Review on 🎨 Arches Watercolor Paper Pad, 140 LB, Cold Press - Ideal for Artists, 9"x12 by Carrie Spencer

I've been painting with watercolor pencils for 5 or 6 years and recently also watercolor markers. I've always bought pretty good paper - the Strathmore 400 series and other decent papers - but to be honest I've dismissed the Arches as a 'snobbish attraction', I mean it's more than twice the quality of the competition , and I've always thought that it won't make much of a difference. .Unfortunately that's how it is. I say "unfortunately" because it's expensive! If you don't flood the paper with water (I don't, I usually draw in ink and control the color pretty carefully) - if you draw like this then save a few bucks and buy Arches pads instead of blocks (blocks are sealed ). every 4 pages except for a small section on the 1st page - this way you can actually wet the paper and it won't warp or curl (and the page is less likely to get dirty at the bottom). But wow - oh wow, water is a great paper changer. I'm not a good artist to describe it well, but the color just suits this paper better. Whether wet on dry or wet on wet, the color simply lays better and blends out better. And if, like me, you occasionally smear your lines with black ink, it's surprisingly easy to neaten the edges, although this paper seems to absorb ink better than other papers. And if you like layers, like painting or overwashing. - this paper can take it. I'm fortunate that my budget allows me to buy Arches for most of my work (it helps that I don't do anything larger than 12-14 inches), but I still use other paper for practice and Test layouts, it really hurts me...when I ruin a 5" x 7" piece of paper that costs $3 by doing something stupid! But if you can afford to splurge - buy Arches paper - in this case all the hype is true!