Muji’s little sketchbook that could.

Muji makes great notebooks, but what about sketchbooks?

Little Muji sketchbook
Little Muji sketchbook

I wasn’t expecting much for P85 (around USD2). Surprise, surprise. The Muji sketchbook paper loves fountain pen ink and watercolor.

Donna Drapery
Donna Drapery

For the above sketch, I used the Hicks fountain pen (which has heavy ink flow) and Schminke watercolors with a #5 Da Vinci brush (it came with the Schminke box set).

I also tried the Zebra G nib with Platinum Carbon Black, and a combination of Schminke and Daniel Smith watercolors. The paper has tooth, not too bothersome with a superfine nib.

Gamma "Gams" Field
Gamma "Gams" Field

If your fountain pen’s nib is on the toothy side, you will definitely experience drag on upstrokes. (That’s the usual catch with sketchbook paper – the tooth that is so friendly to graphite, charcoal, and even watermedia doesn’t play nice with fountain nibs sometimes.) The ink doesn’t feather, though, and there’s no bleedthrough.

Watercolor, ink, water
Watercolor, ink, water

The larger versions come with a higher price tag. This little one fits into a handbag, and is not so precious that you would hesitate to use it for its purpose.