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 use this paper as the frame backing for my textile moth and butterfly sculptures. I wanted something thick and archival so it is perfect!

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 !

First time purchasing Arches watercolor paper. I am thrilled with the high quality paper and using it for my artwork that has changed the whole dynamic of my watercolor work. I will be ordering more of this fabulous paper soon! Thank you Arches for offering the best paper that is affordable. I’ve been painting Cards and this works absolutely perfect for creating as it keeps the colors in depth and brightness like never before.

Even watercolor beginners should use Arches in my opinion. It is expensive but so worth it. Watercolor painting requires you to manage the water and this paper will help you do that. It will also make everything you paint look more vibrant. Highly recommend!

I am a beginner and I’ve been trying to learn how to work with watercolors for quite a while and was always discouraged. I thought I wasn’t grasping water control until I bought this paper. It was the paper that was hindering my progress. After using this paper, I realized that I had to use more effort towards water control on my beginner pads. Arches just drinks up the watercolor and allows time for me to charge and blend as needed. I finally can create paintings that look nice. Going back to my cheaper water color paper, I understand what additional I need to do to get the paint to lay properly. Arches just makes for a much more pleasant painting experience. Glad I learned on cheaper paper, but Arches helped me see that I did know what I was doing.

Arches is the only watercolor paper I use. I love it.

Unfortunately the pad I received had a bunch of indentations/impressions. Even though it was in a padded envelope and covered in plastic the first two pieces are useless for full illustrations due to the indentations. Will have to use those for sketches or something. But apart from that, the paper itself is really nice. It holds its shape well even with heavy washes and even overworking.

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!

Arches deserves its sterling reputation; it takes water beautifully, with only slight buckling that flattens as it dries. However, it is inferior to a very few others of its kind in one aspect: Lifting. Therefore, one star off.

I had been trying to paint on cheap paper for a long time because, I reasoned, I was still learning and didnt want to waste expensive paper on crappy work. I was always struggling to get my work to look like the tutorials Id follow, even though I was making the same mixes and strokes. This paper though makes a huge difference. It stays wet longer than the cheap stuff, the colors blend better and can be reworked or scrubbed. The paint doesnt get reactivated and smeared as easily when you go to put a second or third glaze on. Anyone here saying that the cheap paper is just as good is objectively WRONG. Theres a reason professional painters use this paper. But even if youre still learning like I am, Its made painting a lot less frustrating for me and I feel like Im actually learning now that I can get the same results that I see other people getting.