Daroo, it was great to see you in Ohio and to meet Joe S. and other blog readers. Thanks for the nice words. Eric, the only saoren I wasn't nervous or intimidated was that everyone was very understanding and patient with my efforts. I didn't get a very good likeness because I rushed the layin a bit. Chris P. was an incredibly nice host and very down-to-earth. Daroo, the Derwent sketchbook is a very smooth white drawing paper. It is quite heavy weight and will take washes pretty well. As Joe pointed out earlier, the Moleskine drawing books are an off-white yellowish ivory tone, and there's some surface that makes washes bead up.Yes, we did make it to the Butler Museum in Youngstown. Besides their great permanent collection we were impressed by a special Andrew Wyeth show, plus a lot of fine head studies of Native Americans by Elber Burbank.