reviews that the paper can take a lot of paint and it will not buckle. Yes the Stillman & Birn paper is strong, and yes, you can liberally slather washes over it with gay abandon, and will not doesn’t soften or breakdown in the slightest. Pens don’t bleed, and even the worst ink leaks from a wayward fountain pen won’t seep through the pages. But I found it does buckle, and it stays slightly bucked when it dries. I love to turn a new leaf and to greet the optimistic potential of a fresh blank page, I don’t however love to turn a leaf and confront the dimpled back of the previous day’s attempt. I found this dimpling to be worse on the Stillman & Birn, and to test this somewhat empirically, I covered a few pages of both the S&B and in the HJ with a variety of matching daubs and streaks of soaking wet washes, and left them to dry. I photographed the results, admittedly, not terribly successfully, but enough perhaps to show the slightly more undulating texture of the Stillman & Birn.

Handbook Journal- the back of a wet page.

Stillman & Birn- the back of a wet page
Perhaps the difference is more obvious from the side – both books have lain flat on a shelf for a month or so before taking this shot:

Side view of Handbook Journal ( on top) and Stillman & Birn (below).The S&B pages are notably wavier.
How does each sketchbook’s paper react to paint?
More so than weight or bucking issues, the ultimate sketchbook test must surely be how well the paint behaves on the paper and how well it retains its colour and vibrancy. I have to admit that there is something about the Stillman & Birn paper which really pleases. It has a very appealing surface – slightly rough, or with a bit of tooth, but not rough enough to hinder the flow of pen or pencil. But lovely though it feels, I couldn’t really find much difference between the two papers when it came to performance. Again, I thought perhaps an experiment might help, so I tried to produce the same marks, with the same amount of paint on both sketchbooks (harder than you might think!).

Colour and lifting swatch on Handbook Journal

Colour and lifting swatch on Stillman & Birn
After quite a few pages of swatches and much addled staring, I came to the earth shattering conclusion that the results on both papers are remarkably similar! Neither appears to have more notably vibrant colour than the other and washes have soaked in, spread and mixed in similar fashions. The S&B paper seems to arch up when wet which results in a bit more puddling and therefore denser colour at the spine end of the swatches. I felt the colour lifted slightly easier from the Handbook, I thought grainier pigments possibly showed their texture a little better on the Stillman & Birn, but quite honestly, any differences were far too slight to be of note to all but the most exacting critic.
Swapping from a hardback to a softback sketchbook
So on balance, for me, the lumbering weight of the hardback Stillman & Birn and its inability to lie flat would rule it out for me, which should bring an end to this (rather protracted!) pondering. However, just to complicate life a little, and because I did rather like the texture of the Stillman & Birn paper, I decided to try the same book but with a softback cover. This solves the weight problem, as the softback S&B is only 230 g, making it almost half the weight of its hardback older brother and a good 100 g lighter than the Handbook Journal. It also lies flat easily, hurrah! The lack of a hard cover does however mean for sketching out and about, not at a desk or table, you are effectively trying to draw on something floppy, which is really not to be recommended. Bringing along a bent piece of corrugated plastic and a couple of clips solves this issue without adding much weight.

Corrugated cardboard attached to Stillman & Birn softback sketchbook for support
Conclusion on the pros and cons of each sketchbook
So, where has all that comparing and contrasting left me? Well it has left me with two sketchbooks! I like the ultra-light weight, the vellum textured paper and the behaviour of paint on the softback Stillman & Birn, but I like the hard cover, the price and the behaviour of paint on the Handbook Journal.
Other differences that may be worth considering: The Handbook Journals come in a pleasing square format, approx. 14 X 14 cm. They also have a useful elastic strap, and a little plastic pouch, which is handy if you are one of those sketchers who collect paraphernalia. The Stillman & Birn books are available in a greater variety of larger formats than the Handbooks, and they also come in a greater range of paper weights and paper colours, and they come spiral bound, if that is your thing. Beyond that, I’m afraid that any improvement in my paintings is going to have to come from, well, actually painting, rather than from any particular choice of sketchbook. Perhaps less time spent pottering away procrastinating over materials might be in order? Or perhaps not, where would the fun be in that!
About Evelyn

Out and about with a softback Stillman & Birn Sketchbook and an impatient collie.
I have a background in Graphic Design, but I’m now mid-way through an MA in Art History, and a little way through a long long journey to become a better artist. I paint in oils when time allows, but I try and to watercolour sketch daily (ish), partly because the looking, the drawing and the colour mixing involved are wonderfully useful for progressing in painting, but mainly for the sheer enjoyment of it.
I pop some pics and some ponderings on my blog.
Visit our sketchbook department to discover which one appeals to you or view our range of Stillman & Birn sketchbooks here and Handbook Journals here.
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I love the Moleskin watercolour sketchbooks, a choice
of two papers and different sizes. I like a small book
and it is an essential inclusion in my handbag
Hi Jane, having a little sketchbook on you all the time is such a good idea, I find it makes the difference between drawing everyday at every occasion or missing out on interesting compositions and moments! Moleskine do such a nice range of sizes but if you’re wanting to do washes I find the paper can be a bit too thin.
Thank you for this, very useful! Beautiful blog, glad I
discovered you!
Thank you that means a lot. Evelyn really has done a great job.
Fantastic review thank you! And beautiful work
Hi Johaun, we’re so delighted that Evelyn reviewed the sketchbooks and that we get to see more of her lovely work.
Very helpful, I can never decide how to choose books 🙂
your blog is fantastic also!
Thank you Alex, we totally agree it’s so helpful to know what to look for and Evelyn lays it out so perfectly.
Evelyn. How kind and thoughtful to write up such an in-
depth experiment, especially with so much else to do. It’s
really appreciated, thank you.
Perhaps the unpleasant buckling of your S&B journal is due
to using a heavy, wet wash on Alpha/Gamma paper, which the
S&B website indicates is for dry media, ink, and light washes.
For watercolor, they point to the Delta/Zeta papers.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing that tip, it’s so helpful to have extra information to help explain problems!
I have to say I am a Stillman and Birn hardback fan..using
the Zeta series, white, smooth heavy paper. Sketching
regularly in mixed media including neocolor and oil pastel,
sometimes adding water and ink at home..the midline does
not bother me. Just love these sketch books and recommend
them in spite of the weight, of which I am aware as I sketch
from my bicycle.
Hi Caroline,
Thanks for your input, it’s fascinating to know what works for different artists!
There is also a Handbook Watercolor Journal with a beige
linen cover which I find better than any version of Stllman
and Birn for watercolour. It comes in 4 different sizes.
Re getting the S&B hardcover to lie flat…
You don’t mention in the post whether you broke in the
hardcover S&B sketchbook before using it. I always follow
the steps recommended by Michael Kalman (S&B’s owner)
as set out in this article and don’t have any problems
getting the hardback sketchbooks to lie flat. (The steps
sound extreme but evidently the S&B books are designed
to be treated that way.)
http://hudsonvalleysketches.blogspot.com/2012/01/brea
king-in-your-stillman-and-birn.html
Excellent review for which I thank you.
However, for watercolor, I would recommend Beta (“coldpress”…not really but with some tooth and bright white), Delta (like Beta but cream) or Zeta (smooth).
Hi Kate, thank you for the advice on which Stillman & Birn sketchbook types to use and for the feedback.
I do love my Stillman and Birn
softcovers for daily sketches. I find the
Beta to be my favorite but I can fit a lot
more sketches in an Alpha so it is more
economical. The 5.5 by 3.5 size is
perfect for carrying around in a purse for
on the go doodles. And the floppiness of
the soft cover doesn’t matter too much
when it is so small. I DO wish that Hand
Book made the actual watercolor
journals in the pocket size. I am pretty
sure it would be my favorite paper for
watercolor doodling, but the sizes are
just too dang awkward for my portable
kit.
I find the sizing on Stillman and Birn to
be usually more forgiving than the
regular Hand Book (not watercolor)
journals. But I may go back and try them
again sometime. I have a cheaper brand,
Arteza, to try next. Though I have a
feeling the smooth side/rough side
quality is probably not going to be my
favorite. I like some consistency I think.
We shall see!
And to date Stillman and Birn is the only
company I know who makes truly mixed
media friendly toned paper. Grey paper
that can take watercolor?! Noice.
It sounds like you would enjoy painting
in an Etchr sketchbook! It’s my favorite,
far and above S&B.
We have just started stocking the Etchr sketchbooks and they are wonderful!
This is an eloquently written review. I was sorely disappointed with my Handbook sketchbook. Even with light washes, my paper buckled and pilled. I swear I wasn’t being rough! I’d spent years doing watercolor sketches in cheap wood pulp drawing sketchbooks designed for dry media. The only thing I currently use my Handbook sketchbook for is to record color swatches of newly acquired art supplies. I usually swatch these on cardstock, then glue the swatches into the Handbook because I find the cardstock to be more reliable than the Handbook. I’ve just ordered an S&B Gamma sketchbook, so I can offer no comments about that product, but I am sincerely hopeful that it will preform better than my Handbook.