The 11 Best fluid Watercolor Papers (2023 reviews)

There are several advantages of having a fluid watercolor paper. Let’s take you step by step, type by type, and find the best fluid watercolor paper for you.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Strathmore fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Artist: Buy: Stonehenge Aqua fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For charcoal: Buy: Lear Village fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For applying The finest Watercolor paints: Buy: Speedball fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For blending And Lifting Color: Buy: Legion fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best With Acrylic Paint: Buy: Newbested fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best With gouache: Buy: Winsor Newton fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Cyanotype: Buy: Hahnemuhle fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For oil Painting: Buy: Sherr fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Acrylic: Buy: new York Central fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For postcards: Buy: Spiareal fluid Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Strathmore fluid Watercolor Paper

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Strathmore Watercolor pads are top-of-the line for any art project. It's nice and thick with light texture on one side. The 300 series watercolor paper pad contains 12 sheets of heavyweight, student grade, watercolor paper with a cold press surface. It allows colors to be pulled up easily. It's a sturdy, well-textured paper, with predictable and even saturation. It's best quality art paper for anything including, pastels, watercolors, sketch drawings, and charcoal + paint drawings if you're carful enough.

The quality of the paper is great to watercolor look sharp and dries fast and great.

• Good quality for beginners on water color painting
• Lifting is easy, providing you do not use staining watercolors
• Very thick and heavy so it doesn't crinkle with a lot of water
• Paint dries fairly quickly, and paper does not tear or peel

Best For Artist: Stonehenge Aqua fluid Watercolor Paper

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It is made of 100 percent white cotton paper. It allows a beautiful saturated color and it is perfect and the texture is amazing. It's like it has an inner layer of cellulose fiber. Painter's tape peels up lots of paper and frisket also peels the paper off, and gum erasers lift texture off.

This paper has a nice texture for a dark background landscape that blends well wet on wet. The quality is fantastic and it can hold quite a bit of water before it warps. It buckles and the surface pills. It comes with professional watercolor papers, the different attributes of the papers add to your tool box.

• Cotton acid free and just a joy to work on
• Fantastic watercolor paper for a fraction of the cost of arches
• Dries completely flat after using very wet washes
• Colors are vibrant and lifts easily

Best For charcoal: Lear Village fluid Watercolor Paper

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Not everyone likes to purchase paper for their daily purpose, but the lear village fluid watercolor paper would be an anomoly. Acid free sheets in these watercolor mix media sketchbook help keep your art work vibrant and long lasting. It is perfect for recording ideas, anecdotes, lessons learned, and daily events of fond memories. If you take the time to fill this up with nice drawings this will make a nice keepsake and something you will be able to hold on to for decades as the paper is made from 100% virgin cotton to last for generations.

This paper is, indeed thick enough to be bleedproof. It is fairly solid, starts to warp while painting but pretty much goes back to flat. It is perfect for wet as well as dry medium. The paper comes in a durable box so you can store your wonderful artwork for decades.

• Perfect keepsake with the paper pulled from history
• Ph neutral so your work will last for centuries
• Beautiful paper and lovely to write and paint upon

Best For applying The finest Watercolor paints: Speedball fluid Watercolor Paper

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If you are beginner, this 100% cotton watercolor paper is leaps and bonds beyond other pulp wood papers you find at big box stores. It is made with cotton rag to offer a greater degree of longevity and performance than papers made with wood pulp. It is the finest quality watercolor paper that conforms to the ISO 9607 standards of permanence, 100% cotton rag and gelatin-sized. The paper is stiff, similar to cardstock but still a good deal thicker.

It’s 140 lb, and 100% cotton. The high quality paint moves really well on it and it's heavy. The paper is completely dry, then take off the tape. The paper is very easy to paint on and handles multiple washes and water better than Bee also.

• Great cotton paper for gouache painting
• Takes water and paint well and the texture is decent
• A good selection of smaller sizes for watercolor blocks

Best For blending And Lifting Color: Legion fluid Watercolor Paper

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This paper works great for watercolor. It's much more affordable than most watercolor paper and being 100% cotton makes it work really great when using watercolors. It comes in a block and it has 15 sheets instead of the normal. This block is glued along two long edges to hold each sheet flat while painting. It holds up to multiple layers of paint and does not pill.

This paper has a wonderful texture that holds pigment beautifully. It is ideal for blending and lifting color. The paper block allows your art to dry flat without any extreme warping. It is made of 100 percent white cotton paper.

• Stays workable ( wet ) longer
• Watercolors blend and bleed nicely when using wet on wet technique
• Better blending, and bleeding, and lifting pigment

Best With Acrylic Paint: Newbested fluid Watercolor Paper

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Not everyone likes to purchase paper for their daily usage, but the newbested fluid watercolor paper would be an anomoly. There are really decent, affordable cellulose paper out there. These watercolor paper enable to move color greatly to show a good vision experience. It works well in any printer and has a slightly rougher texture than conventional printer paper. The finish is too smooth and it has a lavender/bluish tint to it.

The paper also wrinkles and buckles due to the thinness. It is definitely grayish in color. It can be sent to someone who likes acrylic painting, watercolor painting, sketch, etc.

• Great for drawing, not for watercolor
• Wrinkles and buckles due to the thinness
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best With gouache: Winsor Newton fluid Watercolor Paper

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Compared with other paper in this category, the winsor newton fluid watercolor paper has a convenient design. This paper often produces the brightest water colour paintings because its increased surface area holds more colour and therefore reflects more light. It is used for making soldiers' canteens. It is made with 100% archival grade cellulose wood pulp and natural artesian spring water with neutral ph properties. Bright colors are extremely vibrant yet muted colors retain their beauty.

This is a good watercolor paper. It is 140 lb and the opacity is similar to Arches. It has a less textured finish and is the most widely used paper surface. It is a great paper, but there is definitely a learning curve. This is a wonderful option for watercolor painting.

• Takes the moisture well and doesn't buckle much when taped down
• A regular source of reliable colours and brushes
• Nice set for learning and having fun
• Internally and externally sized for optimal water absorbency, pigment dispersion and lasting colour adherence

Best For Cyanotype: Hahnemuhle fluid Watercolor Paper

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The hahnemuhle fluid watercolor paper is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. This 9 x 12 inch hahnemuhle watercolor 300 pad contains 12 sheets of natural white, cold pressed, 300 gsm, watercolor paper. It handles wet on wet, dry brush, and other techniques without a hitch. It is vegan, resistant to aging, and acid-free. It pulls the paper layer when you try taking out the masking fluid gently. It is easy to control the flow of paint and even water.

This paper takes watercolor really well. It can withstand the most demanding watercolor techniques, the fibers do not lift, rub off or loosen when applying multiple layers of color, or when using masking fluids and tapes. It’s 100% cotton with a great surface. It is affordable and of good quality.

• Great paper quality, absorb water well, no problem with masking tape and liquid
• Nice 100% cotton watercolor paper, well-priced
• Amazing watercolor paper for lifting paint

Best For oil Painting: Sherr fluid Watercolor Paper

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If you want nothing but a paper that is satisfactory, this sherr fluid watercolor paper is certainly a best investment. You can use the water color paper for kids white in chinese painting, oil painting, watercolor painting, gouache painting, expending your ideas, developing your creativity and imagination. You can wrap the watercolor paint paper to your sister, classmate, student, kid, teacher and others who like drawing, showing your care and love, enhancing your relationship, enjoying the joy of painting with them together.

• New and hot release
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best For Acrylic: new York Central fluid Watercolor Paper

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The new york central fluid watercolor paper is capable of outshining several other paper featured in this list in overall features for the price point. It can withstand a multitude of techniques, including wet color blending, paper scratching, and scrubbing. All four sides of the New York central watercolor blocks are glued to prevent the top sheet from curling and buckling as you paint. It has a balanced grain that softens as a unit when wet. It's easy to blend and mix on the paper and it has a nice texture. The paper is very nice quality and takes water well.

The rigid backing board supports the paper and makes plein air painting simple. The Internal gelatin sizing prevents paint bleed-through and preserves color vibrancy.

• New and hot release
• Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For postcards: Spiareal fluid Watercolor Paper

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Next on the list, we've got yet another paper that manages to win our hearts. It's the spiareal fluid watercolor paper and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient paper you can buy. You can DIY watercolor postcards blank as thank you cards or invitations, to express your gratitude and invite guests to attend your birthday, bridal shower and other important events. There are 100 sheets of watercolor cards, about 4 x 6 inch, and they are enough for you to use, replace in your daily life, and also allow you to share them with your friends, colleagues and others.

These are small enough that they can create something that they feel proud of without the expense of a full sheet of watercolor paper. The watercolor blank cards can be applied with pencil, ink, marker, crayon and others, suitable for serving as invitations for wedding, birthday or holiday, thank you notes, greeting cards, Thanksgiving or Christmas cards, postcards, office and school supplies. They will be happy and feel your kindness and sincere love.

It is perfect for postcards or face cards.

• New and hot release
• One of the new comers and featured product