Fantasy with Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks

[gakinme]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting in this section. I saw a few of you using Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks and have high praise for it and I'd like to join in to explore this brand.

I have three Stillman & Birn journals and I would like to compare them with other brands along the way. I won't post the work done on other sketchbooks but will link to it so you have a comparison. Like Robert, I'd like to put all three journals in the same thread because I'm comparing each medium on the three books too and it's easier to see them adjacent to one another.

I got the following three from left to right:

Epsilon Series Heavy Weight Paper for Pen & Ink Natural White
100 lbs - 150 gsm Plate surface suitable for line drawings without feathering or bleeding 50 sheets 7x11 inch SPIRAL

Alpha Series Heavy Weight Paper Natural White 100 lb - 150 gsm Vellum Surface suitable for all dry media will accept light washes 62 sheets 5.5 x 8.5 inch HARDBOUND

Delta Series Extra Heavy Weight Paper Ivory 180 lb - 270 gsm Rough Surface enhanced wet strength suitable for mixed media renderings 25 sheets 6x8 inch SPIRAL


These came just in time because I have been in a rut the last two weeks with a new job and have been so busy I have sort of lost incentive to draw. Nothing is better than testing out new toys.

The first thing I did was to test how flat the Alpha drawing sketchbook could lay open with a hardbound binding.

If you are familiar with these journals below, then you could tell that Stillman only lays relatively flat but not very flat. I opened every single book at 1/3 of its pages.

Top left to right: Daler Rowney Simply 65 lb, Pentalic 70 lb
Bottom left to right: Strathmore Watercolor 140 lb, Handbook Watercolor Journal 95 lb


Here, I open them and put the same steel Japanese weight on each one except the top which is the Handprint one. Even with just a light ruler, Handprint lies absolutely flat.

Top row: Handprint watercolor journal
Second row left to right: Daler Rowney Simply, Pentalic
Third row: Strathmore watercolor, Stillman Alpha Series drawing sketchbook

Strathmore is equally flat and very impressive for such heavy paper. I've been using toting this Strathmore one back and forth for 6 months and not a single page is loose.



I added Handprint Drawing Sketchbook at 130 gsm and labelled good for pen and ink, pencil, markers and light watercolor washes without buckling and 100% acid free.

Impressively flat! But I don't care for the light cream color.



So I'll show you the quick sketches I did of the Stillman here. You could see the rest of the comparison here.

One of more difficult tests I found is using India ink because they could warp weaker paper.

Hardbound Alpha Series

Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink - sepia, deep red
Walnut Ink applied with Chinese brush
Pentel Pocket Calligraphy brush pen - fibre tip for styling details
No name disposable fountain pen with black ink cartridge for line and wash

Japanese castles



I really like the sturdiness of this paper. It's smooth enough for my brush pen to glide through without it becoming drybrush effect as heavy texture would do to it. I've given it light washes last night and impatiently waits for "the morning after test" as you could see by the next morning if it will flatten out when dry. It did 95%. You could see a slight buckling underside but it's way better than the 65 - 70 lb paper sketchbooks which couldn't take washes as elegantly.

My comparisons with Handbook is here. While the colors, washes didn't bleed or show through for now, I would hesitate to draw on the underside. When you scan it, the image will show through from overleaf. I think this book would probably be better for dry media, definitely. I'll find out later on if I could do oil pastel, colored pencil, pen and ink back to back.

The next one is on the Epsilon Pen & Ink sketchbook. I'm really not being fair to the manufacturer because it states it's good for line drawings without feathering or bleeding. It didn't say it accept washes.

Cambodia



I lathered the same materials all over it. No pilling or but it failed my morning after test. The next morning, I opened it and the underside cockled terribly all over like the 65lb from Daler Rowney Simply. Even Pentalic 70 lbs hold up better for washes. But then it's only for line drawings, it says. So next time, I'm going to test it with pen and wash only, and in future, markers, fountain pens...etc. I won't give it aggressive washes. I can't use the underside for definite with this aggressive mixed media. I've compared it to Bee Company's Artist Marker Pad at 110 lb smooth surface heree.

Fianlly, I tried the extra heavy weight paper Delta 180 lbs. Too bad it's Ivory in color. I'm not very good with color schemes yet but ivory color works better for earth colors and I'm more a blue and purple fan and white would probably be easier. I bought a Classic Cachet sketchbook some time ago at 110 lbs made in England and it also has some sort of cream color and it took me forever to fill that one up too.

China - Guilin

Same material minus the Bombay India ink. Too lazy to open it tonight.



This one I don't have to wait for the morning after test. It's superbly flat after many washes. I've worked certain sections to lift the stubborn Walnut ink that's hard to lift and the paper didn't give way after repeated scrubbing. Very good product.

I personally would hesitate to slather pastel ground on to do soft pastels because it would waste this expensive sketchbook. Pastel ground could go on any other surface and stiffen the surface. I don't need to do it on 180 lbs at $0.67 per 6x8 inch page.

This book has its charm. Even though it says rough surface, it's smoother than the new Strathmore Readycut watercolor cards at 140 lbs both hot press and cold press (those two have very similar bumpiness for some reason). For someone like me who likes to use pen work on watercolor pieces, it's ideal. But if you are used to the rougher watercolor surface, this wouldn't work for you.

This extra heavy weight book is really the book to take around for watercolor sketches on both sides of the page. I'll try some acrylic and gouache later on.

[robertsloan2]

Thanks for a great review, Sandra! I've tried my Delta one and love it. I call it the Bruce Willis of sketchbooks, it stands up to anything I try to do to it. Haven't attacked it with a razor blade yet but the day will come! Yep, it's perfect for watercolor sketches on both sides of the page.

For a bright white heavy paper that handles washes on both sides of the page like that, I'd recommend trying the Derwent Soft Cover Journal. I'm about halfway through mine and very happy with that one too. Bit harder to find but sweet, and the paper's bright white.

Though I'm getting fonder of the ivory paper on the Delta even though I too love cool color schemes. It works well for landscapes.

[mhimeswc]

Great sketches, and an interesting book comparison thread. I'll be sure to follow this one.

[DrDebby]

Thank you for adding to the reviews of the Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. The Beta is the same weight as the Delta, but it is white instead of ivory. If you like the paper, but don't like the tone, try the Beta. I have one of each, tho' I've only tried the Gamma so far. The Beta paper looks and feels just like the Delta except for color.

[B.E.M.]

thanks for posting the review!

[gakinme]

Thank you for comments, Robert, Michelle, Debby. Definitely, looks like the Gamma would agree with me more. Will take note of the Derwent one, Robert.

I did more tests today.

Today, I'm using mostly pen and markers.

The first one is on Stillman Alpha series 100 lbs vellum finish sketchbook.

Most practices are based on Japanese masters' work.

Montblanc fountain pen
Montblanc black ink and wash



You could see the imprint from the underleaf already from this page.

Then I turn the page and did a double spread with same pen.


On the left side, you don't see the previous page because it is lighter in shading but when the pen marks are dark, you could see it underleaf.

The right side monsters didn't seem to be affected by this very strong color piece underleaf.

It has Prismacolor pencils, Caran D'ache Luminance colored pencils washed in odorless thinner and when that didn't do, I put Caran D'ache Metallic crayons and washed it with more thinner. For a moment, I thought the underside was doomed with spots but it evaporated and looked normal all over again. Then I put Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 with water wash on the top to block out the black lines from the previous page or you could see some monster eyes here and there.


This is something I've learnt over the months to block things out underleaf.

Then the next page, it's Shinhan Markers and Copic Markers. This paper is not ideal for markers. It drinks the markers because it's very absorbent.

And immediately below, you will see that it is quite stained and unusable unless I put oil pastels on it, or put pastel ground on it for oil pastel or some dark uniform surface first.

The paper is very stiff and sturdy and it is conducive to such treatment. I'll try it next time and I'll post what would happen to this floor sweeper when I do that.



Then I tested the Epsilon Series meant for pen and ink.

The first one is Montblanc fountain pen and wash. Immediately below is the underleaf. It shows through when it's dark so I won't be able to use it. This paper doesn't take water at all and it's no different from Pen Sketchers' from Bee Company in showing through. Perhaps it's ideal for journal writers with very fine nibs but dark ink of greater thickness reduces it to single side use for people who sketches aggressively.



Then I changed to Stabilo 88 point pens that are very fine and washable and at the top and side, I used Pentel Pocket Calligraphy brush pen with fibre tip and a Japanese brush pen gray color with felt tip and some water.

Underleaf, it just shows again.



The worst is using Shinhan Markers and Copic sketch markers. It drinks up the ink from the pen. No no...I would never use this paper again for these markers. What I could do with Bee Company artist marker paper in one sweep, this one takes 3 or 4 sweeps. Yikes. And look at the back. Not usable again. Well, neither would Artist marker paper from bee company but this one, I better remember to put a sheet underneath so it doesn't stain the next page.



Up till now, I'm not sure what this Epsilon book is really good for other than thin line sketches.

Then finally, the Delta Extra Heavy 180 lbs book. I would think it should be able to take these markers. Ah...wrong.



But it's not bad. I could do darker watercolor pieces to cover it up. But I won't use markers on these again. Markers have to go on marker paper to economize and to be smooth in color blending. None of these sketchbooks allow me to do so.

I have done a couple more comparisons with Raffine and Strathmore Visual Journal for markers and you could see it here.

Raffine is going to be tested more against Stillman in the next few days.



Oh, and I forgot to mention. The ivory color of the Delta Series actually is conducive to doing Japanese old masters' painting because the skin tone calls for a neutral beige or white. So I guess I could focus on Japanese works on this type of toned paper.

[Studio-1-F]

Originally Posted by robertsloan2

Thanks for a great review, Sandra! I've tried my Delta one and love it. I call it the Bruce Willis of sketchbooks, it stands up to anything I try to do to it. Haven't attacked it with a razor blade yet but the day will come! Yep, it's perfect for watercolor sketches on both sides of the page.

HA! Excellent, Robert! "the Bruce Willis of sketchbooks" is precisely how I'd characterize the Delta I have. I have pulled pages out of mine, punched them, and then popped them into my regular everyday sketchbook. Perfect!

Sandra, thank you for a very thorough and very thoughtful review. You are really putting these sketchbooks through the paces! It's good to actually see what you are doing. Thank you!

I really like the ivory colored paper in Gamma and Delta. The Gamma --> 100 Lb. /150 GSM / Ivory / Vellum Surface / "For Dry media/light washes". Very good surface for writing too. The ink line is bright and strong on it. No feathering.

These are really nice sketchbooks! I recommend them.

Jan

[DrDebby]

Thanks for doing all these tests on the sketchbooks. Really useful information.

[gakinme]

These couple of days I did more pen and watercolor tests.

But first, you have to read how Stillman paper fare when water is put on them.

I didn't test the Epsilon with water wash anymore. It's not fit for wash.

While Delta is extremely sturdy, it surprised me in how it curled.

This morning when I put watercolor washes on both open face page, they curled so much that the paint started running down the curved portions. I went ahead and pressed it down with a paper towel and did what I could with abstract art. When I got home, it curled the other way upwards.


Here's the pix after I closed the book for an hour.




So this evening, I took all my sketchbooks out to do a water test.

I washed the pages three times with sponges on the left side of the sketchbook or the whole sheets when they are in pad form.

Top right clockwise:

Stillman Delta Xheavy 180 lb - curled a lot but the first to dry. Later on it flattened out.
Raffine 100 lb - 3rd to dry
Strathmore 300 140 lb - 2nd to dry
Classic Cachet 110 lb - 5th to dry
Daler Rowney 65 lb - crumpled badly, last to dry, will pill
Handbook Drawing Journal - 6th to dry, didn't curl but it's not fit for watercolor, will pill
Strathmore 400 series 140 lb - 4th to dry



Here are the others:

Top clockwise:

Handbook watercolor journal - dry fastest
Academie Heavyweight 80 lb sketchbook - limp, could pill if not totally dry but once dried, very sturdy, 3rd to dry
Pentalic 70 lb - 4th to dry
Stillman Alpha 100 lb - effortlessly take water - 2nd to dry



One has to examine one's needs for sketchbooks. If I am looking to just play around and test things out, sketchbooks is the way to go. But if Delta first washes curl so much, I might need to tape it down so the washes won't be light in the curved up portions.

If I am to be serious about a piece, then I'll use Arches. Here's a 9x12 Arches wetted the same way as Stillman Delta in the front.



Having said that, I am impressed by how much scrubbing Stillman Delta could take and it wouldn't pill at all.

Imaginary - Daniel Smith watercolor and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. I used paper towels on this one to mop things up and it didn't bother the paper. I couldn't do that with Raffine. I could do it with Strathmore 400 140 lb.



And here's the back of this piece. The paper is so thick that you can't see any blue on the marker side for the Japanese man.



This one has so much water and reworking on it and it is still pristine in paper quality.

Plain Daniel Smith watercolor - imaginary - Stillman Delta 180 lb




Here is a piece I did with Raffine 100lb.

Fountain pen - whoops, thought the ink was waterproof but it wasn't. Made the best out of it.

Imaginary
Daler Rowney student watercolor
Small waterbrush since I did it at work at lunch

It takes sufficient reworking without falling apart too. This was done at the back of the red background Japanese man and neither side showed through.




Here's a Strathmore 400 pad piece for fun.


Definitely, the Stillman Delta is worth its money, as soon as I figure out how to tape it down when I wash it. I like its smooth surface compared to most rougher surfaces and still be so sturdy. The definite advantage at the moment is that it dries the fastest. For someone who has limited time during breaks and lunch, this is a plus.

[gakinme]

Here are the fine nib pen test.

Handbook Drawing Journal - fine nib fountain pen


Here's the back of it.


Not bad.

Here's Stillman Epsilon 100 lb.


You could see the image of the dark thick Montblanc ink from underside which is this one from the other day.

This was the back of the Ghost diving downwards. I put fine nib pen to work on this side.



And then turn it over and do some more. You could see the darker whiskers easily.


On a new page, I did this with fine nib also.


I turn the page over and if I don't put a piece of white paper in between, I see more of the markings of previous drawings.


I put a piece of white paper in between and you only see the residue of the boat scene.


Still, it is not all loss. I just noticed that this book has a texture good for colored pencils.

I was too tired to do fine nib on Stillman Alpha but I'm confident that it wouldn't show through like Epsilon.

In fact, Stillman Alpha is the sturdiest of all the small hardbound books I have so far that could take washes effortlessly. I have concluded that it is better than Strathmore Visual Journal Mixed Media.

I'll do a fine nib and watercolor combo test next week.

Now what excites me last night was when I noticed that Stillman Epsilon has a texture conducive to colored pencil.

I didn't care much for the rougher texture of Stillman Alpha when I use colored pencils but Epsilon is like the rougher side of Bristol Smooth paper, with just a tinge more texture.

I use a lot of colored pencils in my work to do details and I am looking forward to doing mixed media pieces next week.

Now that I have tested the more obvious sturdiness, washability, ink proofness, I could really mix them all up.

Here are some swatches I did for all of you who might dabble in colored pencil.






Can't wait to do colored pencil work finally.

Those rainbow bands are made of the following pencils from the outer top rim and inwards in this order.

Faber Castell Polychromos
Bruzyneel
Lyra Polychromos
Caran D'Ache Luminance
Prismacolor

[gakinme]

For the water test on all the sketchbooks, I typed wrongly. It's the right hand side of the sketchbooks that I sponged. Not the left hand side.

[DrDebby]

More great information. Especially like the colored pencil tests.

[gakinme]

Thanks for reading, Debby. I'll continue to post my work on Stillman here since I've linked this thread from my blog and Facebook now.

These two are in response to the July Landscape Challenge here.

I did these two on the Alpha 100 lb journal. As expected, it's effortless to do 3 or 4 washes in the first get go to get the basic colors. But once I started lifting, I need to wait in between to dry before I lift again or aggressive scrubbing would make it pill. But you could dump another 5 more washes on it and it's still fine. It's the lifting that you have to be a bit more patient.

I wanted to kick myself after I finished the first one. I should have done it on bigger sheets and frame it. It's so pretty.

Daniel Smith watercolor all the way



The second one I've made it into fantasy like and added a creature. You could click on the above link and see how different the real photo is. It's the first time I tried doing streaks of light with watercolor. I know more or less how to lessen colors with white pastel but not with paint.

It was the legs of the dino that I mopped up aggressively that I realized I had to wait for it to dry before I try lifting up color again.



The third one is a bit of a mess composition wise. Go ahead, you could laugh all you want. It's Stillman Epsilon and since it couldn't take water wash, I used Daler Rowney odorless thinner all the way.

Derwent Graphitint
Faber Castell Polychromos
Prismacolor pencils
Derwent Coloursoft pencils

The first two brand of pencils do not dissolve very well with solvent. The latter two better.

I don't have much practice doing skin tone in colored pencils yet and so you could see them black and blue and green. I should have been more careful with the proportions of the body but just trying to get the bum of the girl right took ages. Was at a loss for hair color. Creating people and landscape together is not that easy. Animals are so much easier. But I still want to show this just to show you how well colored pencils go on this paper. And there is no special see through marking on the back of the page!!! I could easily do another drawing behind, perhaps without thinner because the thinner might combine the colors from the overleaf and it would be messier.




The watercolor ones only took me 20 mins each but the colored pencil one must have taken me 3 hours and it still looks so ucckkkk ... I have to tame these colored pencils.

[gakinme]

Alright, I need to redeem myself after the last disaster above with skimpily dressed people. I could do people only not in true colors.

Here, I worked on Stillman Alpha 100 lbs again.

This is Derwent Graphitint pencil first for the person and washed it, then Daniel Smith watercolor all over. For the clouds, I put Holbein oil pastel as resist for some dottiness. Then more washes. And when it's sufficiently dry, since I've just learn that we should be patient with wet paper or it will be damaged even with Arches, I put more wash, more oil pastels. And I scrubbed and rubbed the oil pastel in with my finger. This is the first time I test this paper with rubbing with pressure and it stood up very well. Very much like my Academie Heavyweight 80lbs Mead book too, only the Mead one probably wouldn't take repeated wash.

I think I have layered 10 washes on this piece already and this Alpha is still going strong. I have a feeling that this paper has a better construction than Delta because it didn't curl much on first washes and it didn't curl thereafter either. Very neat sketchbook to carry around. Now I don't know what to do with all my other sketchbooks that is less water friendly.

This is a Hong Kong actor called Nic Tse.

Oh, and I want to mention that this page was sandwiched between the foggy bog and the arch piece and not only it didn't have any show through underneath, I didn't have to put a white sheet underneath to scan it so it wouldn't pick up the arch impression. It didn't. This paper is really thick.

The sketchbook is only 5.5 x 8.5 inch and the actual painting is 4 x 8.5 inch. I planned it so in case I want to frame it. Very tight space to do a portrait.

[DrDebby]

The info on the Alpha is great. I have a larger version of that. But I'm already working in 3 different sketchbooks and it's sitting on the shelf. Keep the information coming, this is marvelous stuff.