ARTEZA Watercolor Paper, Pack of 2, 32 Sheets Each, 11x14 Inches Watercolor Sketchbook, 140lb/300gsm, Cold Press, Acid Free Art Paper

I've been practicing watercolor for just over 2 years now. I started with a smaller 9x5" size and worked my way up to this 11x14" This is going to be a lengthy in depth review based on my experience these last two years.If you are someone who's newer to watercolor, do not buy cheap paper. You can get away with cheap brushes, and cheap paint. However, you can't enjoy watercolor with cheap paper, trust me on this one. If you buy cheap paper then you'll be discouraged and won't have fun. On the reverse end, if you buy a pad of Archers, you might never even paint on it because you're too afraid to make a mistake. This is the PERFECT inbetween for me. It's affordable where I can attack the white paper without any fear of ruining the painting or feeling like I just threw away money. I even paint on both sides just to get in more practice. The backside is smooth though, so keep that in mind - I like the variety. Also, if you're new, start on smaller paper and work your way up. More white is more intimidating.The paper holds up well to many different styles and techniques. You can load up lots of water and go crazy. You can soak both sides and paint wet in wet to prevent warping. You can stretch the paper and get no warping. You can do dry into wet. It blends well and It's quite versatile. I primarily just paint right on the pad because I'm that lazy and don't mind minor warping. It worked fine with my masking fluid, but I don't use it often or in large areas as I try to maintain white space without it. The one thing this paper has trouble with is lifting and blooms. The pigment doesn't soak too deeply into the paper if you're using a good amount of water, but nonetheless, the paper does soak up pigment more than 100% cotton. Keep that in mind if you're someone who likes to lift or make blooms - this isn't to say it can't be done it's just, if you drop some blue and then lift, you're going to get light blue under the lift, not white.I have tried many different brands and types of watercolor paper and Arteza is my paper of choice for practice. Canson is by far the worst and would never recommend it to anyone. Canson sucks because you can't blend, lift, or go heavy with water, it's basically useless for watercolor. Fabriano 20% cotton is great, and I'd put it on the same level in terms of quality as this pad. The issue with Fabriano is that the texture on the paper is DEEP and uniform. It looks ugly to me so I prefer Arteza, plus it's cheaper. I personally haven't tried the lower grades of Arteza's watercolor paper as this one is affordable enough for practice.Archer's 100% cotton is amazing, and much better than this particular pad of watercolor paper. However, the 100% cotton is maybe 3x or more the price of this. There's a chinese based brand that sells 100% cotton that's virtually identical to Archers for way less. I'd recommend that if you're looking for 100% cotton. Arteza does have a 100% cotton option, but I'm pretty sure it's only 9x12" which isn't big enough for me personally so I've not tried it. I only use 100% cotton when I'm painting for someone else. Everything else is practice that ends up being on Arteza.In conclusion, this pad of paper is great and I'll continue to buy these for practice. I've already been through at least 4+ packs (8 pads) of these in the last year or so. I wish they had a larger size available though as I'm venturing out to bigger canvas sizes. I've tried a few of Arteza's products over the last two years and have not been disappointed by any of them. Arteza is affordable, not cheap. My only wish is that they listed how much % cotton is used in this pad. I want to say it's like fabriano 20% but no way to tell for sure.Happy painting!

There's no tooth, there's no lifting capability, and if this paper is 140 lb. then my name name is Dumbo the flying elephant. Only going to use this to paint my business cards.

This paper is great because of it's feature of having 2 sides, with different surface textures. The textured side holds watercolor, well but isn't quite as toothy as other cold-press papers. It's smooth enough to add pen and ink without bumpiness. It does warp slightly when a lot of water is used, but not too bad. The smooth side is very smooth and pencils glide effortlessly across it, but it still holds water very well and some watercolor layers dry with a texture similar to smoothly blended markers! An interesting combination, a lot of fun to work with! I'd recommend for beginners and pros, because pigments soak into the paper and don't sit on top much, and it stays wet enough to manipulate the paint as you work. Wonderful paper!

I HAVE BEEN WATERCOLORING FOR 20 YEARS AND I HAVE BOUGHT TONS OF PAPER. I'VE PAID A LOT OF MONEY FOR PAPERS BECASUE THERE IS NO SESE PAINTING ON CHEAP PAPER. SO I ORDERED THIS AS A PRACTICE PAD. IT IS NOW MY ONLY PAPER. THIS IS A GREAT WATERCOLOR PAPER. SMOOTH AND ROUGH SIDE WORK EQUALLY WELL. HOLDS WATER BUT DOESN'T BUCKLE AND STRETCH. THE PRICE? WELL LET'S SAY I CHUCKLE ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK. AS LONG AS THEY MAKE THIS PAPER I WILL BE USING THIS PAPER. LOVE IT.

Sis loves it

Great price for beginners who wants to use water color to draw.

The paper lets the watercolor flow nicely when wet, or paint on a dry surface for a different effect. I also buy a variety of paper sizes to suit each individual project.

Bought these trying to save a bit of money. Love the size. However the paper van contribut to blooms. Charging was almost impossible. They dried with lines.I compared this with my Arches paper. So I'm using it for practice and color swatches.Not the best. Lifting worked pretty well though. Overall a fair paper for watercolor.

L'ho presa perché aveva un buonissimo rapporto qualità prezzo e siccome non è molto che faccio acquarelli non posso spendere troppo con gli scarti che faccio. Però utilizzavo un'altra carta che non costa molto di più e devo dire che nonostante abbia in teoria le stesse caratteristiche, l'ho trovata meno buona. Il suo potere assorbente è minore e il colore si spande male, non sono un esperto ripeto, ma devo dire che non sono molto contento.

Nachdem ich all die positiven Bewertungen gesehen hatte, bestellte ich diese Doppelpackung „Expert“-Aquarellblöcke, aber ich war bald enttäuscht, als ich anfing zu malen.Das Papier wölbte sich leicht, selbst mit einer kleinen bis mäßigen Wassermenge, die für die Aquarellmalerei erforderlich ist.Als ich meine Tombow Aquarell-Pinselstifte auf der Seite benutzte, wurde die Oberfläche haarig und begann auseinanderzufallen.Ich habe in der Vergangenheit Skizzenbücher, Acrylpapierblöcke und andere Künstlerprodukte von Arteza gekauft und sie waren ausgezeichnet. Obwohl ich von diesem Artikel enttäuscht war, werde ich immer noch bei Arteza bestellen.

Me gustó mucho, el papel aún no lo pruebo pero se ve bastante bien no creo que tenga algún problema, buen grosor, buena textura, me sorprendió el tamaño, vienen bien emplayados y llegaron antes.

El papel es más grande de lo que esperaba sin embargo así lo estoy utilizando, aunque no tiene buena absorvencia cómo ví en algunas recomendaciones, ya que si se arruga un poco, aún así me gusta la calidad en comparación con otro papel que compre anteriormente.

Just started trying my hand at watercolour painting. The paper is thick and holds up pretty well even with a good amount of water. I've been cutting the sheets into smaller pieces so I can try out a lot of different paintings. Love this paper!