Review on Winsor Newton Classic Watercolor Pressed by Amy Mcleod

I was dying to try this watercolor notebook. I take many Skillshare courses, I like to use larger paper and I prefer to keep my work in a book than on separate sheets. I like that I have a link that is easy to return to. I thought this pillow would be perfect! And knowing that this is W&N, an established brand in the watercolor community, I figured this notebook would be a huge asset. Unfortunately, I had a hard time with this paper. I'd say I'm an intermediate watercolor beginner, so not an expert. However, I have experimented with watercolor papers (from Low Budget to Arches) to see the difference between good and bad papers. This paper does not absorb water at all, and watercolor paper should definitely be able to handle that. I don't know how to explain it, but it seems like there is a coating on the paper that causes the ink to stick to the paper. I will include some photos for your reference. The last two images show the difference between this paper (image above) and the cheaper Canson XL brand. You may think that W&N paper accepts ink better, but that's not the case. If you work and work on it, you can make it work. But painting with watercolors doesn't have to be that difficult. The more watery the color mixture, the harder it is to get the paper to accept it. I found I had to apply some paint, then go back with a dry brush and wipe off what was on top (and that was the bulk). Then I would have to repeat this at least 1-2 more times so that one color stays on the paper. If I wanted a deeper shade, I would have to repeat this several times. I've also found that despite my best efforts to prevent this, the paint tends to dry out with hard edges. I have had doubts about this paper for a long time. At first I thought it might be my inexperience. That maybe there was something wrong with the way I applied the paint. I experimented with different brushes and colors. I persevered and eventually filled the entire book, but it was a struggle to the end. I used quality brushes and quality paints - Sennelier, Daniel Smith, QOR, Mission Gold and even the Cotman and Professional lines from Winsor & Newton. NO PAINT worked well with this paper. Always willing to give preference to any company, I thought maybe I had a bad gasket. However, after doing some research and reading some of the reviews here, I think this line of articles is definitely flawed. I love W&N colors! The small Cotmans palette I bought when I first started watercoloring is still one of my favorites even though I now have a decent range of higher quality colors. I also love their watercolor brush markers. As for her paper, though, if this notebook is any indication, then I'll stay away from it. Too bad because I like the 9x12 spiral bound format, but I'll keep going.