Arches Watercolor Pad 9x12-inch Natural White 100% Cotton Paper - 12 Sheet Arches Watercolor Paper 140 lb Cold Press Pad - Arches Art Paper for Watercolor Gouache Ink Acrylic and More

I purchased this paper for an art project for our church’s kids on Palm Sunday. I wanted it to be higher quality paper than what we would normally use, so that the kids could preserve and display their artwork if they so chose. We used oil pastels to trace/draw their image’s outlines and then basic kids’ sets of watercolor to paint in-between out over the outlines. This paper hit the sweet spot between affordability and durability. We definitely couldn’t afford to use it every week, but for a special occasion, it was perfect! And while the paper warped, a little bit, when it was very wet, the warping was very minimal compared to the inexpensive paper that we often use with our kiddos.

Love it

I really like this watercolor paper but its hard on the budget.

Great paper.that soaks up water and retains shape. Excellent product.

Ive been doing water color, using watercolor pencils and recently water color markers, for 5 or 6 years now. I always bought fairly good paper - Strathmore 400 series and other decent stuff, but frankly I dismissed Arches as snob appeal, I mean, its more than double the best quality competitors & I always figured it wouldnt really make that much difference. Unfortunately, however, it does. I say unfortunately because this stuff is pricey! If you dont flood your paper with water (I dont, I generally do ink drawings & I control the paint fairly carefully) - if thats how you paint, then save some $ and buy Arches pads instead of the blocks (the blocks are sealed down on all 4 sides, except for a small section on 1 side - that way you can really wet the paper & it wont buckle or curl...and you are less likely to pollute the page underneath). But wow - oh - wow, water a difference top quality paper makes. Im not a good enough artist to describe it well, but the paint just handles better on this paper...regardless of wet on dry, wet on wet, the color just moves better, blends better. And if youre like me & sometimes overflow your black ink lines, its surprisingly easy to clean up edges, even though this paper seems to take paint better than other papers. And if you like to layer, like to scrub in color, or do over-washes. - this paper can take it. Im lucky enough that my budget allows me to buy Arches for most of my work (it helps that Im not doing anything over 12 - 14) but I still use the other papers for practice & test layouts, it does cause me pain when I ruin a 5 x 7 piece of paper that cost $3.00 by doing something stupid! But when you can afford to treat yourself - buy some Arches paper - all the hype is true, in this case!

Want to improve your watercolor paintings? The BEST thing you can do for yourself is to start with good cotton paper. Expensive brushes wont do it neither will expensive paints yes they help but quality paper is your springboard. Buy this paper and you will see an improvement in paint control and flow. Happy painting !

This seems like lovely paper for my amateur artistry, but I’m tired of everything I receive from Amazon—especially paper products like this—smelling heavily if air freshener or cleaning products. Might think about buying it elsewhere if you have a preference for appropriately unscented items! Lol

Teaching a beginners watercolor class. This paper is perfect. Good quality for the price.

I really love this paper! So I bought arches for the first time for watercolor mostly but than I take an adult art class at my local community center and we get play with many materials! Pastels was one of them and I found that it is so perfect for pastels! BTW Im am a beginner. So I only use the cold press paper because I found for pastels that paper with texture or cold press paper really works best with pastels! This paper is so easy to layer with and you can tape it down without the tape tearing your paper and design/paintings/drawings. So I LOVE geometric paintings and even with the amount of taping I do this paper doesnt rip at all :). So let me tell you the medias I would use this paper with: 1. Watercolor 2. Pastels 3. Graphite 4. Charcoal 5. Ink washes I do not use fixative spray I use a loreal hairspray and the paper takes to the hairspray just perfectly and with Watercolors this paper is really good for dry and wet washes as well as laying and overall great for any kind of painting! Doesnt buckle or peel anything like that! I just bought two pads today because I was going to run out of the one I have now and I will purchasing alot more for now on! (Not sponsored). This paper is even great with the prismacolor Nupastels! This paper and Canson XL sketchbooks I highly recommend for pastels! Especially if you dont want to do toned paper or you want a variety of paper and paper colors! 5 out of 5 stars from this beginner artist :) and Im going to put this out here just because you buy better tools doesnt mean your going to make good art and afford what you can afford! Just practice and remember to stay within your budget :)

This is the best price that I’ve seen on Arches paper so far. I thought I would try this paper because I’ve heard people say it’s the best. I’ve also heard it’s very expensive but it’s the most important thing in watercolors. They say if you’re just starting out with watercolor and want to invest in one good quality item, the best quality paper you can afford is the first thing you should buy. Then they say Arches is the brand of that high quality paper, always followed by, “it’s expensive but worth it”. I find that If you buy it from an art store at full price it is much more expensive. I have been able to find it on Amazon for a much better value. The paper is great and I do get better results when I paint on it. I feel like the paint behaves differently than on cheaper, cellulose paper. I buy this 9x12 paper pad then I cut the sheets down in halves or quarters. This stretches the value a bit further. I find that if I paint on an entire sheet of 9x12 I end up with a lot of empty space around the outside edges of the page anyway. I’m new to watercolor and have been working on composition but a lot of my practice focuses on single subjects. I do a lot of practice on cheaper paper and then bring out this Arches paper for the “higher quality” practice. The “practice” pieces that I don’t mind showing to other people. The cheaper, cellulose paper is a place for me to determine which colors work well for the subject I’m painting, to practice how to hold the brush or even the correct size of brush for the subject I want to paint. Like I said, I’m new to watercolor so I have to start from square one. Once I’ve figured that out I am able to bring out the cotton paper to practice my blending techniques, how much water to use, the different behaviors of all the colors on my palette, etc…. Arches paper is very forgiving for beginners like me because I find that the paper can stand up to the scrubbing and lifting of mistakes. If I accidentally use too much water the paper dries nicely (eventually) enough that the whole piece isn’t ruined. In the event that the piece doesn’t turn out well on the front of the paper I can still use the less textured back side of the paper so that it doesn’t go to waste. The paper is very durable since it’s so thick and made of cotton and it can handle being painted on the front and the back.