CANSON XL Watercolour 300gsm A4 Paper, Cold Pressed, Spiral Pad Short Side, 30 White Sheets, Ideal for Professional Artists

This is very inexpensive cellulose watercolour paper that was bought out of curiosity. I believe anything this cheap could be useful to students, beginners and for any painter wanting to experiment with sketching, mark-making, colour-mixing and swatching without breaking the bank. ( I think nothing inhibits creativity more than the pressure not to "spoil" an expensive sheet of paper.)I have tried many kinds and this is one of the better ones. Although it says cold-pressed it would be better described as matte since it far less textured than the usual CP. This makes it easy to get down a clean ink or pencil line. It is hard sized so copes with erasing but ink takes a while to dry. It copes with wet washes well without distorting and line and wash comes out well. The downside is that it is a cream colour which mutes colour intensity and, whilst the whole pad is A4, each removed sheet is rather smaller.In common with all cheap cellulose papers it doesn't do well with glazing, lifting or wet in wet techniques and will overwork easily. It obviously does not compare with rag paper but I liked the surface and sizing. I think that everyone who paints might find this pad useful for the play and experimentation one needs to do to hone ones skill.

As a full time artist finding affordable paper to practice on and not get upset at wasting a page if it goes wrong is very important. This paper even though its not cotton is really very good, it has a good amount of absorbency, it does not warp easily and can handle a good amount of wet on wet. The downside to this paper is that when the colors dry it lightens it with a slightly ashy look to it, also that whenever you put paint to the paper it dries extremely fast which is not great as it makes it hard to work with. However I still love this paper as it is excellent value for what you get and I am on my 5th pad now.

Non staining paper with strong indigo colour with Cyanotype prints. Takes toning well with no staining. Great value

So many people online rave about this paper being amazing for watercolour inks and paints and I’m so glad I tried it! It’s good, better than most other known brands, but for the price one would expect the paper to be a higher gsm or more pages, but I will continue to use this when I see it at a lower price!

Great

Brought as a gift and had no complaints

I haven’t painted on this paper yet. I ordered and item arrived just before going on holiday. Can’t wait to try it out when I get home. Item was packaged very well so arrived very quickly and in perfect condition. The paper looks great, just what I was expecting, this paper had been recommended to me. Ordering process is very easy and simple, fantastic service. I’m sure the paper will perform great looking at it. However I’ll add to this comment if not. In my opinion for this price you can’t go wrong - it’s perfect.

Fabulous from cannon as always