TAVOLOZZA 5.1" x 8.3" Watercolor Pad, Pack of 2 (80 Sheets), 110 lb (230 GSM), Glue Bound, Acid-Free Paper, Art Sketchbook Pad for Watercolor Techniques and Mixed Media

I have enjoyed the sketchbook significantly more than I thought I would. I'm very finicky about my watercolor sketchbooks. In the past when I have bought watercolor sketchbooks in this price range I have been disappointed and don't end up using them. But I have really enjoyed this sketchbook though. I have used it with both guache and watercolor and I like the way the paint interacts with the paper. The paper also holds up to wet washes very well. Particularly with my watercolor I tend to do a lot of layering and a lot of wet in wet as long as I have some binder clips on the edge of the book the paper hold up remarkably well. There's a little bit of buckling but not much.The textures on the front and back of the paper are not the same however. One side of the paper is a cold press texture, it is not an overly textured cold press, I actually like this. I have found some cold press papers that are over textured for my liking. The backside of the paper however is SMOOTH, more consistent with the hot press, possibly even a little smoother than a hot press paper. The way to signatures are folded, sometimes you have 2 cold press textures opposite other, sometimes you have a hot press on one side and a cold press on the other side, sometimes 2 hot presses opposite each other. Normally this would bug me, but I've really been enjoying it. Because I'm using it for both watercolor and gouache I find the smooth or textured sides nice for gouache (and will be nice if I want to do any thinking or color pencil work). If this was a more expensive sketchbook I would be upset by this, but given the price range I I'm OK with it. The fact that it is as inexpensive as it is means that I'm happy to just throw paint in it and I've really been enjoying it.Don't expect this to be equivalent to 100% cotton paper sketchbook, it's not it's a cellulose paper but as far as cellulose papers go I've been really enjoying it.I saw some reviews saying that this paper was not bright white. I would call this paper bright white. If I hold a sheet of bright white copy paper directly next to it it is slightly less bright than the copy paper but to my eye registers as white rather than cream or off-white. I prefer white paper to cream or off-white papers and I am very happy with the color of the paper.

This has been a great watercolor and ink sketchbook/journal! The workmanship is excellent. I’m very impressed with the binding. It holds up well. The pages aren’t as thick as the watercolor paper I’m used to using, but they work quite well with a thin water wash. I suspect the thickness I’m used to wouldn’t be appropriate in a sketchbook. I’ll definitely be buying this again. It’s now on my subscribe and save!

They take gesso well with minimal warping because they are fairly heavy weight. I use two coats of gesso before oil painting, and they do a great job. The two pads was a great deal for the price.

Honestly i thought this was going to be a negative review, but now that I have finished it - flipped back through looking for examples & has a hard time finding them, I have decided to leave a 4 star rating. If you’re a pro then you should know the price is too good to be “Artist” quality. If you’re a beginner or a hobbyist these are the best I’ve found for the money.PROS:-Inexpensive which is a double pro because the price is low it really frees me up to be able to try new things and make mistakes. I don’t feel like they are as precious as my strathmore or speedball ones.-The paper is thick (110#) so I have only had 1 piece bleed through and that was with Tombow alcohol markers.-Very durable, hard covers. I have taken these everywhere spilt cokes on them and beat them the heck up and there is no damage.-Elastic Band closure has also held up great. One of the bookmarks unraveled but I didn’t use them anyways.-Clear pocket in back is great for holding on to my essentials in a pinch.CONS:-Inconsistent & unpredictable performance overall.- There is a noticeable difference between the texture of the front vs the back of the pages. Whether this is an actual con is subjective depending on medium & personal preference. I’ve made it work so I hesitated to list it as a con.- If I’m painting fairly wet the page tends buckle. Using binder clips to hold the pages down has really helped minimize this.-My Main problem, and the only reason I would hesitate to repurchase is erasing is super problematic. I don’t know how to explain it other than you won’t just be erasing the pencil, you will be removing paper as well. Your eraser will get gummy after a few strokes so you will have to rub it on your jeans to get the paper off it before you can keep erasing. Even if it doesn’t look like you did any damage to the page you will almost always be able to see a difference when you start to apply the water color. Only solution I have found is to use VERY light pressure when I am drawing my grid or making my under sketch. When possible I use a very light color watercolor pencil, or one that is in the same color family as my tint wash so that it will disappear when I move to the painting stage.

I needed a sketchbook for my college art class and knew I needed something I could watercolor in. I used one of these sketchbooks all of last semester and loved it. The size is absolutely perfect. I wasn’t expecting the rough and smooth pages to be so seemingly randomly dispersed, but I was able to fill in my artwork accordingly with no issues. One thing I did notice was that by the end of the semester one of the corners was torn a little bit. I take full responsibility for that though because I think I was a tad rough with my sketchbook. I didn’t have any buckling of the pages or any other issues so if you’re looking for a sketchbook to try, I’d recommend this one

Excellent choice to journal my daily efforts in my new favorite hobby, water color painting. All stay together in one place, I can see how I'm progressing in skill, and most importantly creativity having a nice book full of fun.

Parfait

Not the quality I expected to draw and watercolor although I use little water

it's a nice little sketchbook - great value for money and a really nice quality paper - I used it for watercolour and it's pretty decent - of course it will buckle if used with loads of water but any paper will, if it's not stretched. Overall I would definitely recommend!

Nice books, good quality paper. I didn't realize that it opened top to bottom rather than side to side, but no worries, it will work.

Misleading, weight much lighter than previously bought paper of the same GSM and weight. Does not meet my expectation