CansonXL Series Watercolor Pad, Heavyweight White Paper, Foldover Binding, 30 Sheets, 9x12 inch

I am very pleased with the quality of this paper, especially for the price. This is a beautiful pad of nice thick cold press watercolor paper. I was able to make over a dozen watercolor paintings, and was also able to trim the paper for many smaller watercolor paintings and some watercolor bookmarks.As an artist, I am relatively new to watercolor painting, and this paper worked very well for all of my projects.My paints (liquid student grade watercolor paint) worked surprisingly well on this paper. I experienced a bit of a learning curve using watercolor paints, which was no problem because 30 sheets is plenty to be able to practice a bit.Additionally, wet on wet paint had a wonderful effortless, blending effect with minimal granulation (the last of which was primarily dependent on the paint itself). Wet paint on dry paper was also vibrant with crisp beautiful strokes.I had no problem sketching and drawing on this paper, and I also found it was effortless to erase pencil marks with no resulting shadows (provided that I was careful to outline gently). On a similar note, I also had very minimal problems with my paint covering the pencil effectively, provided my lines were light or gently lightened with an eraser.Overall, this is a great deal for watercolor paper and works well with my budget.

My standard go to for carrying around and for backing finished smaller pieces. Soft white, not bleached bright white. Good surface: not rough, not smooth.

This pad has tonnnnns of paper and a great size, I even cut it sometimes for smaller pieces, it does warp a little if you use too much water but once dry it pretty much stiffens back up so it’s great

Just what I wanted

My review is geared to beginners:Had I known more about watercolors I would have been highly skilled by now.If you want to learn watercolors you absolutely MUST use artists quality because student quality is rubbish and will disappoint you to the point of giving it up. (For paper you need to use cotton).That being the best advice I wish I had been given years ago,THIS paper is great for practicing your skills. Blotting your brushes before you paint on cotton.What to understand is that you aren’t practicing watercolor because it won’t handle on cotton like it does on wood pulp papers such as this. But every artist should practice drawing daily; watercolors are known for being used by royalty because it’ll cost a kings ransom to outfit yourself with professional supplies, but you must, even if little by little.Practice strokes, textures and techniques. Practice perspective and simplifying scenes, and do it on paper like this.You’ll have to learn cotton paper when the time comes, but there’s no reason to PRACTICE many painter skills on expensive paper.I made a couple cards at the holidays with this and found it to be very thirsty paper (needs lots of paint to get effect I was after).Tons of tutorials by all types of artists on internet. (Mind of Watercolor is great for beginners).M. Graham paints are easier to handle for beginners than many Daniel Smith but most people don’t like M. Graham for travel and in situ because they don’t harden up in palettes.Winsor Newton is all hype and selling rubbish based on celebrity of “royals” (eyeroll). Student grades are garbage and I wouldn’t even buy them for children.So. This is good inexpensive paper for you to learn and develop a style. Great for daily skills development and when you make to jump to cotton paper once you’re happy with your style, it’s handy paper to boot brushes when controlling how much water is on your brush.In the end, save your color practice papers or did even dud cotton paper paintings (you’ll have plenty duds!) and chop them up for collages or donate to a collage artist or fun for kids.(Find new non toxic paints, but still, dump your paint rinse water outside, not down the drains).Have fun!!

Very good quality for any art work

This watercolor paper is good for watercolor painting exercises. It has a nice tooth and the sheets are easy to tear out. I purchase 140 lb Arches watercolor paper if I want to paint a quality picture that is worthy of keeping. The paper in this pad should lay flat and not curled.

Paper is high quality