The 10 Best Watercolor Papers For practice (2023 reviews)

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

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Ucreate Watercolor Paper READ REVIEW

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

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

Best For Watercolour Painting: Buy: Arteza Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best For Wet washes OF Water Colors: Buy: Canson Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best For any kid: Buy: Strathmore Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best With alcohol ink: Buy: Ucreate Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best For Media: Buy: Amazon basics Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best For Price But page Curves: Buy: Bellofy Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best For Mixed Media: Buy: Newbested Watercolor Paper For practice READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Ucreate Watercolor Paper

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If you often find yourself confused about good paper, ucreate watercolor paper is your solution. It is a must have for your watercolor painting fun. It includes 50 sheets and is perfect for groups or classroom activities. It holds it shape better, less buckling or wonky, and warp bending after painting on it. It is quite thick for such low cost paper. It is great for kids crafts and basic water coloring.

The three standard watercolor paper weights are 90, 140 and 300 pounds. It is ideal for experimenting with various techniques. It is great for large groups or classrooms at the beginner to intermediate levels.

• Sturdy and perfect for water painting
• Great for teaching lessons and for practice
• Excellent stock quality for water paints

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

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This double pack of thick watercolor pads, by contrast, offers a generous amount of paper, and it's good quality, thick paper with a nice finish to it. The paper is 140 lb, acid-free. It takes color well, lifts paints that don't stain too much, and takes washes okay too.

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 good for more experienced artists. The paper quality of the coloring pages is thick and good. The sheets are thick and watercolors don't bleed through. The weight is perfect for beginners as well as seasoned artists.

• Perfect for sketching, painting, or almost any other art work you'd like to do
• Very nice finish, works well with wet into wet technique
• Good brand reputation

Best For Water coloring: Strathmore Watercolor Paper

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Strathmore makes beautiful and great paper with classic and smartly choosen materials. They are awesome for illustrations and heavy duty acrylic paintings and washes. It is thick and sturdy and receives the water colors well. The spiral helps work while not having to tear out a page. It is great for beginners or smaller projects.

The quality of the paper is great watercolor and look sharp and dries fast and great when it gets wetter on cheaper brands. It is suitable for experimenting and practicing techniques when heavier washes and reworking are required. The paper quickly peels, dissolves and sort of unravel when it gets wetter on cheaper brands. This is a great way to try all of the different patterns. It is great for any kid to have their own pad for the watercolors.

• Very thick and heavy so it doesn't crinkle with a lot of water
• Lifting is easy, providing you do not use staining watercolors
• Great paper you will love the way it takes watercolors and also acrylic paints
• Holds watercolors well without running or curling

Best For Watercolour Painting: Arteza Watercolor Paper For practice

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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 paper. The arteza watercolor paper for practice is exactly that - it's a simple paper that hits all the right notes. A two-pack will satisfy many hours of sketching or fine finishing your artistic visions. This paper is the type of paper that kasey golden uses. It has nice weight at 140 lbs., and it has 32 sheets, which is an awesome deal at two packs for $18 and some change.

The paint (Shinhan tubes) goes down nicely and dries nicely. There is some warping but it mostly dries flat. This paper can be improved by adding a thin layer or two of sizing. The quality is actually decent, and you can put a few washes down without having the paper fibers peel up. It is great for practicing and testing.

• High quality canvas textured surface, good for dry and wet media
• Perfect for painting and using water based pens
• Fantastic for watercolor pens and paint

Best For Wet washes OF Water Colors: Canson Watercolor Paper For practice

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This is a high quality spiral-bound pad of watercolor paper, perfect for portable sketching/painting projects. It contains 20 sheets of 140 pound/300 gram paper, acid free,. The paper absorbs water very well if you watercolor. It goes on very smoothly and does not bleed. The Notebook opens flat and is great for plein air painting and journaling/sketching.

This paper works beautifully for sketching, especially with liquid watercolors. It’s an very inexpensive sketchbook that is okay for quick sketches or thumbnail-sized experiments with light washes. The paper holds water well and dries well.

• Paper is thick enough to handle water colors on both sides
• Great paper for urban sketching and painting
• Good investment for long term

Best For any kid: Strathmore Watercolor Paper For practice

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It is necessary to have at least a 140 pound density paper to use. It takes water and the colors well, and also allows colors to be pulled up easily. The paper is great, nice thick water color paper. It's easy to remove, and you can just trim the frills off, rather than risk tearing your paper. It allows colors to be pulled up easily.

The paper is thick enough to not have to worry about soaking through the paper. It's nice and thick with light texture on one side. It's great for beginners.

• Lifting is easy, providing you do not use staining watercolors
• Good quality for beginners on water color painting
• Works wonders with tombow dual brush pens
• Very thick and heavy so it doesn't crinkle with a lot of water

Best With alcohol ink: Ucreate Watercolor Paper For practice

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This paper is pretty much like painting on poster board. It is great for most mediums but will warp easily with a lot of moisture. It absorbs well and does not get soggy/shed. The Wax paper makes a great tracing paper for doing that along with a paper that will transfer the copy to the paper.

This paper is made of wood pulp (cellulose) and not cotton. It works great for chalk pastels and drawing too. It is a nice thick paper and is smooth on one side and has a nice water absorbing textured side. It does tend to bend up a bit when it is drying.

• Issues with tearing, weight was just perfect
• Cost effective and great for beginners
• Works great for watercolors and school paint

Best For Media: Amazon basics Watercolor Paper For practice

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This quality watercolor paper is ideal for amateurs, professionals, and students, with a surface that works beautifully with a variety of mediums. It is good weight of paper at 300 gsm. The texture and weight are great for watercolor projects.

This is a great drawing pad with really nice-quality paper that does not bleed almost at all. The sheets in the pad aren't stuck together so you don't have to cut them out. It’s pulls back to allow you to carefully pull out each page, minimizing the chance of tearing it up before you even get to use it. This paper is probably excellent for kids trying water color, as using normal paper with watercolors can be an unholy mess.

• Great quality for both water color and acrylic
• Holds well many of the techniques for color blending
• High quality watercolor pad for artists, students, anyone who wants to paint

Best For Price But page Curves: Bellofy Watercolor Paper For practice

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Whether you are just entering the art world or you are a seasoned pro, these supplies will bring out the best version of your inner artist to the surface. It is ideal watercolor paper for kids, beginners and artists. It comes with watercolor canvas so you can be limitless in your creativity. It is actually fairly nice and also it is 130 pound/190 gsm paper. It comes with acid free paper so you don't have to worry anymore about bleeding through. It doesn’t fall apart when you scrape on it a little bit. It is great for trying ideas out on and would make good sketch paper. It is thick enough and economical enough to allow for experimenting on but no masterpieces will be made with this paper.

• Good for marker, paint, crayons, just alll
• Great for kids,look at the attached painting
• Good value, grayish color, good for kids and practice

Best For Mixed Media: Newbested Watercolor Paper For practice

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If you often find yourself confused about convenient and suitable paper, newbested watercolor paper for practice should be your first option for buying. It is not high quality watercolor paper, but it is way better than copy paper for kids who are wanting to make a hundred nice-ish watercolor paintings. It works well in any printer and has a slightly rougher texture than conventional printer paper. It can be sent to person who like acrylic painting, watercolor painting, sketch, etc. The paper also wrinkles and buckles due to the thinness. It is definitely grayish in color. It’s only 90 lbs and is super soft. It is good for throw away sketching. It’s more on the grey/blue tinted side.

• Wrinkles and buckles due to the thinness
• Great for drawing, not for watercolor
• New and hot release