Papers, Pads & Journal 

Sketch paper is often lighter weight, while drawing paper is conversely a bit heavier in weight. With drawing papers typically being heavier, the artist is able to work on the sheet longer and refine work. The paper can usually stand up to more erasing and more fine detail work.

Sketch paper is typically less expensive, giving you lots of sheets to practice with in your pad. Drawing paper typically will be a bit more expensive than Sketch paper and will usually contain fewer sheets in a pad.

Both sketch and drawing papers are intended for use with dry media such as graphite, charcoal and conte. However, drawing papers typically have a toothier surface, allowing for enhanced variability of tone. Many artists reserve mediums like pastels and colored pencils for drawing paper versus sketch paper since those are typically intended for finished art and the deeper tooth of a drawing paper allows artists to get more depth of color. The toothier surface of a drawing sheet is better for “grabbing” dry media, which allows an artist to create more intense areas of light and dark than what could be achieved on a sketch surface. An artist will also see different results when using various shading techniques such as cross hatching, using a blending stump, or other methods, so it's best to test out different papers and see what your own individual preferences are. 

Art journaling has a long-standing artistic tradition. Artists through the centuries have kept notebooks in which they sketched, practiced, experimented, and recorded themselves. Vincent vanGogh kept notebooks. Picasso and DaVinci were two other prolific sketchbook keepers. You are in good company! If you feel like exploring famous and not-so-famous artists’ sketchbooks, go to Artists’ Sketchbooks Online.

You might be thinking, I’m not an artist! Well, I beg to differ. You are an artist, and you can create an art journal without drawing or sketching. In fact, I’m lousy at drawing, so I use collage techniques to express myself. Stamp images, vintage photographs and magazine images make up for the fact I can’t draw.