Review on TAVOLOZZA 300 GSM 7" Diameter 24 Sheet Watercolor Paper Pad - Glue Bound, Cold Pressed, Acid-Free With 1 Letter Opener For Wet & Dry Media by Chris Bhatia

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.