Ink artist, Nick Stewart, presents one of his favourite sketchbooks: Hahnemühle’s Zigzag book
Hahnemühle has been producing high-quality artist papers since 1584, makin
g it one of Germany’s oldest paper mills. Their world-renowned watercolour papers are created using high-quality pulp and produced with a combination of traditional heritage techniques and modern-day state-of-the-art production processes.
The Hahnemühle ZigZag book is one of their many products and is essentially one long single sheet of high-quality watercolour paper folded like a concertina to create a sketch book of 18 pages – ten one side and eight the other. The ZigZag book is available in A5 and A6 portrait formats as well as two square options, measuring 5x5cm and 14x14cm.
The ZigZag book is a highly finished, quality sketchbook. The oversized dark grey durable cloth book covers protect the folded paper inside and are held together with a distinct and eye-catching band of red elastic in the upper right corner. The Hahnemühle rooster logo is discreetly blind embossed on the back cover.
The textured watercolour paper features a fine-grain surface on both sides and is perfectly suited for all wet painting techniques with brush and pen. The 300gsm weight ensures stability and thanks to the surface sizing, colours flow with ease and can be lifted without any problems. The paper is eraser-resistant and masking fluid and tapes can be easily removed without damaging the paper surface.
Quality that works
So, what is it like to use? As a fountain pen ink artist, I’m looking for paper surfaces that give me the best outcomes for the media I’m using. I need a high-quality watercolour paper that will allow a sharp Zebra G flex nib to make marks easily on its surface with no snagging or splattering. The paper must cope with enough water to allow the fountain ink to release its base dyes (chromatography) but at the same time not allow any ink to penetrate through to the other side. I also want a paper that can handle a little household bleach that I use for highlights and erasing, and not affect the reverse of the paper. It’s a tall order but one that the ZigZag seems to cope with easily. And if it can cope with fountain pen ink, it can easily cope with watercolour, gouache, tempera, pastel, charcoal, pencil and crayons.
And, for artists who might initially see the ZigZag as unwieldly or impractical, these books are easier to use than bound books. Should you wish to work across two pages, a bound book will always need clips or bands to hold the pages flat. There are also issues with inks and paint bleeding into the gusset, through the stitching and under the fold onto clean pages farther ahead or behind in the book. The ZigZag also gives the option to create across more than two pages, in fact, up to ten if you so desire! So, for plein-air urban sketchers and all those who love to paint and draw while being on the road, the the Zigzag is a no brainer!
Versatile tool
The ZigZag book also offers a lot of creative possibilities. Whether it’s a giraffe with the longest neck or a wide 360 degree panorama image, the ZigZag is a natural and logical format for storytelling using just imagery or imagery with handwriting. And for artist display purposes, this format allows all pages to be shown as opposed to just two pages of a bound book.
I can see only one potential drawback and that is the limited number of pages. Eighteen pages may not be enough for some artists and a bound book will give you more. Which brings me neatly on to quality and value for money. The Hahnemühle paper used in this book really is a great surface to work on. Price wise, these books are not the cheapest, ranging from £7 to £25 but I firmly believe in paying for the best that you can afford and if you want a high-end art experience, these ZigZag books deliver a great result, are fun to use and rewarding.
About Nick Stewart
Nick is a fountain pen ink artist. Find out about him and his work by visiting www.nickstewart.ink or Instagram: @quinkandbleach