The 9 Best Watercolor Artist Pads (2023 reviews)

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Artisto Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best For portrait: Buy: Canson Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best For Water coloring: Buy: Strathmore Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best For beginning And intermediate Watercolor Artists: Buy: Misulove Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best For card maker: Buy: Arteza Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best With Water colour Paint: Buy: Artnfly Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best With Dry To Wet Painting: Buy: us Art supply Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

Best For quick projects: Buy: Speedball Watercolor Artist Pad READ REVIEW

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

Best Overall: Artisto Watercolor Artist Pad

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The latest artisto watercolor artist pad is an absolute beast in terms of its features, and rightfully takes the top spot with ease. This is awesome paper, certainly for beginners and maybe more advanced, too. It holds up well to blending, excessive water, and slight scrubbing with a brush. It is great for watercolor and mixed media, and can paint both sides of the same page without bleed through. The quality of the paper is easy to work with when using multiple mediums.

Each sheet is thick and has a consistent finish. It is suitable for better paint performance and durability. This size allows one to really stretch out, relax and have some fun. The sheets are easy to paint on and they dry almost completely flat. This is a nice pad of paper set.

• Perfect size for sketching, painting, and beyond
• Thick, textured paper with very little bending or warping
• Great watercolor paper for beginners & dabblers

Best For portrait: Canson Watercolor Artist Pad

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Next on the list, we've got yet another pad that manages to win our hearts. It's the canson watercolor artist pad and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient pad you can buy. This paper is very sturdy. It is ideal for watercolor and suitable for use with pencil, colored pencil, pen, ink, charcoal, pastel, and acrylic. It doesn't wrinkle from too much water and it blends colors so well. The paper really holds up to the water and dries quickly.

The paper has great texture and it is fun and flexible to paint on. It is strong and the paper doesn't fold when wet. The paper does not permit alot of scrubbing, no need to scrub very much, paint will lift so well.

• Great paper holds onto water well
• Perfect for people just starting to water color
• Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For Water coloring: Strathmore Watercolor Artist Pad

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Strathmore line of pad come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. The 300 series watercolor paper pad contains 12 sheets of heavyweight, student grade, watercolor paper with a cold press surface. It is the best quality art paper for anything including, pastels, watercolors, sketch drawings, and charcoal + paint drawings if you're carful enough. It allows colors to be pulled up easily. The spiral helps work while not having to tear out a page.

The paper is strong and easy to draw and paint. The colors blend beautifully on it while still being able to maintain sharp edges without bleeding like some. It is suitable for experimenting and practicing techniques when heavier washes and reworking are required.

• Wonderful paper, stands up to watercolors beautifully and oil pastels
• Paint dries fairly quickly, and paper does not tear or peel
• Stacks up pretty well against the heavier watercolor boards for wear/tear/re-working/re-wetting
• Lifting is easy, providing you do not use staining watercolors

Best For beginning And intermediate Watercolor Artists: Misulove Watercolor Artist Pad

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The misulove watercolor artist pad is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. This heavyweight, absorbent paper is suitable for watercolor techniques as well as most dry media, making this pad as versatile as your creativity. It is perfect for beginners as well as seasoned artists. The paper works great and dries nicely and if you’re looking for something to test out your watercolors, small and portable, or something simple in case you’re not totally sure you want a full fledged canvas or setup, then this is definitely worth it.

The sheet pad is medium weight with a linen-like textured surface on the front and a smoother surface on the back. The surface has a nice feel and takes pencil well. The paper dries really well and the colors really pop. The paper has a nice surface for painting and the heavier weight means the buckling is kept to a minimum so long as you don't work really wet.

• Perfect for sketching, painting, or almost any other art work you'd like to do
• Great for beginners, curious artists, and those looking for something portable
• New and hot release

Best For card maker: Arteza Watercolor Artist Pad

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate pad. The arteza watercolor artist pad is exactly that - it's a simple pad that hits all the right notes. Your Arteza watercolor paper is thicker & heavier (140 lb./300gsm), so it can stand up to multiple washes without warping or bleeding through. It is wood pulp and is a good mid grade watercolor paper. Unlike most "watercolor paper" it handles a fair amount of water before starting to tear and decay. The paint (Shinhan tubes) goes down nicely and dries nicely.

This paper is fine for one or two strokes over the surface, but once the surface absorbs water any more working tends to form pills. It is best for watercolor applied to dry paper. The paper takes watercolor beautifully.

• Good quality & handy for small watercolor projects
• Great sturdy paper, perfect for working wet
• Perfect for painting and using water based pens
• Fantastic for watercolor pens and paint

Best With Water colour Paint: Artnfly Watercolor Artist Pad

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The artnfly watercolor artist pad is satisfactory and appropriate and fits well with your daily purpose. Featuring 30 heavy 140lb/300gsm sheets that fold over for an easy tear, this watercolor sketchbook is the perfect companion to your watercolor paint set. It is nice and thick, and holds the paint well. They settle and move into the different spots creating lovely pools of color which often separate out into other colors as they dry. It is ideal for all wet on dry and wet on wet water color techniques, and combination with other media like ink.

The front side is quite a coarse texture. It is a thick enough paper (140lbs) that the water doesn't warp it too much (when the edges are taped down) unless you really saturate the paper with water, but it warps if you don't tape down the edges. If you enjoy painting on hot press, this paper may be what you’re looking for. It really works out well and if you want smaller pieces, you can cut this in half. It's a 2 pack and the paper is perfect for watercolor paint and pencils.

• Very smooth on one side and textured on the other
• Fun to get a flow going with paint
• Excellent watercolor pads for beginners, or just for fun
• Better at allowing lifting paint than layering

Best With Dry To Wet Painting: us Art supply Watercolor Artist Pad

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The us art supply watercolor artist pad is satisfactory and appropriate and fits well with your regular usage. These premium watercolor pads make a perfect gift to anyone who enjoys painting, drawing, and creating art. It is great for use by aspiring artists, art students, and professional artists. It absorbs water very quickly, which is not a huge problem, but it does take some getting used to.

This paper is great, they are very thick and strong. It is great for dry to wet painting. It is perfect for it torn in half. It's a decent product for the amount you are spending. It is great for amateur and beginning painters too.

• Nice pad of watercolor paper for kids, students and beginners
• Great for anyone and every level
• Great for doodling, applying watercolor, and acrylics
• Pretty good for value and beginners

Best For quick projects: Speedball Watercolor Artist Pad

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If you are currently in the market looking for a suitable pad for your daily usage, speedball watercolor artist pad is the natural choice. These small paper blocks are great for quick projects. 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 is good for use with watercolors and gouache. The paper is thick enough for watercolor painting, doesn’t change the shape or twisted after observing a big amount of water. The paper stays in place during painting and dries flat.

The paper quality is comparable to other watercolor journals and its small size makes it totally portable. The paper does not warp and once you’re finished with your piece, the page is easy to separate from the block.

• Good thickness, and color doesn't bleed through
• Lot of satisfied buyers

Best With Mason Jars: chalky Crown Watercolor Artist Pad

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Best part: chalky crown watercolor artist pad costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. Watercolor paper is always a little tricky but these pads really do great work. It is a decent heavy watercolor paper. It is using a very wet technique, drying with a heat tool. It is great with mason jars, toy bins, pantry storage, craft projects, containers and tons of other things.

These watercolor books are super high quality and amazing. It has a good texture to it but isn’t too harsh. It is really secure so it is easy to travel with. These pages have fairly large perforation holes that work fine to tear them if you bend it a few times.

• Great for walnut ink and oil sketches
• High quality paper for color painting
• New and hot release