Watercolor Pad, Hot Press 9"X12"

Absolutely incredible paper, but came all bent up. I’m very veryyy picky about my paper. If there’s even a slight ding in the corner I won’t use it sometimes. And the top to the entire bad and like 2 letter M’s bent into it. I’ve very bummed as I was going to paint tonight. I know I can soak the whole paper and lay it flat for a day or whatever to ‘hopefully’ flatten it back out of its wavy, but this is creases. If I was in the paper flattening business I’d be on the other end of this purchase. I’m on the painting side, lol. I hope somebody will correct this so I can give the stars this wonderful paper deserves. In its current shape I’d rather use cheap paper. Ps, I don’t think this item should be sent in anything besides a cardboard box. A bubble envelope will almost never protect a sharp cornered sketch book. And us artists ante easygoing but super picky about little things. Probably what makes us artists. :) As for the paper itself, if you’re looking to find out about this paper just TRUST me BUY it without thinking. It’s the best there is. Pricy yes, well honestly not even that pricy here. It’s I’d say half the normal stores going rate. Then again you know what you’re buying at a store and aren’t going to get a smashed corner and top of book item. I would love to remove any and all negatives from this comment if you guys can send a one day delivery like this one came, but of a new one I can use. This is going to be for scraps and swatches I guess. I don’t have the patients and shouldn’t have to go all the way to kinkos to return this. Or send a box with a return label on it and I’ll stuff it in as I don’t have a printer. And set it up so they pick it up lol. And a time machine while your at it so I cannn painnttt nowww ;) I know crap just happens and I’m Just messing but yes I’d like a new one please. But guys it’s Fantasticccccc paper if anyone made it all the way though that rant. Just cross your fingers your get it in a box or buy it with some other items so you now it’ll be shoved into a box. With them. I should have not a couple bags of cotton balls. Lol. Have fun painting everyone. It really is one of life’s treasures. Especially on fantastic paper with good paints. People don’t Realize just how important good paper is. I’d say more I’m portent than a god brush and close to as important as good paint. And this is some damn fine stuff. Butter smooth and vibrant. Lasts a lifetime (literally). Ok I’m gonna go make a paper airplane and watch tv Cheers

I really can't say enough about Arches paper, and the hot press is my favorite. If you are considering less expensive paper and hoping that it will hold up the same, it won't, there is no replacement for the real deal in watercolor paper. The paper is so expensive because of the amount of time and work needed to create a paper that will hold up to repeated water washings - and it does beautifully. It will also buckle less under water because of the materials and thickness. We all started somewhere, likely using the cheaper watercolor paper from the craft store. And it is good to play around with, but the paint simply will not look the same on inferior paper. Good paper is THE most important material in watercolor painting, even over the quality of the paint itself. Hot press is my favorite because of the smoothness of the paper and the vibrancy that it bring forth from the paints. When I use this paper it feels like I am not really doing anything, but the paper is what creates the effects. It is also very easy to sketch on. There's no other paper I will use!

Incredible quality as always from Arches! Nice and smooth on every sheet, tears easily from it's binding, takes to all kinds of watercolors and even alcohol markers very well.

I must own at least 6 brands of watercolor paper. Of all the watercolor supplies I have purchased as a beginner, I would definitely say that paper quality is the most important. You can use cheap paint on good paper and get a much better result than using great paint on cheap paper. I still use the cheaper paper like Strathmore when practicing, even though some purists will tell you not to. Come on, not everyone can spend forty bucks on practice paper. But the difference in result is very obvious. Watercolors are much ore vibrant and the flow of the paint is different. Cotton paper is very thirsty, so the way you apply your paint will take getting used to. I say save this stuff for the work that counts. Good seller experience.

I do like arches paper. It works very well for me and I recommend it.

This Arches Watercolor Pad came right away when ordered. It arrived in good condition. The 9x12 sheets are attached at the top of the pad, but not all the way around as with a watercolor block. To paint with this, you would remove one sheet and tape it down to a board of some kind with painter's tape to prevent the paper from buckling too much when it becomes wet. The "weight" or thickness of the paper is 140lb, which in my opinion is the minimum weight that you should work with for watercolor (and heavier weight paper can get very expensive). This "paper" contains some cotton, which helps prevent the surface of the paper from disintegrating when it gets wet and you try to erase a mistake. Cheaper papers might have the same weight but be more fragile in this regard. The cotton is going to make this choice more expensive but your art is worth it. Finally I will point out that most of the watercolor papers I see in stores is "cold press", which has a sort of rough texture which is well suited for capturing pigment off the brush. However this item is "hot press" which means it is smooth. I use both types of paper, but smooth is nice when you are going for realism and want to build out nice smooth gradients of color.

This paper does have a yellow tint to it. It didn't work for what I was hoping for... I like to print off gray scale images and color them using my tombow markers... I've been using canson mixed media paper in my laser printer and for the most part it works ok but I do have a bit of ink smearing when I color over the image. (Only when I color over the ink, it doesn't smear when I run fingers over it) So I've been experimenting with different papers trying to find some that is laser printer and watercolor safe. This paper is not it! Lol while it's not as thick as the strathmore water color paper that I've ran through my printer just fine, this stuff doesn't like to take the ink, it flakes off and makes a mess inside my printer. Sad but I understand that's not exactly what this paper is made for. In terms of quality it is heavy and smooth. The test colors I did on if took/looked nice.

Arches is the best.