Review on 📔 Crescent Creative Products RENDR Sketchbook - 8x8 Black Wire-Bound for Artists by Jean Wynen

UPDATE 2020 (2 STAR RATING): I bought the sketchbook in April after seeing the Lay Flat Rendr album a month earlier. I only used it recently (June 28, 2020). That's when I discovered that the sketchbook I'd hailed as "the solution to my marker problem" didn't work with my alcohol markers. At first I thought those were my Ohuhu markers, so I switched to my Copics. The same problems. The colors are too light, blotchy and almost impossible to blend without creating a weird waxy outline along with the marker layer (which needs to be dry and still) activating and moving like watercolor. And this after the layer in one of the drawings has dried for hours and sometimes days. The wax outline is more visible on darker colors, but it also appears on lighter colors when you try to add multiple layers. The marking pattern is also inconsistent, meaning it's almost impossible to get a consistent pattern. I verified this by looking at the color swatches in my first sketchbook from 2017. No problems and works like a dream. I should also note that I have a flat version from last year (2019) that has none of the issues described in this sketchbook. I bought a new and another sketchbook (Canson Smooth Bristol) two days ago to see if I received a defective sketchbook. To really test this, I recreated a drawing I made in my 2017 RENDR album, both the current and Canson Bristol albums. As you can see the coloring in the Canson sketchbook is smoother and doesn't have that weird waxy watercolor outline for the layers unlike the RENDR sketchbook. In the past I've hailed this album as "the solution to my marker problem". Are you still not bleeding and bilateral? Yes but it seems that the quality of the paper has gone down or that a new formula they are using for the paper is not compatible with the alcohol markers. I'm going with the former as the paper in my 2017 album seems to be thicker and better quality. Or they deliberately distribute bad batches. I cannot recommend these sketchbooks until Crescent fixes the issues and (attempts) to bring this sketchbook back. I will be using the ones I bought in April to practice posca and acrylic. Until then, while not fully bleed resistant, Canson XL Smooth Bristol is a good replacement for marker illustrations and I recommend them. They won't have a reversible function, but it will hold quite a bit of ink before spilling.