Some cool usage of an engineer’s field book by artist Kim Zoph:
Kim’s comments on using it:
“The journal has a hard, bright yellow cover, which seems like it would withstand variations in the weather quite well. Indeed, it’s advertised as weatherproof and highly durable. The book has 80 pages, with paper of 50% cotton rag content. The white stock is gridded with thin blue and red lines.
I love the way the paper takes watercolor washes. It’s more firm, and the finish considerably more accepting than Moleskine paper, which is what I normally use for my quick sketches.
Although the Sokkia paper ripples a little, the wonderful crackling sound the pages make when you turn them more than compensates for the ripple effect.”
See more at Sokkia Engineer’s Field Book as a Sketchbook | Kim Zoph.
I love the artwork on the gridded paper! I’ve been using grids to take notes and mind map, never thought of drawing on it too. Beautiful!
I used to use the Transit version of this Sokkia field book and found it worked quite well with pencil in the field. But I never had thought watercolors would work since the paper is supposedly been treated to write in the rain (waterproof). I tried ballpoint and that didn’t work as well as pencil.
On a separate note, if you cannot find this brand you can look into Elan field books which offer similar properties; though they are not as well made as the Sokkia ones and are only offered in orange.