As a person who likes to sketch, smudge and cover everything with paint I'm a bit selective with the papers and the structure of the books I bind. I need them to be compact, open well, resist wear and tear, tolerate odd water media and not fall apart.
I mostly use fine, archival quality Munken papers which are manufactured in Europe by Arctic Paper. My favourite is the off-white and cream shade Munken Pure which is FSC & PEFC certified, uncoated and fully biodegradable. In some of the chunkier sketchbooks I like to use sturdy drawing papers like Canson Mi-Teintes, which seems to be suitable not just for pastels but for all sorts of media including inks, acrylics, pens, pencils and even tea or watercolour. I have tried them all and am entirely satisfied with the results! I have made the same experiment with 120 g/m² Munken Pure, with similar success. Never until now I have understood how much I love good paper.
When I ruin a book experiment I usually repurpose it as a personal journal - the sketchbook pictured above was screwed up last year and then got quietly decorated with ink portraits of V. Butusov (...). I find it easier to draw in awful looking books. As long as the paper is fine, everything is fine.
