5" x 8" 220gsm Watercolor Journal Hardbound 80pgs（40 Sheets Front Back 2 Textures）Travel Size for Calligrapher Colored Pencil Watercolor Sketch Book Handmade Cloth Cover Notebook Carp

I purchased this as a gift. She was very impressed with the quality of paper and enjoyed the cover design.

I bought this knowing the paper was not good for watercolor, I wanted a sketchbook just for pencil and this is great for that. If you are looking for a watercolor sketchbook book check out "Pual Rubens" they have cotton paper and it is wonderful. It will take some time to get used to (the Pual Rubens paper) but it is well worth it.

This book was exactly what i was looking for. Very sturdy and durable paper and cover and beautiful designs.

I wouldn't really call this a "watercolor" sketchbook as the paper is poor quality for watercolors. With even a light glaze the paper fibers were coming up and the paper dried very wavy. I'm a bit disappointed as I was looking for a sketchbook specifically for watercolor.However, I rated it 4 stars because it is still a nice little sketchbook. The cover design is beautiful (I bought the red Peony pattern) and the paper is still good enough for ink illustrations and seems to do okay with gouache. For gouache, I recommend using thicker layers and not too much water. Don't really recommend for pencil drawings unless you're not going to be erasing anything (paper shreds easily).I would say this sketchbook is a nice, cheaper alternative to Moleskine. Paper is slightly flimsier (but Moleskine isn't the best for watercolor either), you get more sheets in the journal, a beautiful cover, pencil/pen/brush holder on top, and it also has a nice little pocket in the back.I'm still looking for the perfect watercolor sketchbook, but I'm sure this one will still get lots of use for gouache and ink :)- Amanda / @ginkgojulep on instagram

I need to start realizing that cheap usually means it’s not going to be a great product. For one, I have trouble believing this paper is 140lb. It’s cannot handle a very wet wash. That could have a lot to do with the sizing as well. Secondly, as soon as I opened it a piece of paper fell out of it. A good journal should be able to be laid flat without the paper coming loose. Other than that…… I love the size. Perfect for travel and small paintings. The cover is cute but unfortunately this will be last one I purchase.UPDATE: I do like the paper in this journal even though its weight is less than I expected. Still it does not like a lot of water but it’s teaching me to paint with less water. The texture of the paper is beautiful too. Still though, the pages fall out easily. They are not sewn in and pop right out when the journal is laid flat. That absolutely should not happen with a journal.

When I started my watercolor journey, I bought one of these. I have used it as a learning journal to do my exercises in and it is great for that. The paper is cold pressed watercolor paper but 220 gsm. Does not handle large amounts of water without buckling, but I have been pleasantly surprised at what it will handle without deteriorating. There is ghosting on the back side when I used pen and ink and heavier applications of watercolor, but that did not bother me. It did handle the exercises, value studies, pencil sketches with repeated erasures, and swatching well. So I bought this to continuing my learning journey. Good overall journal for many uses

I bought this journal, hoping that it was the same watercolor paper in it as in the carp. I figured if it was just plain paper it still wasn't too outrageous a price for a hardbound sketch journal wit a fancy cover. As luck would have it, it seems to be the exact same paper as the Carp cover, which I also bought on a separate order. It is thin for WC paper, but I didn't have any trouble with it buckling or warping while painting. It seems fairly comparable to other WC journals that I have, has more pages than most of them do and you get the bonus of the fancy cover. And the cover is gorgeous. The attached picture was done using my Koi waterbrush and Windsor and Newton watercolors. The colors retained their brilliance and laid down smoothly. I am very pleased with this journal and will probably buy a couple of the other cover patterns, too.

The pages have the same texture on both sides. They do warp a little with my watercolors which is to be expected because it's only 220g. If you want to use other mediums that don't soak into the pages as much, they won't bleed too badly if at all. Also, there's a little pocket on the inside of the back cover. The only complaint that I have is the that little elastic loop at the top for holding a pen or mechanical pencil snapped after about a week.

Fabric covered. Not as appears in picture. I bought 3 different ones, the peony one was one. There’s no peony on it. They just use any scrap of fabric to cover the book. So if you’re ordering it go LOOK nice, you’re wasting your money.

The description says it won’t bleed and the pages aren’t really bound to together to well, a couple pages basically fell right off the book and also the Color’s won’t blend well either, but I did really like the cover of the book, other that I think I should ask for a refund cause the quality isn’t the same as what was described when deciding on what book I would order.

poor paper quality... couldn't pass for student grade water color paper