I’m continuing to make my way through my backlog of notebooks to review! I ordered this Talens Art Creation Sketchbook from Blick in January 2021 after seeing a few mentions of them online. The prices at Blick start at $7.25 for this pocket sized sketchbook, less than half what many competing brands are charging these days! Can it possibly deliver good quality? Let’s take a look…

When I first unwrapped the Talens Art Creation Sketchbook, I was disappointed. Big, wide overhang, which I hate! The exterior of the sketchbook is 3.5 x 5.5″ but the paper inside is more like 3 5/16 x 5 5/16″. But otherwise, I like the feel of the cover and the chunkiness of the notebook, which is just under 3/4″, noticeably fatter than a Moleskine and more like a Handbook Journal.

The overhand is even bigger than the Herisa notebook I reviewed recently:

The features are pretty typical– black faux-leather hardcover, with a ribbon marker and elastic closure, but there is no back pocket. The only branding after you remove the paper band is the stamped logo on the lower back cover.

The Talens Art Creation Sketchbook is bound with 20 sewn signatures that have been lightly and carefully glued at the spine. They open nice and flat so you can work across a page spread without too much trouble. There are 80 sheets/160 pages of cream-colored 140 GSM paper. Moleskine pocket sketchbooks are 40 sheets/80 pages.

The Talens paper is not quite as stiff as the card-stock pages of a Moleskine sketchbook (at least the old ones), and the color is much lighter when you compare it to the yellowish tone of the Moleskine paper. It seems somewhat similar to the paper found in the Art Alternatives Pen & Ink sketchbook (the heavyweight paper version). The paper also isn’t as smooth as Moleskine’s, but depending on your preferred drawing tools, this is probably a good thing.

The problem with Moleskine sketchbook paper was always that it could be a bit TOO smooth to work with certain types of pens and watercolors, leading to colors beading up. Happily, the Talens sketchbook doesn’t have this problem! Fountain pens write very nicely on it, with no bleed-through except in a couple small spots where I was applying some pressure to flex a nib and lines overlapped. There was only a tiny bit of feathering with one or two pens. There was hardly any show-through.

The paper also held up nicely to watercolor and markers. This is really nice, versatile paper that will please anyone who wants to keep an illustrated journal or do a lot of mixed-media sketching.

The left-hand page below is the back of the watercolor/marker test page shown above.

This is a nicely constructed, good quality sketchbook with great paper and it’s only $7.25*! What’s not to love? That overhang. But if you don’t care about overhang, go buy one! They come in other sizes and colors too, at Blick or Amazon. Whether you use it as a sketchbook or just a notebook, it’s a great addition to the list of Moleskine alternatives.

*Prices may vary at different times and different retailers. As of this writing, the pocket size sketchbook is $7.25 at Blick, and as low as $5.45+ shipping at Amazon.