I’ve been seeing Arteza art supplies popping up on social media for quite a while and was curious about the brand. When I noticed that they offered a nice chunky looking 3.5 x 5.5″ sketchbook, I was even more intrigued! The company kindly provided me some samples to review, so let’s take a look.

Arteza Sketchbook

First, that sketchbook that initially caught my eye. I have to say right off the bat that part of the eye-catchingness is the price! Arteza Sketchbooks are sold in 2-packs, for $13.99! (Currently even less at Amazon.) Under $7.00 per sketchbook is a pretty hard price to beat for a hardcover in this format.

The Arteza sketchbook is a bit thicker than some of the competition– it reminds me of the HandBook Artist Journals, or the Hahnemuhle Travel Journal. The black cover of the Arteza looks pretty standard at first, but when you see it in person, it actually has an immediate distinguishing detail– it has an unusual texture somewhat reminiscent of a handmade paper with plant fibers, or perhaps like icy frost on a window in winter. The cover overhang is pretty minimal, which was another thing that caught my eye. The Arteza brand name is stamped on the back cover but it’s almost impossible to see due to the cover texture.

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The ribbon marker is red, which provides a nice pop of color. The two-tone elastic closure and clear plastic pocket in the back are additional similarities with the HandBook Artist Journal.

Inside the front cover there is a space to write your name. The endpapers are otherwise plain, but they are actually quite surprising. Or perhaps I should say there aren’t really endpapers at all. Normally, endpapers are a totally separate sheet glued to the inside front cover and the first signature of pages, but in the Arteza sketchbook, it’s like they sewed an extra folded sheet into the endpapers so you have 4 pages tucked in there, separate from the rest of the signatures. I have never encountered this in any other bound notebook or book. I suppose it could theoretically add strength to the binding to have stitching as well as glue holding the end papers to the rest of the book block, and it means you don’t get that unusable page right at the beginning where the glue prevents it from opening all the way… but you still get a glued page a few pages further in. And in the Arteza sketchbook that I tested, I found that the binding was already coming loose at the point, especially in the back of the sketchbook where it totally separated almost right away. I think the stress at this point is caused by the stiffness of the cover around the spine– it isn’t soft enough to tuck inwards, and it doesn’t bend out into a round shape to take the pressure off the attachment points to the front and back cover.

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The paper inside the Arteza Sketchbook is 175 GSM, noticeably thicker than the paper in my HandBook Artist Journals though it has a similar toothy texture. To me this texture what I want to use for writing, but I found that it felt ok with fine gel ink pens. It did get quite feathery with fountain pens and a few others. But it is very good on bleedthrough and showthrough. It works well for pencil and charcoal and seemed to hold up fine to moderate use of watercolor paints.

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Arteza Watercolor Book

Arteza also sent samples of their pocket size Watercolor Book. These come in a 2-pack priced at $14.99. (Or less at Amazon.)

Again I have to call out the similarity to HandBook Artist Journals, as they use a similar grey linen cloth cover on their watercolor sketchbooks, though HandBook doesn’t offer one in this size. I love the soft feel of the cover, and the color is really attractive. On this one, the brand name is even harder to detect on the back– if you are looking for it you can see that something’s there but they might as well not have bothered. The Arteza watercolor book also feels nicely thick and chunky– you can see below how much thicker it is than a Moleskine watercolor book.

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Inside, Arteza has again used the weird extra page inside the endpapers but the spine is more rounded so it seems to be holding up a little better to being opened flat.

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The paper inside is cold press 230 GSM with a fairly smooth texture. I thought it worked fine and held up to wet washes without buckling much, though it did warp slightly more than the Hahnemuhle Watercolor Book I reviewed recently. I also thought colors looked a wee bit more vibrant in the Hahnemuhle. But the Hahnemuhle book costs twice as much!

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And that brings me to the conclusion on these Arteza sketchbooks– they are an incredible value at this price. I have some concerns about how well the bindings will hold up, but they are really appealing sketchbooks that won’t break the bank. If you are a professional artist who is really picky about materials, or if you are a traveler or hiker who needs something super-durable, they might not be for you, but for students, kids, casual art journalers, and everyday mess-around-ers, they are a great alternative to some of the more expensive brands. I’m quite curious to try Arteza’s other art supplies– they offer a wide array of well-priced goodies for all kinds of arts and crafts, perfect for beginners who want to try something new!

If you order directly from Arteza using these links (Sketchbook Watercolor Book), use coupon code NiftyNotebook1 to get 10% off. The coupon code is valid until Aug. 31, 2019. Or if you prefer, use the Amazon affiliate links below (I receive a small commission on orders placed via Amazon links.)

Arteza 3.5 x 5.5″ Mini Sketchbook 2-pack at Amazon

Arteza 3.5 x 5.5″ Watercolor Book 2-pack at Amazon

Other Arteza products at Amazon