Review: Fashion Sketchbook – A Designer’s Companion

Here is basic information about the format and style of "Fashion Sketchbook - A Designer's Companion":

Personally, I prefer at least an A4 format for my sketches as I like to draw a lot of details. However, I find A5 size and this sketchbook perfect for sketching on the go. It's great to have it in your bag so you can put in some ideas while you're waiting or in travel. This is a very compact, notebook style sketchbook so it is quite easy to store and carry.

I really like the back pocket on the cover as it makes it easy to store little notes, ideas and things like coupons or receipts. On each page you have a space dedicated to notes which is very useful for designers and writing down intended fabrics and colors. It's also nice to be able to remove each page without a fuss as all the pages are micro-perforated for easy removal.

It is definitely nice to have figure templates on hand so you don't need to worry about proportions and you can easily draw different views. These figure templates are 8-heads long which is usually less than a regular stylized 9 or 10-head figure. As a designer, you could use this sketchbook to draw initial ideas for your collection or clothing line and then later work on developing each look a bit more.

Acid free paper makes sure that your work lasts longer without damage or decay. This is definitely an advantage when it comes to drawing sketchbooks as you want your art work to be preserved as long as possible. I experimented with different drawing media to see how the paper reacts with each type and here are the results.

On the first image I used my Prismacolor Premier coloring pencils and I liked how they glided smoothly on the paper. There was no streaks as the paper is really nice and smooth and it was also easy to blend colors as well. It was also easy to clean up the waxy residue from Prismacolors without smudging the white background.

Next, I tried Copic markers to see how they behave on this paper. It was easy to color with them and the paper did not soak too much color. If I compare it to a marker paper I would say it is similar in texture, but thicker. The thing I didn't really like is that the figure template line was still noticeable after coloring. Also, the markers were bleeding through the paper onto the next page so I would recommend putting a blank paper between pages for protection.

And the last media I tried was watercolors. I did a quick sketch just to see how the paper will take a wet media and was pleasantly surprised. It was easy to put the color down and when it dried the paper stayed flat which is a big bonus. I don't have much experience drawing with watercolors but overall I like how it worked in this sketchbook.