Blog posts from October 9, 2008 to December 31, 2020 are currently in a non-public archive. That included this post until I revised it.  Links below will also now work.

Going forward I hope to re-release some of my archived information as information pages on this blog.

I’ll also be updating my art materials pages to consolidate and simplify finding my recommendations and reviews from over 2,800 posts.

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I get asked about my favorite papers for visual journaling—papers that I bind into my own sketchbooks.

Below are links to two popular posts where I discuss what makes a good visual journaling paper and mention the ones I rely on.

See this post Paper: What Do Visual Journalers Want?—Part 1 for a discussion about what to look for, the questions to ask yourself, that sort of thing—so you can begin the search.

Then you can go to Paper: What Do Visual Journalers Want?—Part 2 for some specific recommendations.

There are thousands of papers out there in the world and now and then I test them and don’t update that Part 2 post, even though I find that I continue to work with some new papers. (I do try to get back to the post ever few years and update it.)

If you can’t way, use this blog’s search engine to search for the name of a paper you’re interested in. I’ve got hundreds of posts on different types of paper. Not all of them are ones I’ve bound with, but all of the papers I use get discussed on the blog.

I write about papers in such a way that I’m clear about how I’m working and why that paper works for me. I will tell you what I don’t like about a paper. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a paper I don’t like. What I encourage you to do is know how you work, what your process is, and what are your “deal breakers.” Then if those things come up in a review you’ll know whether or not the paper is worth your time experimenting with it. You might love the exact thing that I hate about a paper.

Or you might not have and of the odor sensitivities that I have, which keep me from using a lot of great art materials, and some good papers. (Though I have found that really great papers have never had an odor that I couldn’t cope with—there is something about great paper and how it is made that requires clean water and good processes and results in a paper that is a joy to be around.

Not a Book Binder?

If you don’t bind your own books and are interested in commercially bound books then please check out this post on Commercially Bound Journals.

This means sketchbooks too! I use the word interchangeably.

I have just made an update to that post, but it isn’t comprehensive. So I suggest you search the name of the type of book you are looking for in my blog’s search engine if you don’t see it on the list.