Why I Use Pleinly Watercolour Sketchbooks
Why I love this sketchbook!
MATERIALS & GEAR
8/16/20263 min read
I use hot-pressed paper—a hangover from my days of drawing with very fine-tipped fineliners, when I wanted the smoothest possible surface beneath my pen. So when I first came across the Pleinly A4 hot-pressed watercolour sketchbook on Amazon, that was automatically the version I ordered.
At the time, I simply thought it looked like a well-priced, 100% cotton watercolour book that would be useful for practising in. Instead, it has become my first-choice sketchbook.
As I mentioned in my article about what I carry in my sketchbag, the A4 size is perfect for the way I work. It gives me enough room to create a substantial sketch without feeling restricted, but it is still manageable for travelling and painting on location. I can work on a single portrait page, turn the book sideways for a landscape format, or paint across the centre fold when I want a much larger panoramic spread.
The paper is 300 gsm and 100% cotton, with a very light texture that I love. Although it is described as hot pressed, it isn’t completely slick or unnaturally smooth. There is just enough surface texture to give my pen lines and brushstrokes some character.
More importantly, it behaves beautifully with watercolour. It holds up to very wet washes, allows the pigments to move and mix on the paper, and gives me enough working time to soften edges or encourage colours to flow together. It also withstands lifting, additional layers and even a reasonable amount of scrubbing without the surface immediately beginning to deteriorate.
A large part of this is due to the paper’s sizing. Sizing is a treatment added to watercolour paper to control how quickly water and pigment soak into it. Too little, and the paint can sink in almost immediately, making washes difficult to move or adjust. Too much, and the colour may sit rather stiffly on the surface. For the way I paint, the sizing of the Pleinly Type L paper feels just right: the paint moves freely, but I still have plenty of control.
The sketchbooks are stitched and open completely flat, which is enormously important to me. I don’t want to fight with a book that is constantly trying to close while I am drawing, and the flat binding also means I can work comfortably across both pages.
Each book has a beautifully made, durable hard cover with a subtly textured surface that is practical and easy to wipe clean. There is also a separate opening page, so you don’t have to sacrifice one of the watercolour sheets for your name or notes. The book contains 26 sheets, giving 52 watercolour pages.
Pleinly produces both hot-pressed and cold-pressed sketchbooks, as well as two different paper types. Type L, which is the version I use, has stronger internal and external sizing. It is designed as a durable, versatile paper that can cope with wet washes, layering, lifting, tape and masking fluid.
Type C is softer and more absorbent. It is intended particularly for expressive, alla prima painting and very wet techniques, allowing soft transitions and granulation to develop naturally. It is more delicate than Type L, however, so tape needs to be used carefully and it isn’t recommended for masking fluid.
Pleinly is a Finnish company, and its products are designed and tested in Finland by a plein-air painter and engineer. The sketchbooks are sold through Amazon in several countries, including Australia, Germany and the United States, although the exact versions and availability can vary.
Considering the quality of the cotton paper, the sturdy binding and the number of usable pages, I still think they represent amazing value for money. What began as a sketchbook I bought for practising has quietly become the one against which I compare every other watercolour book—and the one I now reach for first.
