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[Sappho]

So I keep hearing about these Moleskine notebooks and I see a lot of scans from some of my favorite artists' Moleskines online. My question is, how are they any better than an ordinary sketchbook, and are they really worth the INSANELY high price (relative to an ordinary notebook or sketchbook)? They look nice and all, but I'm short on funds and a fancy notebook is hardly a necessity when I've got a tower of plain ol' printer paper that I got for free just going to waste.

[kilakan]

There is a definite bonus over printer paper for sketchbooks, but it depends on the type of medium you are using, and what the sketchbook is made for.  Generally they are way easier to erase, change things on then plain paper, and sometimes plain paper can resist certain mediums so it ends up not blending well.  However if you are not all that good of an artist, don't bother with an expensive sketch book, look for something that is kind of good, but cheap, ideally with a lot of pages so that you can really practice well without going omg that page I wrecked cost me 20 cents.  Of course for pencil sketches (where you really don't want to erase anyways, and it blends well on printer paper) printer paper is great.

[Sappho]

I usually just draw comics in pencil, ink over it, then erase the pencil. Sketchbook paper is bad for erasing, but it's cheap, so sometimes I use it anyway. Most of the stuff I've drawn lately has been on either sketch paper or "drawing" paper (I don't have them with me, can't remember the specifics about the types of paper in these notebooks). I'm a teacher and carry around a backpack with folders in it all day, so it's no problem to carry loose sheets of free printer paper, and sometimes I use that too. I'm trying to push myself to draw more often, but regular sketchbooks work fine for that.

But is there any real difference between the "Moleskine" brand notebooks and the standard sketchbooks, other than the size and aesthetics? The truth is I'd love to have one, they just look so nice, but if I can't justify spending the money (I really can't afford anything expensive right now - there's not much teaching work during the summer), I'll just have to stick with what I have.

[kilakan]

the most likely difference (though I have never used one) is that in really expensive sketch books, things don't smudge, run, fade, or press onto the adjoining piece of paper.  They are also often a lot tougher and thicker so that ink does not run from one page to another, eat through the page, and that you can even use paints on them without it soaking right through everything.  I'll let someone who's used them themselves tell you what the main difference actually is though.
edit* Oh and usually you can ask the people working at the art shops to tell you about them, they tend to be very knowledgeable about these things.

[Sappho]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the people who work at the shops around here don't speak English, and I don't speak enough of their language to converse about these sorts of things, hence the online inquiry. I'll definitely hold off on buying one for now. Maybe if I had a nice sketchbook though, I might push myself to do something nicer with it rather than just writing down notes about stuff I should draw later and then never getting around to it. On the other hand, it's probably more likely that I'd be terrified to use it at all for fear of wasting that expensive paper.