Hey guys, what am I doing with my hands?
[Funky Music]
I finished my sketchbook last week.
So, a couple days ago, I did a sketchbook tour. If you want to check that out, you can.
So, naturally, what does that mean?
It means that we are gonna start a new sketchbook.
I actually got two different kinds of sketchbooks and we're gonna test them today.
I am gonna decide which one I'm gonna fill next.
Something interesting, this is a watercolor book and this is a sketchbook.
If you know me, I am a sucker for a watercolor sketchbook.
Watercolors are just such a fun thing to take on the go. So,
Yeah.
I'm also really into gestural Anatomy sketches right now, so smooth pages are also good.
I might end up carrying two sketchbooks around. I don't know, man
Who here has tried Arteza sketchbooks?
I want to know and I want to know your thoughts on them.
If you guys have been on my channel for a while,
You probably know that I am a sucker for Arteza art supplies. I really love them.
They're super high quality and so I've been working with them this year and today they're sponsoring this video.
Which I'm really excited about. Thank you Arteza for sponsoring this.
I love their art supplies because it's really affordable and it's really high quality.
I feel like they don't cut corners and they deliver.
some stuff that I typically use from them is gouache paint,
oh, they just came out with everblend alcohol markers, and I thought they were really good.
I tested those recently. So yeah, I will leave links below to some of my favorite Arteza supplies
One thing that's really cool about Arteza is they don't tell me what to say guys, I get to speak my mind.
They're really honest company and so like they are letting me just review stuff
and I can give you my full opinion.
That's really nice.
I wouldn't take a sponsorship from a company that would tell me everything to say.
That would go against my conscience.
Let's open these up. Something cool I did notice, there's two sketchbooks in every pack.
I'm gonna be loaded for a long time girl! [Laughs]
Let's open it up. Bup, bup, bup, bup, bup!
This feels like a really recycled material, I don't know if it is or not, but I dig that. That's pretty cool.
That struggle, you know.
This has a really nice take it with you feel to it. Oh, it's natural linen bound.
Something that's really funny is some of you guys have suggested
that I do another first page fears with your sketchbook kind of video.
Well,
You guys are getting your wish today, 'cause we're doing first pages in both of these sketchbooks.
Whoa!
WHOA!
This sketchbook is so sturdy. It kind of feels like fabric but kind of like I don't know.
I don't know what this material is, I want to know.
I can't find my watercolors...
What did I do with them?
Let's start with the regular sketchbook.
If lost please return to...
some of you guys act so surprised but yes my real name is Miranda Byler.
I go by Mira Byler because I didn't wanna seem like I was jacking Miranda sings name.
So you can call me Mira or Miranda. I don't care.
Unless you know me in real life then you can't call me Mira, so don't, don't do that.
Whoa, this is thick.
This is one sheet?
Yo, get out of here. What's the weight on this? I didn't even read the thing. This is 118lbs!
Girl, this is nice!
Sketching makes me really nervous. I'm turning this camera off.
[Music]
This paper is definitely really thick. I would say it's definitely thicker than most sketchbook papers I've tried.
So, I'm really curious how markers hold up. We might test that.
[Music]
You know oddly I don't have much sketchbook fear right now, for our first page, I feel pretty comfortable.
Surprisingly.
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Let's try some different shading techniques here. New sketchbook, new starts, new experiments.
Oh man, I smudged it.
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Okay, let's see how marker performs on this page.
Oh.
It holds up really well, I mean it's not peeling. This is nice.
It does come through a little bit but you know what, I'm okay with that. It doesn't go on to the next page.
[Music]
Sketch the body.
This paper really held up well for this marker, I was really impressed.
It definitely soaks in a lot of ink, but it's nice for layering I think. I bet you could layer a lot with this.
It does go through the paper. So if you like using both sides and you like using markers,
You should probably not use markers in this sketchbook.
[Music]
I think what I have concluded with this paper, is it's very porous.
It's nice for layering because...
There's just enough texture that it's smooth, you can sketch very gesturally
but it's also textured enough that stuff soaks in and you can layer really well.
So I'm a fan of that.
I definitely think I will use this sketchbook and fill it.
I wish that on their packaging, they would have said what this material is
because it looks like they're starting to be environmentally friendly, but I can't tell.
I don't know. It looks like recycled stuff.
I want to know. Can somebody tell me what this is.
Please?
It's so cool.
I need to make a goals page in this sketchbook if I'm gonna stick with it.
Yeah, I just like to remind myself of the things I want to improve.
I'm gonna go over all my thoughts on this sketchbook real quick. So it's all in a nutshell here.
Something I really like about this sketchbook is it seems Eco-friendly.
This seems like some sort of recycled material. I'm not sure if it is though, but regardless I like that.
Another thing I really like is the texture of the pages.
I think this will be hit or miss for different people because everybody just has different preferences for page texture,
but I'm looking for something smooth for sketching with dry media but something that can also hold up to wet media
and this is supposed to be a dry media sketchbook.
I know, I know.
But girl, it held up so well with this watercolor that I think I could get away with it.
Another thing that is a plus for me and this is actually a requirement for me is one of these bands.
I am constantly tucking my sketchbook in different bags and stuff. So having an elastic band is just nice for me.
One thing that I wish they had were square sketchbooks. An 8 by 8 would be great because that's my favorite size.
Other than that, hey girl, this is a really good sketchbook. I'm happy with it.
So, opening this, oh, this is...
Wow.
What!? Oh my goodness.
Guys...
This just blew me away. [Laughs]
Okay, the tooth on this. it's textured on one side, but it's not super, super textured.
It's just got a little bit of tooth to it, but then the back side's smooth and this is smooth.
It goes like, oh my goodness. Whoa! Whoa. Whoa, okay.
Texture,
both of these are smooth,
Textured.
Smooth.
Oh, I think they go every two pages.
Textured, smooth.
This is definitely smoother.
Wow, okay, so.
That would be great for sketching.
Huh! That's nice. Okay, let's do some sketches in here, shall we?
So far, it feels like I can be pretty gestural. It's not too harsh on my pencil.
To test this I might swatch some colors, too.
All right. I'm gonna just be real with you guys I use Arteza's watercolor paper quite a bit.
I think they have a really high quality watercolor paper.
Pretty much every watercolor painting you see on my channel is with their paper.
I think it's actually one of their strongest products that they offer. That's just my opinion.
This sketchbook is pretty consistent. I'm pretty happy with it.
As this layer dries, I'm just gonna swatch other colors just to see how it holds up.
It's definitely vibrant. [Laughs] That's nice. Let's try it a lot, a lot of water, like a lot.
We'll see how that dries. I'm gonna do one of my little blubbleflies here.
If you don't know what that is, go check out the video that was posted right before this one. It's a sketchbook tour.
You'll know exactly what I'm talking about. [Laughs]
These will be enamel pins soon by the way guys because a lot of people really liked that idea.
So I'm looking on their website right now on just to see all their different sketchbooks.
They have acrylic pads and stuff too. That's cool.
So something that I would request one day I think is
I would really love to see square versions of their sketchbooks.
Specifically in the size 8 by 8 inches, I would love that so much.
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See up close, the line when the most water was this one and the page is pretty smooth.
It's still drying, but it didn't really buckle that much. So I'm happy with that.
Okay, I just sketched this cartoony little person.
As you can see, my style varies quite a bit. I don't really commit to one. [Laughs]
Why would I?
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Okay, I just tested a bunch of things on this page, and I'm so happy with it. [Laughs]
Look how cute she is.
Ohh! Oh my goodnes!
This was a really fun first page in the sketchbook.
I think this is actually my favorite "first" sketchbook page I've ever done. [Laughs]
I get really nervous for my first sketchbook pages.
So yeah, I did one my little Blubbleflies.
Some apple tree leaves.
This little cartoon and then I swatched my water color palette in the background.
I wanted to make use of all of space and set the tone, make it this colorful happy thing
and it kind of shows everything I like to do. I love colorful art.
I like drawing people. I love drawing plants and I love my Blubbleflies. So it's like uhh!
So I'm going to highlight my thoughts on this in a nutshell now since I did it with the last one.
The first thing I love, love, love how well it retains color. I mean the skin for instance,
That was so dilute, there's hardly any pigment in that and yet it still showed through the page.
So I layered a lot. I layered a lot and look, it held up well.
I mean, this is just a cartoon practice, so when I dive into more realistic stuff,
I'm excited to see how this holds up. Especially if it shows that kind of color.
I mean, I've really diluted those and it's really like (boom!) did well.
Another thing I like is there's a little bit of tooth to the paper, but it's not so much that you can't do details.
That's my issue with a lot of sketchbooks that are made for watercolor,
is that there's so much tooth that it's hard to sketch in them but this is nice.
Atreza gives you the best of both worlds with the whole texture versus non texture
because every other page layout is
This one has texture.
This one is smooth.
You go the next one. Here's more texture.
So if you're not sure what you like, this is a great one to start out. If you'd like them both, this is great.
So I am very, very impressed with this.
I really, really hope they come out with a square version, that would just rock my world. [Laughs]
I'd be so happy.
I'm very impressed with this quality. I'm very glad that I have two new sketchbooks that I like.
I'll probably use them both equally, honestly.
Question of the day before we go.
Do you like your sketchbook laid out horizontally like this with the binding here or vertically with the binding here?
That is the comment of the day.
When you have a rectangle sketchbook I mean.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for watching.
I hope you have a good day and I'll see you next time. Bye guys!