Review: Grandluxe Monologue Sketch Pad

I'm quite surprised I managed to score a free sketchpad to try out despite the negative review I wrote about the Etcetra Sketchbook.

The Monologue Sketch Pad series from Grandluxe sure is beautiful. They come in sizes A6 to A4 and with three colours, namely black, red and orange. I love the design. There's this almost velvety matte surface treatment on the cover that feels really nice to hold. Visually, the cover has some subtle coral reef-like pattern on it, and then there are some crisscrossing lines on the cover. On the back cover are the words monologue cut into the cover.

As the front cover is not glued to the first page, it can flip all the way back to expose the spine of the glued pages. This sketch pad isn't really meant for archival purposes because of the binding. It's one of those sketch-tear-and-throw sketchbooks.

The paper is 140GSM, white. There are 72 acid-free pages treated with vegetable gel, whatever that is. There's a slight texture but not as much compared to cartridge paper.

The marketing text claims that it's suitable for drawing with charcoal, chalk, graphite, pencil, pastel, oil pastel, wax crayon, red chalk, acrylic, collage, oil, marker, spray and tempera. That's almost everything. -_-

For my review, I've tried, ink, watercolour, markers and coloured pencils. It handles ink very well with no feathering. I only drew on one side of the paper and for ink and markers, you can see faint impressions from the previous page. If you want to scan stuff, definitely do not draw on double pages.

Using watercolour warps the paper. Mine's the small A6 sketch pad so warping is not that serious. Colours from the watercolours come out well. The paper can absorb water but it's not as good compared to watercolour paper.

I like the exterior design of the Monologue Sketch Pad. I've to mention the glue binding again, so expect some pages to fall out like mine. Hopefully they will release a version with stitch binding in the future. If you want to buy, I recommend the orange and red ones even though the cover will become dirty with usage.

Overall, the paper is quite versatile but it's definitely more suitable for dry medium. I prefer using ink and coloured pencils with it.

Ink and marker

Ink

Ink from brush pen

Pencil

Coloured pencils

Coloured pencils

Ink

Ink

Availability

You can find the Grandluxe Sketch Pads on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-…