A5 sketchbooks and drawing pads

A5 sketchbooks and drawing pads have 14.8 × 21 cm pages, half the size of A4, so they fit in a handbag, a backpack or even a larger jacket pocket. You take them with you when travelling, drawing outdoors or sitting in a café, and use them as a journal where you record what you see. The range brings together hardback sketchbooks, spiral-bound sketchbooks and glued pads from Canson, Talens Art Creation, Clairefontaine, Hahnemühle, Daler Rowney and Arches. The paper weight runs from 80 to 300 g, and besides white you will also find cream, black, grey and brown kraft paper pages.

Which A5 sketchbook suits travelling and drawing outdoors?

For travelling, take a hardback sketchbook. The cover protects the pages in your bag and works as a drawing board when you sketch standing up or on your knee. The Talens Art Creation Sketchbook has 80 sheets of cream or white 140 g paper and you can choose from 18 cover colours and designs, while the Daler Rowney Simply Sketchbook has 54 sheets of 100 g paper. A spiral-bound sketchbook, such as the Canson XL Sketch with 100 sheets of 90 g paper or the Canson XL Drawing with 60 sheets of 160 g paper, folds right back so you can draw on the page that is in front of you.

Which paper is right for watercolour painting in A5?

Watercolours need paper that does not buckle easily when it gets wet, so for watercolour painting reach for paper from 200 g upwards. The Hahnemühle Watercolor Book has 60 pages of 250 g cotton paper in a hardback cover, and its Toned versions have colour-tinted 200 g paper. Arches and Canson XL Aquarelle are pads with 300 g paper, and the Canson Montval is a 300 g spiral-bound sketchbook in landscape format. For acrylics and mixed media there are Canson Graduate, Clairefontaine Paint'On and Daler Rowney System3 pads with a weight of 230 to 300 g.

For larger drawings, have a look at A4 sketchbooks and drawing pads and A3 sketchbooks and drawing pads; single sheets and pads for watercolours are in the watercolour paper category.