Help me find a nice smooth sketchbook!

[Tad]

Hi,
I have a particular taste for really smooth paper!
It must be from my years growing up drawing on copy paper,
and loving every minute of it!
But it's so hard to find a wound/binded sketchbook anywhere with paper anywhere near that smooth, the smoothest I've found is what i've been using currently, and I have actually learned how to use it enjoyably,
but I would still like to have a nice book that I can carry around with some smooth paper in it.

I have used smooth bristol alot in the past, but it's expensive,
as the sheets of paper are so thick, also they are not wound or binded,
just glued together, so the pages fall out.
Definetely seems like something good for final works.

SOoooo lmk if you have any ideas? Any random store that might carry something like this...

thanks.

[SJ Bennighof]

Well, I'm lovin' vellum bristol myself. Micheal's carries a WIDe variety of paper types, sizes, and binding methods, like glued, spiral, spiral on top or on side, etc.

[Tad]

Well, I'm lovin' vellum bristol myself. Micheal's carries a WIDe variety of paper types, sizes, and binding methods, like glued, spiral, spiral on top or on side, etc.

michaels!
they're like a huge art store chain right?

haven't tried them..
huge store.. good chance of having what i need,

thnx.

[PeggyChung]

hmm what you could do, is get that copy paper and go to "Kinkos" "Office depot" or "staples" and they have an area where they can bind it for you. I bought a 500 sheet stack of bristol vellum (i think they use it for fancy invitation cards) at staples, and had it bound. the whole stack of paper was 8 bucks, made two large sketchbooks out of it. binding is pretty cheap also, 3 dollars because it they have to use larger spirals for a 250 sheet book. In the end, it looks like those large manuals that come with computers. later!

[Dookymobile 3000]

Oh! I know exactly what you need: cardstock. I doubt you'll find any bound, but you can snag it by the reem at any Staples or whateva. It draws just as smooth as copy paper, but a lot thicker (you can erase all day without roughing it up).

All my sketchbooks are just binders full of cardstock; it's the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned.

[Tad]

Hmm, interesting,
cardstock and bristol vellum,
they sound similar, are they?

should i just go to staples and ask for cardstock? or some other name?

[Dookymobile 3000]

Yeah, you can just go in and ask for cardstock - it's like $3 to the reem. Toss it in a binder, and you're good to go!

Bristol Vellum's a lot closer to vellum - it's still pretty toothy, and i don't think that's what you're looking for by the sound of it. It'll also smudge a lot, if you're doing smudgeable things.


ps/bonus_level: remember that with cardstock (like all paper), it's got a good side and a bad side - it takes a bit of acclimatizing to figure out, but if you're into really technical stuff, or whatnot, you'll eventually find that it makes a world of difference.

[pvrhye]

I know how you feel.. My favorite paper of the moment is Saunder 140 lb hot press.