Over the years, I’ve tested several of the Yamamoto Paper Sampling Kits. I recently saw the Yamamoto Paper Testing Silky Vol. 3 ($11) which includes three 25-sheet pads of papers: B7 Yamaoto Bank Paper Takasago Premium, A6 Smooth Art Paper and B6 Sheep Clouds Bond.
Both the Bank Paper and the Sheep Clouds is indicated as friendly with every pen according to the slip sheet included with the tablets. The Smooth Art paper is listed as good with gel and ball point pens but we are going to test it with the same pens that we use with every other paper.
In the back of the packet, there is an information sheet that gives details about Japanese papers and paper sizes.
The Yamamoto Bank Paper performed well with all the pens I tested but had a long dry time and appeared to have a slightly different texture or coating on the front and back so I test both sides of the paper. The dry time on the back was a bit faster on the back of the paper but overall it was a good performer.
I did notice that the Bank Paper is pretty translucent if its in a stack as you can see in the above image.
The Art Paper appeard to be a matte coated stock so colors appear vibrant and too a long time to dry. You can see the washy effect in the brush pen lettering at the bottom of the page. It’s interesting but I’m not sure how useful it would be in day-to-day use.
Only a little bleed through on the back of the Art Paper but this paper, as anticipated was a little weird.
The last sheets in the packet were the B6 Sheep Clouds. Despite the somewhat goofy name, this paper is pretty fabulous. Shading and sheening showed clearly, all the pens I tested worked well and there was little to no bleed through or show through.
I would definitely be happy to have a whole notebook of the Sheep Clouds paper. The Bank Paper is a close second and while the Art Paper is interesting, I might try playing with paint markers or other creative materials to use it.
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