Features:

  • PERFECT PAPER: Dense 86 pound sketchbook paper ideal for pencil, ink, pen, pastel and charcoal and a light water color wash.
  • POCKET SIZE: 3.5 x 5.5 inches fits in your pocket for sketching anywhere.
  • PREMIUM: 160 pages of smooth, cream-colored paper accents your colors.
  • OUTDOOR USE: Flexible, all weather cover and durable stitched binding ideal for the great outdoors.
  • FIELD TESTED: Wilderness guide Jeff Wolh takes the Pocket Leda on backpack trips in the Rocky Mountains and recommends it as naturalist journal. Perfect gift for lovers of the great outdoors.
Binding was messed up, but still good book. EDITED, LEDA IS AMAZING

The binding of the book was separated upon receiving the item. Other than that the paper is great material. This is NOT suitable for alcohol based markers. Edit: After leaving my honest review, still using and loving my sketch book, I received an email from Leda themselves saying they saw my review and that the sketch book I received was unacceptable to them. Not only did they send me a brand new XL FREE OF CHARGE, they also sent me a Large one as well. Well done Leda, you are one attentive company. I will definitely be going to you first for art supplies!

Leda Art Supply Sketchbooks

This is a lovely sketchbook. It is flexible and has the smoothest pages I have ever seen for a sketchbook. My intended purpose for it is practicing calligraphy and perhaps using it also as a journal. This book has sewn signatures, which is often difficult to find, especially at this price point. The cover has a nice feel and seems to be water repellent. The book is able to lay flat if you place light weight on it. There is one inner pocket in the back cover. The sketchbook comes with an elastic band to keep the entire book closed. The company support is better than I have experienced with any other sketchbook purchase, not that I have needed it. They have only wanted to know if I am happy with my purchase. I highly recommend this item.

Feels nice in the hand, nice smooth paper

Feels like how a softcover bible feels, flexible but durable cover. I have several brands of sketchbooks, I use them for different things, I've found myself keeping the Leda for sessions where my heart and head are in the right place, like I don't want to draw any crap on the pages, I want the finished book to be a work of art in itself, maybe because I like the overall feel of the book. Paper feels durable, has a smooth tooth and is off-white (I'm used to bright white but like the warm tone). The covers are a flexible man-made material but feel nice in hand, like a field manual, like an audubon field manual cover. I have the largest and smallest sizes. The largest is always laid out open flat on my desk so I try to do my best work in the large book. I work with gouache, pencil, ink and markers. Markers bleed through but it handles them fine (colors appear a little darker than bright white paper), gouache was fine, not too much bleed through, normal paper ripple. I'm quite fond of these books, they feel right, this is completely subjective and is based on nothing other than my own personal instincts. The large book can be laid flat, just has a nice overall feel. I initially was interested in the smallest book I could find but in the end love the large book, will be buying a medium size when available

Made for a great travel journal

I got the Leda Art Supply Medium sized notebook and I am very happy with the product so far. I like the soft, rubbery feel of the cover, and the silky feeling pages have handled my pilot G2 pen and colored pencils quite well. But I have experienced some bleed through with some stamps and with Sharpies. I've been using the journal as a travel journal and it has been able to handle some abuse to the binding. I like to paste in random things from my travels so the binding has suffered a bit as the book expands, but no pages are at risk of falling out so far (I'm half way through the book). I also like to bend a book backwards and hold it by the spine, and the binding has been able to handle that, except this action has caused some little, tiny tears along the stitching of some pages. Overall, the book is quite flexible. The back pocket is holding in there, but it is starting to come off from the back cover (maybe the glue isn't strong enough?). I have had no problems with the elastic band. The book does lay flat on any page (even after the abuse I put the spine through). Overall, I would buy this again.

This is my new favorite sketchbook brand!

I’ve had this sketchbook for a couple months now and I really enjoy this product! The paper quality is great for graphite/pencil sketching and the size is that nice sweet spot of not too big but not too small ( I got the standard paper size). While the elastic does bend the cover a bit, I feel like it just comes with the territory when having a softer sketchbook compared to a hardcover/spiral bound sketchbook. For me it works great though, I feel like any damage to the sketchbook’s integrity is greatly reduced with a soft cover. The paper is also a great texture, it is smooth and soft but not fragile. I’m definitely buying replacement once I’ve filled this one out!

Best sketch/drawing book ever!

I've tried several different sketch and drawing books, and after ordering one of these pads I will never buy another brand of sketch pad. These are fantastic, the cover is strong and durable, the paper quality is great and it comes in 4 sizes so you can find one for whatever you need. It does fold flat as advertised which is great because as a lefty I have trouble finding good quality books I can use without having to tear out my pages. It has a neat little pocket in the back for some on the go supply storage. All around the best sketch pad I've purchased. Would recommend, and will buy again!!

Wonderful Sketchbook for Dry Media including Ink and Markers

This is a great sketchbook for experimentation and sketches. It does well with pencil, ink, copic markers, charcoal, and water based ink. It does ok but wrinkles with wet media like India ink and watercolor. The cover is textured and the pages are very smooth. They are also cream colored which is nice, it's a little easier on the eyes than a bright white paper. I definitely reccomend this sketchbook and I think it will hold up to being carried around if life drawing is your thing.

Excellent sketchbook!

I can say nothing but praise for this versatile little journal! I originally bought it for a 365 Day sketching project, intending to use pencil, ink, and some watercolor pencil occasionally. It has performed beautifully with all! Yes, my pages where I’ve added light watercolor washes or used a brush pen over w/c pencils have slightly warped but I’m more than okay with that. I love how my book has become a little chubby as I used more watercolor, collage, and even some markers and thinned acrylics. I sealed my mixed media pages with a light layer of buffed Dorlands Wax and they’re beautiful! I also love the color and soft feel of the paper, and the soft, flexible cover has held up like new. Good thing, as I treasure this journal, and have only 6 pages left to fill. The only slight disappointment is some black marker bleeding through once (flair, I believe) and a liquid ink writing pen that bled through in spots. The acrylic ink also came through. A minor issue; I just didn’t use the back. I would easily and eagerly recommend this sketchbook.

The notebook is fine but the rubber band came off after using it ...

The notebook is fine but the rubber band came off after using it couple times. It seems like they used some cheapish glue to hold the ends in the holes. Edit: Leda was kind enough to send me a replacement pad. I tested the band on the new item and it seems to be strong and snug therefor I am changing my review to 5* from 3*, because this is a nice notebook to carry around for sketches and designs. The paper works well with Micron pens, fountain pens, and graphite pencils (the paper is on the smooth texture side so most graphite tips might need more tooth in the paper to get darker shades, if you are not on the dark side of the graphite realm then give this notebook a try) etc. I also used some Tombow brush tips and the results are satisfying to me. I got no bleeding on the underlying pages, but I doubt that the paper can hold a lot of overworked felt pen marks and heavy washes. Edit2: I am attaching couple of scanned field studies and sketches from my medium size Leda. I used graphite 2b/4b in these quick sketches and I like how graphite works with this paper. I generally use markers and felt/fountain pens for outside sketching because I (generally) do not like the shallow tones of midrange graphite leads (B->3B) However slightly toned and smooth surface of the Leda paper makes it more of a joy to use my graphite pencils. I hope my pages give you some idea about how it handles graphite.

Fabulous, buttery paper. A win!

I am in love with this sketchbook. The pages are buttery soft, I love the color, I love how my markers and watercolors look on them. I bought this to replace my bullet journal now that it’s all filled up. I wanted something with similar paper but without the dot grid. I bought this one after some research and I am NOT disappointed. My pencils and pens glided smoothly across the paper. A pen test revealed that only my tombows ghosted slightly, and only when I really pressed them into the page. The only strange thing I experienced was an odd sort of webbing that happened with my ecoline watercolor brushes. Also, the paper got a bit pulpy and pulled a little if I scrubbed the surface with a wet marker tip, but i didn’t mind that. The paper did get slightly warped under watercolors, but clipping the page to a stiff sheet of watercolor as backing prevented the warping from getting bad at all. I’m uploading pictures of all of my test pages here. Really an incredible sketchbook. I highly recommend it.

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