The 5 Best Premium Watercolor Papers (2023 reviews)

It is important to have the well suited premium watercolor paper. In the following post, we will help you to select the best premium watercolor papers.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Ucreate Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For beginning And intermediate Watercolor Artists: Buy: Misulove Premium Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For Water Colors: Buy: Arteza Premium Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For recording ideas: Buy: Lear Village Premium Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best With alcohol ink: Buy: Ucreate Premium Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Ucreate Watercolor Paper

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The ucreate watercolor paper is long-lasting, rigid and fits well with your regular usage like a dream. It is great for large groups or classrooms at the beginner to intermediate levels. It is great with very wet watercolors. It is of low quality and the watercolour paint doesn't sit or blend well. It looks great when you blend colors or dilute them.

The paper is good quality and when painting it doesn't ripple when it's painted on and it drys very quickly. It is ideal for experimenting with various techniques. It is good for people whose style is detailed using "wash" technique, wishing to not have a hard edge.

• Great for teaching lessons and for practice
• Excellent stock to absorb the paints and leave a wonderful creation
• Good for swatching, scrap paper, and throw away studies

Best For beginning And intermediate Watercolor Artists: Misulove Premium Watercolor Paper

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The misulove premium watercolor paper is capable of outshining several other paper featured in this list in overall features for the price point. This value-priced, handy-sized pad is a boon for visual notes and experimentation in watercolor, ink, gouache, or collage. It is perfect for wet media including watercolor, tempera, acrylic, gouache, and poster paint. It is strong enough for all types of artistic projects, such as drawing, pastels, inks, painting or sketch book with markers, pencils or brushes. It is perfect for using with a mat for an 8 x 10 picture frame.

This heavyweight, absorbent paper is suitable for watercolor techniques as well as most dry media, making this pad as versatile as your creativity. It quickly absorbs the paint so there is no run-off. Just the right size for more detailed sketches, this paper is great for Plein air excursions as well as in-studio designs, and studies. It is good for more experienced artists.

• Great for beginners, curious artists, and those looking for something portable
• Compactly sized, great for mixed media pieces
• Very nice quality, handles water well

Best For Water Colors: Arteza Premium Watercolor Paper

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Compared with other paper in this category, the arteza premium watercolor paper has a convenient design. Premium watercolor paper is typically thicker (think 140 lb), but is made of cellulose. It is 100% acid-free, so colours stay rich & vibrant. These are separate sheets of watercolor paper that you can use any type of watercolor with. It works fine enough with acrylic style gouache techniques, which is when you use less water and more paint, and you use it like it is acrylics.

The spiral bound makes it easy to use, that way you don’t have to bend anything. The pages are preferated on the edges so it makes it easy to tear a page out of the book. It is perfect for small pics to give as cards or easy to keep in the binder.

• Perfect size for small frames, holiday cards, etc
• Good quality watercolor paper for painting
• Can hold a lot of water
• Serrated tear offs for easy removal from sketchbook

Best For recording ideas: Lear Village Premium Watercolor Paper

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Compared with other paper in this category, the lear village premium watercolor paper has a convenient design. Acid free sheets in these watercolor mix media sketchbook help keep your art work vibrant and long lasting. This paper is magic for marbling with acrylics. It remains flat throughout the painting process and dries flat too. This paper can do well with stylized, rustic, or very loose works.

This paper holds crisp, clear lines. It feels handmade and high quality. It’s packaged in a cellophane bag inside of a smallish box.

• Paper is not too thick, and is opaque when held up to the light
• Beautiful quality paper, easy to scribe on
• Lifting with a paper towel is easy and works well
• Great for watercolor and gouache no bleeding

Best With alcohol ink: Ucreate Premium Watercolor Paper

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The ucreate premium watercolor paper's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. This paper is made of wood pulp (cellulose) and not cotton. It absorbs well and does not get soggy/shed. It's perfect for watercolors. It's a watercolor paper so it's not smooth as silk. It does tend to bend up a bit when it is drying.

This pack of paper measures 9 " x 12 ", has a smooth uniform finish on the front and the back, and includes 250 sheets, making it great for large groups or classrooms. It works great for chalk pastels and drawing too. It's very thick, very absorbent. The paper is okay for a beginner and younger artist.

• Works great for watercolors and school paint
• Cost effective and great for beginners
• Very economical and great for experimenting