My favorite watercolor paper is Aches. When I buy watercolor paper it’s usually in large pieces that I cut down to whatever size I like. But, when I’m traveling, or when I go out to plein air paint, or I’m painting at markets, I like to have a spiral bound journal, but the paper still needs to be a good quality. Arches only has one size, it’s a long narrow journal, and can be a bit bulky depending on the application.

I went in search of some 100% cotton watercolor journals online and found this Windsor and Newton journal. It measures 5×7 inches (12.7×17.8 cm). It’s 140 pound, 100% cotton, cold-pressed paper, with 15 sheets per journal. The spiral binding is on the short end. I use both sides of my paper in my journals, so I have 30 pages to paint on.

This has been such a great size for what I use it for. I take it with me in my backpack when I go to markets or hiking. I take it with me when I travel on occasion as well. It fits nicely in any bag as it’s small. With a binder clip on the open end, the pages stay flat while in my backpack.

I often tape a border, even in my small journals just because I like the border, and this paper has held up perfectly to the tape, even when I’ve left it on and closed the book as I wasn’t finished painting. There was no tearing of the surface, and no paint under the tape. I didn’t have masking fluid in my travels, so I didn’t try masking fluid in this book.

The paper has the same texture on both sides (some papers have a smoother side and a rougher side even in cold press). It has held up perfectly with many layers of paint in both washes and wet on dry applications. The colors come out just as vibrant as they do on my Arches paper. I have been impressed that there has been no rubbing transfer of color from the pages that sit together.

Spiral binding is a must I’ve decided for a small journal. I have quite a few journals with nice paper, but they are a glued in or bound book type, where the pages either don’t lay flat (bound book) or they fall out (glued edge books and pads). This one has a metal spiral that allows you to lay the book flat open, or fold the cover and used pages back on themselves so it stays compact while painting.

The nice thing about these little sketch books is they are for practice. I love just being able to be free to mess up, free to flip to the next page, whatever and it’s not a big deal. Most of these pictures are of just fun, quick paintings that were just praceice and for fun. I am now almost finished with this sketchbook, and I will be ordering another, probably 2 so I have them on hand. I would give this little journal a 5 star rating. If you are a watercolor artist, this is a great little journal for travel, plein air, or just for little practice pieces.

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