Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Product Review: Kraft Paper Sketch Book from Hahnemühle Fine Art #hahnemuhle_us #hahnemuhleproductreview

Alice Hendon, product review of the Hahnemühle Kraft Sketchbook, decorated cover
 For the past week I have been having a lot of fun
working in the Kraft Paper Sketch Book from 
Alice Hendon, product review of the Hahnemühle Kraft Sketchbook, 80 sheets

 Hahnemühle has entrusted me to do some product
reviews and they send me product to play with.
Which I love so much!
They trust me to play and give an honest review.
All the thoughts here are mine.
(But I can tell you a secret before you read any further -
I absolutely love this book!)
Alice Hendon, product review of the Hahnemühle Kraft Sketchbook, decorated cover
So let's go back to that first photo.
I noticed as soon as I opened the plastic wrap,
that this would be a super cover to tangle!
Or paint, or collage, or mixed mediapalooza,
whichever art style floats your boat.
Both front and back of the spiral book seems to be
covered in similar, but heavier, paper than the pages.
So I pulled out my Tombow Mono Drawing Pen
and started having some fun!
The pen work went on like a dream! 
Smooth, no skips, nothing on the surface of the
cover for my pen to hang up on.
Just smooth fun. 
I even used a little Cosmic Shimmer watercolor
and it was awesome!
Water did not bother this cover at all.
Piece of cake!
Alice hendon, Hahnemuhle Kraft Paper Sketch Book, inside garden page
Then I moved to the inside pages.
There are 80 sheets of paper which means 160
work surfaces if you work on both sides of the page.
I don't typically do that, but I could if I wanted. 
What color are the pages?
As the name implies - they are the color of
craft paper. A sort of tan color.
With undertones of grey which my camera and
scanner both pick up.
It was really difficult to get an accurate shot
of the color.
With tan pages I like bringing in brown pens with
white highlights and lots of shading.
And the Kraft paper did not disappoint.
I tangled a garden on the first page of my book.
For tools, I used the Tombow Mono Drawing Pen, 
a Zebra Zensations Sarasa Fineliner, 
a brown Micron, a gel pen and a 
General's white charcoal pencil for highlights, 
the Zentangle woodless pencil for shading, 
and probably something else I am forgetting.
Hahahaha! That was like a few days ago.

So.
How did the first page go?
Awesome! Absolutely no problems with the pens
or the gel pen or the shading/highlighting tools.
The surface of these pages feel slick to the touch
and I expected that to be an issue with pens,
but it was not. All my tangling tools worked great!
The particular book I have is about 6" x 8" and is 
the perfect size for a tangled garden!
With the spiral binding, I could easily remove this
page for framing or for gifting.
Alice Hendon, mandala drawing in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Paper Sketch Book review
Next, I wanted to see how a large amount of 
black ink would work on these pages.
Remember I said the surface was slick?
And at 55 lbs the paper isn't all that thick.
I didn't really know what to expect,
but it worked great!
No bleed through of black and I got a good solid
coverage of ink.
No feathering, no bleeding, no smearing.
I used the same basic tools that I used on the
garden drawing, but was heavier handed and more
intentional.
Awesome sauce!
I should point out that I really love the way shading works in this book! 
Smoothing and pushing with my tortillon worked very well! 
I was able to get a smooth, almost buttery look. 
Yay!
Alice Hendon, Hahnemuhle Kraft Paper Sketch Book review
I had a maroon and a blue micron that I hadn't used much. 
I wanted to see how they would look when used on the Kraft pages. 
With the tan backdrop.
The blue held up really well, fairly true to life in color.
The maroon looks a little darker here on the Kraft paper,
but I can still tell it's maroon. 
For this drawing I used Zebra Pens' Drafix pencil to shade.
It went down very well. 
A little harder to smooth and 
push with the tortillon - an issue with the pencil itself. 
Alice Hendon, stamping in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Sketch Book
By this point I had already used my normal go-to
pens and pencils and gel pens.
So I pulled out a black StayzOn Ink pad and this cute
little stamp and stamped my girl onto a page.
I used Copic markers to add color
Copics are alcohol based markers and they literally
bleed through pretty much everything!
Sometimes through more than one layer of paper. 
Alice Hendon, stamping in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Sketch Book
Considering this paper is only 55 lbs,
this bleed through is not that bad.
(And there was none on the next page.)
One thing I noticed is the StayzOn ink did not bleed through, 
it stayed on the front of the page where it belonged.
The color quite literally has 5-6 layers of copic in most places. 
Knowing that - the bleed through isn't
that bad. 
I kind of like her little bow-legged look on the back of the page. 
Hehehe.
And if I want to - I can recreate the front here 
on the back with perhaps pencil. 
So it doesn't mess with the Copic color 
on the front.
Then I could have two cute little girls
blowing dandelions.
Win-win.
Alice Hendon, stamping in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Sketch Book
 These next three pieces of art used the same
StazOn ink pad - I really don't use any other.
The color is Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens.
The colors in all these stamped images are a little
subdued because they are on a tan colored paper - 
but that was part of my process -
to see if I could still get pretty images.
And I think I did. Absolutely.
Alice Hendon, stamping in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Sketch Book
 I had no problem coloring with markers.
No soaking up of ink, no feathering, no smearing. 
And these Pitt pens did not bleed through 
to the back at all.
The back of these three pages are pristine
and ready for more art. 
Alice Hendon, stamping in the Hahnemuhle Kraft Sketch Book
The Pitt Artist Pens are perfect for the
Kraft Paper Sketch Book.
The colors even remained pretty much true.
Alice Hendon, review of the Hahnemuhle Kraft Paper Sketch Book, using watercolor pencils
I wanted to see how the paper handled a little water. 
For these sweet little owls, 
I used a water brush and Amazrock Watercolor Pencils. 
Granted, it wasn't an overwhelming amount of
water like I am prone to use, but I used a fair amount
of water to move this color around.
And I had no warping or rippling of paper.
None at all.
Just a cute little row of owlets being all cute and stuff.
Alice Hendon, product review Hahnemuhle Kraft paper sketch book and glitter pens
 For this last one, I brought out my
Wink of Stella Glitter Pens, the Tombow Mono
Drawing Pen, a regular black Micron, 
a Sharpie fineliner, and a golf pencil.
And they all worked splendidly.
I tell you this paper is beyond wonderful
for all the different tools I used.
I had no problems at all. 
Alice Hendon, product review Hanhnemuhle Kraft Paper Sketch Book, buy it!
My recommendation to you would be this.
Buy it.
Hahaha!
Simple and to the point, that's me.

You can not go wrong with this paper
for tangling, stamping, colored pencils,
non alcohol markers, gel pens, glitter pens.
This Kraft Paper Sketch Book
from Hahnemühle can do it all and be your 
new go-to journal.
And you might want to get more than one!
Here are a couple places you can purchase
the Kraft Paper Sketch Book line:
New Egg  

Buy with confidence and have fun! 
I'd love to see your results!

This product was given to me by Hahnemühle.
All the projects shown and ideas mentioned are mine.





14 comments:

  1. I absolutely love your art work

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    Replies
    1. thank you, carol, it is so much fun. I just started all this 'art' stuff 5 years ago and I have learned so much. and I'm still enjoying the journey

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  2. Fantastic review, Alice! I love the backside of your Copic page - it would be great to tangle on!

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    Replies
    1. it will be, haven't decided how I'm going to handle it yet, but I'm going to :)

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  3. Great review! I just love the color of Kraft paper! All of your art is beautiful as usual! But I love that tangled garden!!!

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    Replies
    1. thanks, Chris! and tangled gardens work so well on Kraft/tan paper. I'm going to be doing a giveaway soon in the group. I have an out of town trip next week, waiting till after that.

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  4. You certainly threw some products at that paper - interesting to see such a lovely Kraft colour & with spiral binding. Your tangled garden followed by Narwhal are my favourites here.

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    Replies
    1. those are my favorites, too. but you probably already knew that :) I think you and I are much alike. love you, dear friend!

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  5. Beautiful work on your art and your review.

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  6. I love this. But I thought this was going to be a give away😕

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    Replies
    1. haha! no, a review of product. But - I am doing a giveaway now through Friday the 10th in my FB group Tangle All Around

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  7. Replies
    1. I’m glad you were able to get entered before it closed

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I have been waiting to hear from you :).