Rendr Sketchbooks are a new product from Crescent Artists. Their main claim to fame is that the pages are 100% bleed-proof. Now that is a pretty audacious claim. The only sketchbook I’ve ever found to be almost completely show-through-proof and bleed-proof was the Stillman and Birn 270 GSM Zeta series, which has a very thick almost cardboard-like paper, and only comes in larger hardcover sizes starting at about 5×8″. Rendr Sketchbooks have a relatively thin and flexible paper, and come in a very pocketable and flexible 3.5 x 5.5″ size, so I was very excited to get some samples from the manufacturer so I could give them a try.
First impressions: a nice plain black notebook with squared corners. Once you take off the shrinkwrap and the paper insert, there is no branding other than the word Crescent on the back cover. The cover is scored near the spine to make it easier to bend it all the way around. The paper is a cool, slightly greyish white, and when you first open the notebook you will immediately notice a rather strong smell. (It fades over time, but not completely.) The wrapper also touts these as having a lay-flat binding– I did not find it as totally lay-flat as they claim, due to some glue in the spine. It’s a bit smaller and thinner than a pocket Moleskine (shown below for comparison).
But what about the bleed-through? Can this paper truly take anything you throw at it? I’ll just say it: yes. It is downright freaky how bleed-proof this paper is.
I attacked it straight away with my Super Sharpie marker, which bleeds through pretty much anything. I drew a line and flipped the page: nothing. I even scribbled back and forth over the same spot and held it down to force as much ink as I could into the page: still nothing! I tested a bunch of other pens: no bleed-through. No show-through. Nada. The only way I was able to see anything through the paper was to hold it up to very bright direct sunlight, as seen below. I don’t know what kind of deal with the devil they’ve made to create such ink-proof paper, but it works! The paper does feel a bit thirsty and I found that fountain pens seemed to soak in and spread out slightly, though not with the feathering out fibers that you get with some papers. I also tested a watercolor wash, which the paper handled just fine without much buckling. That said, I’m not sure I’d recommend this paper for watercolors, as the paint had a weird grey tone when it was wet and the texture seems a bit flat compared to watercolor paper. The only other caveat is that the packaging states that “limited show-through may occur over time with heavy application of Xylene markers.”
You can buy Rendr sketchbooks and paper at Amazon
. Or you can enter the giveaway for the extra samples I received!
Two random winners will be selected from entries received in the following ways:
On Twitter, tweet something containing “Rendr sketchbook @crescent artists @NotebookStoriesâ€, and follow @NotebookStories and @crescentartists.
On Facebook, “like†the Notebook Stories page and the Crescent Artists page and post something containing the words “Rendr sketchbook†on the Notebook Stories page.
On your blog, post something containing the words “Rendr sketchbook†and “Notebook Stories†and link back to this post.
The deadline for entry is Friday September 12, 2014 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!
And please remember to check my posts on Facebook and Twitter for an announcement of the winner. Please allow a couple of weeks for me to check all the entries and determine the winners.
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