I’ve mentioned this relatively new Moleskine product a couple of times (Moleskine Monday: Interesting News from Japan About New Products, Moleskine Monday: New Art Collection), but haven’t written more extensively about the portrait format Watercolor Notebook (vs. the more typical landscape format Watercolor Album). I’ve had one for a while, but just started using it.

I don’t know why more manufacturers don’t offer a hardcover portrait format watercolor notebook in this size. Landscape is great, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to paint in a notebook that matches the orientation and size of other everyday notebooks. And since this one opens quite flat, it also gives you the option of painting across a bigger spread. I know Stillman and Birn has softcover pocket size notebooks in portrait format with paper that’s good for watercolors (Beta, Delta and Zeta series), and there are other sketchbooks like the HandBook Travelogue Journal and Hahnemuhle Travel Journal where you can get away with using some watercolors, even if they don’t have true watercolor paper. HandBook Journal Co. also makes a sketchbook specifically for watercolor, but not in a pocket size. The closest thing to ticking all the boxes would be Hahnemuhle’s Watercolor book, which does come in a really nice A6 hardcover with an elastic and ribbon marker (no back pocket). At approximately 4 x 6″, it doesn’t go with my collection of 3.5 x 5.5″ sketchbooks, so it’s not quite right for me. But if the size doesn’t bother you, I would recommend it. (See Hahnemuhle sketchbooks review for more details.)

The construction of the notebook is typical of current production Moleskines– a little more overhang than I’d prefer, and corner folding that isn’t as tight as they used to do 15 years ago, but the one I bought doesn’t have any obvious defects. The cover has a slightly waxy feel, which is different from the older Moleskines I have. And I almost didn’t notice this at first, but there is no ribbon marker. I just looked at my old watercolor sketchbook comparison to check, but I guess Moleskine has never put ribbon markers in their watercolor books. In the landscape format this seems fine, but I wouldn’t mind having one in a portrait format watercolor notebook– maybe I’ll just glue one in!

The 60 pages are bound so that each spread is its own signature, unlike the pocket size landscape format Moleskine Watercolor Album, whose 60 pages are bound in 5 signatures. All my other watercolor sketchbooks are also bound in multi-page signatures. It will be interesting to see if the binding splits with use, as those skinny signatures don’t allow a lot of edge for glue to adhere to, but this allows it to open nicely flat, and might allow more easy removal and preservation of pages with paintings across spreads.

To me, the paper in the Moleskine watercolor notebook is ok but not great. For many people it will most likely be fine for casual use, but I’d personally prefer a somewhat smoother texture. And I’m not sure if it is the texture itself or something else about the paper, but it seems like certain colors don’t go down evenly, particularly if you try to layer a few strokes to build up color. I am by no means a skilled user of watercolor, so when I noticed a blotchy look I thought it was my fault, but I then saw customer reviews on Amazon saying it is a defect of the paper. And comparison to other watercolor books I’ve used seems to confirm that it’s not just me being a bad painter! (From what I’ve read from various online sources, Moleskine’s watercolor paper used to be considered quite good, but in recent years has changed for the worse. It’s worth reading other reviews to get a sense of how people’s different painting styles work with this paper.)

If you like to draw on watercolor paper with fountain pens, this paper should be fine. A medium nib looked a little feathery but the other pens I tested worked fine and didn’t bleed through.

The pages do buckle slightly when you do wet washes, and I found that even keeping the notebook closed with the elastic for a couple of days didn’t completely flatten them back out. All that said, though, I wouldn’t say this paper is dramatically different from others in pocket size watercolor notebooks I’ve tested, though I do think the paper in the Hahnemuhle Watercolor book is better.

Moleskine has discontinued their pocket size Sketchbook, which was always a favorite of mine for drawing. I liked the heavy, smooth, cream colored paper with most pens and pencils, but it could be really weird with watercolor due to the texture and color. So in a way, it’s nice that they’ve replaced it with a portrait format watercolor sketchbook with bright white pages. The page count on the Watercolor Notebook is only 60, vs 80 for the pocket Sketchbook.

The suggested retail price of the Moleskine Watercolor Notebook in pocket size is $17.95. This may seem a little expensive, but I don’t think it’s crazy compared to other watercolor books this size– nicely bound hardcover watercolor books with good paper are just expensive, period. Arteza sells a 2-pack of hardcover watercolor sketchbooks in 3.5 x 5.5″ landscape format for $17.98, which is an amazing value, though I’d say their overall quality is lower than Moleskine’s. An A6 Etchr watercolor book with 52 pages is $25.00 for 1 or $54 for 3, but that has a higher quality 100% cotton paper. The A6 Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook is $17.49, for 60 pages and similar features but somewhat better paper. Pocket size Stillman & Birn sketchbooks are $10.99 but they lack a hard cover, elastic, and back pocket, and have only 56 pages in the heaviest papers. On all of these, many retailers discount from the list price. The lowest price I’ve seen on the Moleskine Watercolor Notebook is at Blick, for $13.51.

So the bottom line on the Moleskine Watercolor Notebook? If portrait format, exact size and standard Moleskine features like a hard cover, elastic closure and back pocket are most important to you, try one out and see how you feel about the paper, as many users seem to be quite happy with it. I will probably buy a few more myself. But if paper quality or price are more important factors, you will probably prefer to stick with other options.