Strathmore 400 Series, 12"x12" Cold Press Watercolor Pad, 12 Sheets

Strathmore watercolour paper has always impressed me because of the quality of their products and the good quality/prize ratio. This is also the case here.

 This pad has a great size for beginners, not too big or too small. The tone and texture of the paper are excellent. I use it mostly for mixed media, mostly working with acrylics, and I do nasty things to the paintings (rubbing, scratching, wiping). Yet, the paper resists almost everything and it is very forgiving. I always gesso the paper before working on it.

Perhaps not as good as other brands, but this is one of my watercolour paper pads staples.

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Mont Marte Watercolour Pad A5 300gsm 12 Sheet

This is an A5 paper pad of good quality 300 gsm paper. You know, there are good and not so good 300 gsm watercolour paper, and this is good paper, and great value for money as well. 

I've tested the paper without pre-gessoing the surface, which leaves the paper more exposed to the media I used. I've used both acrylic paint and acrylic inks, adding quite a bit of dripping and the paper stood everything wonderfully and I was totally surprised at how well it took acrylic paint and acrylic inks, without buckling or deteriorating. I like the paper texture and the fact that the pad is glued just in one of the sides, but I'm not a fan of the paper colour. Yet, it doesn't really matter, because I will be painting over it and I can change that easily.

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Watercolour Paper Art Sketch Pad, 140 LB/300 GSM, 20 Sheets/40 Pages

I have this as a warm-up exercise pad to do mixed-media projects. I use a lot of liquid supplies: flow acrylic, inks, water drops, etc. and I've also pre-gessoed the pages before use. The paper is thick enough to withstand most of the media without bleeding and holding the painting pigments quite well. The paper texture is smooth and the colour white. For the price, this is an excellent watercolour and mixed-media paper pad.

My main disappointment is with the binding system. It 's supposed to open and close easily so that one can extract the page, paint on it and then put it back. I haven't been able to open the rings no matter how hard I've tried. Leaving the pages in the pad makes them prone to medium and paint transfer on the edges, even if I use some baking paper behind the sheet I'm using.

For the rest, very pretty cover, very good paper and very handy size to store away and do small projects. I'll buy again

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