Best spiral bound notebook series#

Textured (cold pressed) paper is great for when you want to create multiple layers of watercolour or use a lot of wet-in-wet techniques. The smooth paper allows for clean lines with a pen but will also allow you to add more layers of watercolour without buckling or warping. Smooth (hot pressed) paper is a good choice when you want to write and paint on the same page. Watercolour journals come in different textures. Mixed-media paper can take light watercolour washes but will still buckle if you want to add many layers or use wet-in-wet techniques. I ended up abandoning this one and started to look for journals with mixed-media or watercolour paper. The pages would buckle and warp and marks made with an ink pen would bleed onto the next page. This was fine for dry media, such as pencils, but I encountered problems when I started to add watercolour. My very first nature journal was started in an inexpensive journal filled with cartridge paper. The type of paper in your journal will affect the media you’re able to use and the finished effect of your work. Questions to ask yourself – Do I like to include a lot of landscapes in my journals? Which format feels best in my hands while I’m working? Do I stand or sit while drawing in the field?

Landscape orientated journals can look very pleasing when finished but holding them open while you sketch can be a little tricky, especially if you are standing. Your preferred subject and the way you like to work will dictate your choice here. There are two possible orientations for your journal – portrait or landscape. Questions to ask yourself – What is the size of my field kit? What size journal feels comfortable in my hands and fits well in my backpack? This can allow for expressive lines, but you may be reluctant to use a large book because it might be difficult to carry in your field kit, may be uncomfortable to hold in your hands while sketching, or the pages may be too large to fill during one outing. They are convenient to take with you, but it may hinder your creative expression if your work is too tightly cramped onto a small page. You want the journal that will work with you, not against you. The next thing to consider is the size that you will use. Questions to ask yourself – Do I prefer hardbound or spiral bound books? Is it important for my journal to fold flat on itself? Do I want to work across the whole spread? It is not easy to cleanly tear out a page from a hardbound notebook, and for this reason I prefer them. Our mistakes should be left in the journal to remind us of the lessons, not hidden or torn out. The main reason is that I find that it is too tempting to tear out pages if I make a ‘mistake’. I tend not to use books with spiral binding. Some people don’t mind this, so if it doesn’t bother you then go ahead and work across the spiral, of course! The disadvantage is that it is difficult to seamlessly work across the spine as you will have the spiral in the middle of your work. The advantage of this type of journal is that you can fold the book completely over on itself and work on one page while the book is flat.

Best spiral bound notebook series#

Spiral bound journals have a wire coil that winds through a series of holes at the spine. The benefits of this option are that you can draw or paint across the entire spread. Hardbound books have a hard cover with the pages held together with stitching at the spine. If you do decide that you want to use a bound journal, there are a few different things to consider before you make your choice:

However, using a journal has its advantages everything is in one place, your work is protected by the cover and it creates a lovely keepsake for you to revisit in the future. Some people like this option because it can be less intimidating than committing marks to the shiny white pages of a journal. These can be rested on a clipboard while you’re outside and collected together into a book at a later stage, or kept loose, if you prefer. I want to first reassure you that it is perfectly fine to do your nature journaling on loose sheets of paper. In this post I will help you think about some questions that will allow you to narrow your options, making it easier to choose the journal you will want to take with you on your next adventure.