" I wanted to learn how to draw so bought a couple of books and pencils. This is the sketch book I have ever own. For the purpose of practicing drawing I found the sketch book excellent. The book is sturdy and has held up being thrown in my bag for the past month or so. I find it easy to write on the pages and erasing is also ok. The pages have a good thickness to them. The pages are perforated so you can remove the pages with ease. The pages captures the light well. I don't have any solid cons but I will explain why I only gave it 4 stars. I paid about $9 for this sketch book. I have seen other books for cheaper that seem exactly the same to me. I have blank book and a ton of notebooks, as a beginner these were probably good enough to start with and only cost $2 or so. I'm just speaking as a beginner now. I'm guessing experts aren't even reading these reviews. Even though I said the pages have a good thickness to them they also bleed through a little. I could very well be pressing to hard though. What this means is sometimes the back of the page you can see pencil marks and sometimes some feint lines on the next page. If the pages were just a little thicker this wouldn't be a problem for my heavy hand. I don't think this will be a problem for most people though."
Strathmore Series 400 Sketch Pads 9 in. x 12 in. - pad of 100 (Compare Deals from $10.69)
"This is a pretty nice sketch pad for quick study drawing and practicing one's various sketch techniques. What is probably my favorite thing about this pad -(we bought this for one of our daughters)- is that it is spiral-bound, making it trouble-free to go back and forth between unfinished pages with very little chance of the paper coming out (as can be typical with glue-bound pads with repeated page-turning). The back of this pad is hard-ish and allows one to use this on their lap to do some casual sketching and practice -(at least until you get down to the last 30 or so pages, then it can get bendy and "iffy" from that point)- without needing a table or alternate hard surface to bear down on beneath. While the papers are sprial-bound, each page has a smooth line perforation in case the artist wants to cleanly remove any pages from the pad. The paper itself is good for this price range, it's got a very slight tooth, and is pretty sturdy for what it is, as long as it's not excessively erased or very heavily blended with blending stumps. The paper stands up well to normal sketching and with 100 sheets of paper, should bring any artist (using dry media) several hours of practice/sketching pleasure."
"I bought two of these sketch pads for my young children. They do not do a lot of drawing, but I wanted them to have something nice we could take with us places so that when they did want to draw, the results would be better than on plain old office copy paper. The texture of the book is nice and it has a very nice heavy feel to it. It feels like a quality product. Pencil, marker, colored pencil, and paint all show up very nicely. I think it's a great way to provide a little extra encouragement to a youngster who's starting to find their feet in all that exists in the world of art supplies."
"These pads are the usual Strathmore quality: good textured paper at a nice easy-to-handle 60-lb. weight with a decent brightness. This is excellent for charcoal and pencil sketches and the paper is tough enough to handle multiple erasures with a hard eraser. The spiral binding makes it easy to tote around and it always lies flat. Bonus: the sheets are lightly perforated and I can easily remove them without tearing. The protective cover is a little thin and won't take a lot of banging around so four stars instead of five. I've used Strathmore pads for years and they have kept the same high level of quality. This pad is great for students or for quick sketches and studies."
"Well my daughter loves to draw cartoon like images based on stories she had read or read too. She likes the size. She draws with ball point pen. Holds up well. She has been at it since 3 yrs old, now going on 7. Big advantage for us is that, we do not have to collect loose sheets of paper for posterity. When, I hand her the new book, I put the date down on the front, helps to have a sense of time line. If I can convince her, she writes the title and date on some of the drawings."
"My daughter needed a sketch book for school that was 9x12, spiral bound and had more than 70 pages... I found that to be a bit of a task in our neighborhood! Amazon yet again saved the day! The sketchbook is exactly what she needed and a very nice quality. The paper is lovely and feels great to draw on. The binding and covers are sturdy and good quality. This is a bit expensive for everyday use, I think, but if you need, or want, higher quality, this is a great option."
"This product is AWESOME! I love the weight and quality of the paper and the binding is strong as well as the thick cardboard on the back. So 5 stars for the product... BUT...I ordered 1-"2 pack" but only one pad was shipped. I contacted the seller who told me that Amazon was responsible for packing the items and I needed to contact them. I contacted Amazon and they told me that the item was provided by the seller and if they didn't provide them (Amazon) with the correct amount then it was the seller's fault. Amazon did offer to either have me return the pad or they could me a partial refund. Since I LOVE the pad, I settled for a partial refund. But, if you buy these pads often you know that when a "sale" comes around you jump on it, so I am disappointed with the seller. I will think twice before buying from them again. So for the seller...1 star."
Strathmore Series 400 Sketch Pads 9 in. x 12 in. - pad of 100 (Compare Deals from $10.69)
