I bought this thinking it was a cold pressed and was worried that I won’t like it. But I’m glad I bought it by mistake,my watercolor is way more vibrant using hot pressed watercolor paper than cold pressed

Paul Rubens Art Supplies Watercolor Paper Hot Press 7.6" x 5" is a nice book to carry around. The cover is sturdy, protecting the pages inside. As “hot press” goes there is a soft textured feel to the surface. The weight is terrific. Be careful when masking because the surface will tear off easily. The pages are perforated so it makes it easy to tear out. Overall, I do like these books and will continue to use them.

I use this sketchbook for line and wash watercolor sketches. My fountain pen sketches on it smoothly and watercolors seem to work well. The book has a fake leather-like cover and is a pretty small size that makes it nicely portable.A few things that I don’t like is that the pages do not lay very flat, which causes my paint to run, and a few of the pages had some indentations from the built-in ribbon bookmark.

I’ve been painting with watercolor for about a year now. This was my first time painting on hot press paper and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. This journal is lightweight (not clunky like some I’ve used), the paper is thick with a smooth surface, and the binding is durable. It handled water and paint beautifully (I didn’t practice a lot of lifting or scrubbing, but the little I did do was tolerated perfectly). My only complaint is that when you use masking tape (even applied gently) to preserve a white border, it badly damages the paper when pulled off. Using a less sticky washi tape prevents this problem. All around, it’s a good little journal. I’m happy with my purchase! I will be buying from this company again in the future.

Let me just say: I did not test the product and I did request a return.Hopefully you can see in the photos, but the product arrived wrapped and packaged perfectly neatly, no reason to suspect any kind of damage. I immediately opened it and discovered multiple separate issues.Damages/manufacturing issues:1st issue was that about 7 pages into the book: the ribbon bookmark, which was inside the book laying diagonally flat, had apparently left a stain across both pages it was sandwiched between (pg 6 and 7).2nd issue that became apparent is that from pages 1-6 there is a consistent crease toward the outer edge of the front of the book (opposite the spine) which appears on each of the 6 pages. Oddly, the creases began on the first page that was touching the ribbon (page 6), even though the ribbon doesn’t seem to have had any part in causing the creases. The first crease, on page 6, Also shows staining in a brownish color.3rd issue, which I noticed last but is possibly the most damning of the manufacturing quality, is about marks that appear consistently throughout the book. EXPLANATION (skip to “~OK” for less long-winded version) The book, like pretty much any similar book, is constructed from “signatures“/sections/gatherings, which is where a single, long piece of paper is folded in half and at the crease it is sewed at the spine - some signatures contain a stack of these, but in this case each signature is a single length of thick watercolor paper making up 2 pages (not including the back of the page) per signature. ~OK so, with that explanation out of the way, if you open a signature so that both its pages are visible I found that both pages showed marks which appear to come from having been rubbed by metal (you know what it looks like when you scratch paper with a penny or dime or a nail). Now, the marks appear well into the middle of the left page (which would be the “back” of the previous page) and in the margin (before the perforation) on the right-hand page. this particular flaw will only impact you if you intend to use the backs of the pages, and discounts for 1/2 of the pages.Conclusion: if I only had the first issue, only two of the theoretically 40 workable surfaces would have been damaged (assuming we paint on both sides). If I only had the second issue, only 12 the 40 workable services would’ve been damaged. If I only had the third issue, only 25% of workable services would have been damaged. With all three issues, only 20 of 40 total workable services are usable (10 actual pages). I think it’s very apparent when looking at the pages, that the paper was not handled properly when they were cutting or arranging the pages when constructing the book. This is certainly not an issue with the seller or the shipping, but lies entirely in quality control of manufacturing. there’s also no reason why a bookmark ribbon included in a book should cause staining on the pages.Other thoughts on quality:The book has no offensive smells, the outside is a nice soft textured material. There is a little inconsistency in the spacing between the signatures and the spine, but this seems insignificant to me. The product is listed as hot pressed, and admittedly I don’t have much experience with hot press paper so I can’t gauge it’s quality, but I will say that just visually and while touching it, there does appear to be a consistent but not uniform texture to the paper, Almost as if whatever was used to press the paper had a deliberate repetitive texture; it is consistent across each page, and I would like and it sort of to how people may use a texturized roller when painting their house so that they get a repetitive end consistent texture yet each square inch contains a modeling of textures. For watercolor, I do not personally think that this paper would result in a completely flat undisturbed appearance to a light wash, but I may be wrong. The paper certainly has less tooth than cold-pressed. Honestly, I think this would be perfectly fine as a beginners trash notebook for wash or acrylic practice, but I think the flaws would definitely discourage any water color painter. I intended to use it for gouache, but I paid for a non-damaged product and that’s what I’d like. Perhaps this is par for the course of similarly priced products, but I will not be re-ordering this particular product.