Scholar Sketch Shield 170gsm, 32 Sheets, Spiral, A5

A pocketable spiral sketchbook that keeps every drawing shielded from the next with a tracing paper layer between pages.

• 170gsm natural-shade cartridge paper, acid free and pH neutral
• 32 sheets, spiral bound, A5 size
• Tracing paper sheet protector over each page prevents smudging and paint bleed
• Mild tooth finish works with pencil, charcoal, ink and light mixed media
• Twin-wire spiral spine folds fully back for drawing on the move

A5 is the size that actually lives in a bag rather than staying on a shelf, which makes this a natural pick for sketching on commutes, in cafes, or wherever the urge to draw shows up unplanned. The tracing paper interleaf is the standout feature here: it means you can close the book straight after finishing a drawing without worrying about pencil smudging onto the opposite page or ink transferring across.

Folding the wire spine all the way back also shrinks the book down to roughly half its open width, useful when you're balancing it on a knee, a train tray table or a narrow cafe counter and need it to take up as little space as possible. It is a small design detail, but one that makes a genuine difference to how often you'll actually reach for the book instead of leaving it in a bag.

Because the paper is acid free, sketches made now should hold their tone well if you decide to keep this as a long-term visual diary rather than a disposable practice book, worth flipping back through years from now.