The people at Denik were kind enough to send me another book to look at — the Layflat Notebook:

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Midnight Meadow design.

The design they sent me was Midnight Meadow which has a beautiful cover — and is one of 18 new designs they’re offering.

I’ve got to say, it’s pretty cool. Seems to be a normal A5 (5.25″ x 8.25″) size with rounded corners and a definite upgrade to the previous “smaller notebook” that I reviewed before. As far as “laying flat” it’s a LOT better than the earlier, perfect-bound small notebook. It seems to have stitched signatures as opposed to the glued-in pages and the paper is good quality.

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Laying flat — a comparison: Denik Layflat Notebook (L), Handbook Sketch Book (R)

Again, most of what I do in a sketch book these days is with watercolor, and these pages were just a little too thin to accommodate large areas of wash, but still held up remarkably well.

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Watercolor and ink on the Layflat pages. Just a hint of buckling, but not much!

This book would be perfect for pencil sketching, ink sketching, journaling or Bullet Journaling.

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Pen and ink sketches (fountain pen), some with light wash shading.

And of course the great thing about this company is that a portion of the proceeds from every purchase goes to help build schools and support artists around the world.

Check them out! #denik, @shopdenik