Review on 📒 Strathmore 500 Series Watercolor Travel Journal, Cold Press, 5x8 inches, 20 pages, White by Kelsey Brown

What I wanted: a well-made 100% cotton sketchbook in a user-friendly format for drawing in different environments, ideally at an affordable price. Here's how this Strathmore album scored: * 5 stars for the quality of the paper - good weight, nice texture and a pleasure to draw on. * 2 stars for "well done" - the book consists of 5 sheets in the format 8x10. folded in the middle and sewn in the middle. Sewing at least has a lot of stitches. This design means some sides fit even better than others. The cover is thin and not durable, so this sketchbook doesn't require all that much handling - not great if you plan on taking it outside on a trip. * 3 stars for the handy format - I like that the layout is in portrait mode - it's good that I get an 8x10 plane with both sides, but then I don't draw that much panoramic landscape. I felt that the 5x8 page size was kinda too narrow; I would prefer A5. The sketchbook is very thin (20 pages). So if you don't bring a board or a table to put the sketchbook on, it will be difficult to take this sketchbook outdoors. OTOH, I think it's easy at least. * 3 stars for price - in dollars per square inch, this album is more expensive than an Arches 9x12 block and slightly cheaper than an Arches 8x10 block. Comparison to Etchr Everyday Sketchbook (A5):* I like Strathmore paper a bit better. Etched paper is also 100% cotton, but weighs slightly less (230g instead of 300g) and is more textured. I don't mind the lighter weight (it's strong enough not to flex), but I prefer the Strathmore texture. Strathmore elastic), rear paper pocket.* I liked Strathmore's portrait format, but overall I prefer the Etchr A5 format and that it has 52 pages rather than 20.* Etchr is a bit cheaper ($/square) for the price. inches), but the Arches 9x12 notebook is still better. Bottom line: unless it's for a very specific purpose, I'm not likely to get much more than simple sketchbooks from this series.