The 7 Best small Watercolor Paper Pads (2023 reviews)

We consider a small watercolor paper pad to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Artisto small Watercolor Paper Pad READ REVIEW

Best For portrait: Buy: Canson Wonderful Paper READ REVIEW

Best For small paintings: Buy: Strathmore small Watercolor Paper Pad READ REVIEW

Best With alcohol ink: Buy: Canson small Watercolor Paper Pad READ REVIEW

Best For Water coloring: Buy: Strathmore Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

Best For quick projects: Buy: Speedball small Watercolor Paper Pad READ REVIEW

Best With Mason Jars: Buy: chalky Crown small Watercolor Paper Pad READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Artisto small Watercolor Paper Pad

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If you want nothing short of the optimal pad for your regular usage, this artisto small watercolor paper pad is certainly a wise investment. This is a nice pad of paper set. It works well for wet on wet applications. Whether the paint is light or heavy, the paper curls quite severely. Each sheet in the pad is bound by glue, creating a smooth edge, that when removed doesn’t cause damage to your painting. It holds up well to blending, excessive water, and slight scrubbing with a brush. The paper is also great for drawing with gel or felt-tip pens & acrylics, too.

• Great value for beginners watercolor painting
• Great for a talented child artist the paper was high quality and great value
• Holds up well to a lot of water and multi media layers

Best For portrait: Canson Wonderful Paper

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If you often find yourself scrambling for convenient and suitable pad, canson wonderful paper is your end point. They are "real" watercolor paper and quite affordable. It is perfect for kids and adults to get started with watercolor, the paper holds up to quite a bit of water, doesn't work too fast, and handles color pretty well. It does warp quite a bit, so tape it down. It is great for testing, not so much for finished work.

This paper is good for small pieces like tags. It is really great for watercolor and tombow markers. It works good for half fold cards, so you have to cut it down slightly. It can handle a lot of water.

• Great paper holds onto water well
• Perfect for people just starting to water color
• Curls slightly when damp but good paper over all
• Definitely works well for heavy use of water

Best For small paintings: Strathmore small Watercolor Paper Pad

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If you often find yourself scrambling for appropriate and satisfactory pad, strathmore small watercolor paper pad is your solution. There are only a few 500 Series items that are made with 100% cotton. It is perfect for advanced artists with superior sheet formation, harder surfaces, and a variety of textures that work with a wider range of media and styles. It’s perfect for small paintings or for doing a backwash in preparation for doing a little calligraphy on them. It doesn't break down at all with too much water.

This is a good value little watercolour block in a perfect size for travelling. The block is so convenient as there is no taping or securing necessary and it dries flat. The thickness is pretty nice along with the grain too.

• Nice for small painting, very satisfied
• Delivers what they promise

Best With alcohol ink: Canson small Watercolor Paper Pad

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Not everyone likes to purchase pad for their daily purpose, but the canson small watercolor paper pad would be an anomoly. It is great watercolour paper for crafting. It comes in a pad that you pull off sheets to paint on, mask-taped to a support, and also a ring-bound pad which you can paint onto directly then remove later, or just keep as a collection on the pad. The pages are very thick and painting from one sheet don't smear onto other sheets. It holds water well, and color beautifully on this paper. It is perfect for producing framable pieces.

This book is very good quality, the paper has texture and works very well with watercolours. It's the perfect size for this sort of thing & it keeps it all organized in one place. The pages have not warped at all and the books are very sturdy.

• Great pad of artist grade paper
• Works very well with watercolours in general very good, the size is perfect
• High water absorbency, resistant to damage
• Durable enough to paint on both sides

Best For Water coloring: Strathmore Watercolor Paper

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Compared with other pad in this category, the strathmore watercolor paper has a convenient design. The 300 series watercolor paper pad contains 12 sheets of heavyweight, student grade, watercolor paper with a cold press surface. It is best quality art paper for anything including, pastels, watercolors, sketch drawings, and charcoal + paint drawings if you're carful enough. The paper is thick enough to not have to worry about soaking through the paper. The colors blend beautifully on it while still being able to maintain sharp edges without bleeding like some.

This spiral bound pad is easy to flip over or tear out a new page to use. It is suitable for experimenting and practicing techniques when heavier washes and reworking are required.

• Works wonders with tombow dual brush pens
• Lifting is easy, providing you do not use staining watercolors
• Very thick and heavy so it doesn't crinkle with a lot of water
• Holds watercolors well without running or curling

Best For quick projects: Speedball small Watercolor Paper Pad

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Not everyone likes to purchase pad for their daily usage, but the speedball small watercolor paper pad would be an anomoly. These small paper blocks are great for quick projects and gouache. It is produced at slow speeds by European mill masters with over 400 years of paper making experience that creates a stronger, premium quality paper. The paper does not warp and once you’re finished with your piece, the page is easy to separate from the block.

Fluid watercolor blocks come in 12 artist friendly sizes in cold or hot press surfaces, so there's sure to be one that inspires your creative spirit. It allows for a variety of watercolor techniques. The paper stays in place during painting and dries flat.

• Good thickness, and color doesn't bleed through
• Good brand reputation

Best With Mason Jars: chalky Crown small Watercolor Paper Pad

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The chalky crown small watercolor paper pad's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. These watercolor pads are perfect to experiment with different techniques, strokes and ideas and let your inner artist shine. It is using a very wet technique, drying with a heat tool. The format is nice and large, so you can do big paintings if you like. These pages have fairly large perforation holes that work fine to tear them if you bend it a few times. The lightly misted paper holds up extremely well in this test without any tears at all.

It has a good texture to it but isn’t too harsh. These are nice and small, which makes them easy to transport or take with you with minimal effort. It is great with mason jars, toy bins, pantry storage, craft projects, containers and tons of other things.

• Heavy duty paper holds up to water use
• Really great for microns, graphite and poscos as well
• High quality paper for color painting