Bee Paper Company BEE-204CB50-609 Big White Bee Drawing Pad, 9 by 6-Inch, Black Charcoal

The notebook is beautiful, the color and texture of the paper is amazing. The color of the paper is very beautiful, and the texture of the recycled fibers looks great as well.However, it is a bit fragile, and will get chewed up by anything but the softest of charcoals. Even pastel pencils pulled up the fibers of the paper. Graphite had a hard time sticking well too, and I was unable to achieve the dark tones that I needed with them. Also, the paper is very thin, which does not help.Don't even try using wet media on it, as it messes up the paper even more than dry media. Ink, acrylic, watercolor, copic markers and fineliners all struggled on this notebook. I realize that's not what it's for, so take this with a grain of salt.

The paper was A LOT darker than I was expecting. It is a med. brown. Bold, underline, italicize, MEDIUM BROWN. My screen makes it look tan or perhaps light brown. This is also the sense I got from the other reviewers. Since my purchase others have pointed this out.Sharpies bleed through to the other side so only one side of the page is unuseable. They don't bleed past that so that's good. Acrylics make the paper curl. Both are not uncommon with 60lb paper. Guess I was too hopeful that 10lbs would make a difference.I will certainly find uses for it-just not the uses I had in mind when I bought it.The yellow balance in the second photo is off, the paper is neutral.

These are 9x9" sketchbooks full of BROWN paper, the kind of paper that they bag your groceries in at the store. I actually use these books as a basis for collage and also as a place to collect and store small watercolor studies and color pencil sketches that I do on other sheets of paper- I mount the finished pieces in the book. I love the way it looks more than a traditional portfolio.These notebooks are also great as foundations for art journals-. because the paper is thin and sort of flimsy and easily weighed down, it doesn't hold up well with most art mediums, but you can definitely prime the pages with clear gesso or dashes of white gesso as a starting layer, and that works well.

I really don't want to give it a bad review, because I love recycled products, but this is really a bad product. I've owned this for a few months before I formed a final opinion.Cons:1. It's too dark for a normal pencil to show well. That means no light sketches before coming back in with a softer, darker lead.2. The texture does not pick up color well. Hard to get saturated color with colored pencils.3. The pages are warped and bubbly. Similar to when you get paper wet and let it dry.4. It has a faint odor.....it literally smells like garbage.Pros:1. It's recycled2. Great design. The minimalist look and bee logo is extremely stylish. The way it was printed does not seem like it will not fade with use.3. The pages are strong enough where they don't start ripping at the metal binding.4. Binding is sturdy metal and doesn't bend or get misshapen.Despite its looks and durability, I keep finding myself grabbing different books to sketch with. If your biggest requirement is appearance, then it's just ok. But the drawing quality is below average, pages are warped, and the price is not justified. I will not buy this again.

We bought this to use as a scrapbook for our travels. The size is good; we love the little bee motif; the pages are clear and durable, and it has a definite craft feel to it. It's a little pricier than we'd normally pay for such an item but the quality is good. If you want a generic boring scrapbook then this isn't for you. If you want something with some longevity and originality to it, then buy with confidence.

As a student and lifelong artist, I have become a huge fan of bee/aquabee products. They hit the mark on most of their offerings, and the CoMo sketchpad is no exception. I purchased this for pencil and lite pen use so as not to waste the pages in my Super Deluxe pads, which are made to accept more heavy mediums/use. Tooth is nice and readily accepts pencil and "dry" ink use(as in common gravity fed pens, pump markers and alcohol based pens probably require something more robust like the Super Deluxe). The affordable price allows one to sketch worry free. 10/10.

Bought two of these kraft paper books--one for my wedding guest book & one for a baby book. I'm in love with them. I use a Polaroid camera to take photos & then just use washi tape to secure the photos to the kraft paper pages & write directly in the book. It's the easiest scrapbook I've ever made & the binding & kraft paper of this book just make it look so classy. I wish the bee on the front wasn't so large, but it's easy enough to cover up with a title. I also use Tombow dual brush pens on the paper & it doesn't soak through or change the color of the markers, which is awesome.

I really love the texture of the paper. It has great tooth for colored pencil, charcoal, pastel & graphite. But I dislike that it's too absorbent for even a light spray of fixative. The paper soaks it up like a paper towel then the image is irreversabley darkened.For me this paper works best with pen & ink and gel pens.