A5 Watercolour Paper Bockingford Cold Pressed Fat Pad 25 Sheets 300gsm

I’d heard so many people say how wonderful and traditional Bockingford watercolour paper is, when I needed a ‘basket-filler’ I decided to try the fat pad. I dithered between this and the Bao Hong block, which I’ve bought before, but the price was marginally better for the Bockingford, so why not! In the Q&A someone had asked if it was cotton and the answer said yes, so I clicked... well..... this is definitely not cotton, it’s pulp and to be honest, not even good pulp. W.H. Smith’s own brand is better in my view, let alone some of the lower range Hahnemühle I tried a Christmas sketch to see how it performed... and was really disappointed. The water dried very unevenly, leading to patchy appearance and some weird blooms. It felt like going back to being a beginner again and not understanding why my painting didn’t turn out as it should have. Also, even after it was fully dry, there was a sort of cushiony feel, or slight wave-like quality where the paper had been wet. It was as if the paint was sitting on top of the paper rather than being absorbed. Even cheap and cheerful Canson XL doesn’t feel so bad. About the only positive thing I can really say is that the surface, pre-application of water/paint, has a nice texture, which is random rather than being a criss-cross pattern. It did Ok with dry brush technique, but anything requiring an amount of water (I mean, it’s supposed to be watercolour paper) just turned out patchy or blotchy. So now I have to figure out what to do with the other 24 pages... watercolour pencils, inktense, gouache maybe? Not sure what all the five star reviewers are seeing that I’m missing here.

Even though it isn’t indicated anywhere on my pad, this paper behaves very similarly to cotton paper. It can take multiple layers and colours appear nice and vibrant. It shows granulation beautifully and gradation is smooth. Super recommend it.EDIT: I bought a second block this year (2022) and it doesn’t seem to behave like my previous one. I questioned this to the manufacturer and they said they haven’t changed it. I’ll be sending a sample to them and update here what they say.

I'm good at drawing with pencils, this is the first time I paint, so I can't compare this to anything except for normal 80gsm paper, and this paper has been really good so far.It does warp very slightly when you apply a lot of water (I do guache painting). But after the whole painting is dry, I close the pad and put some books on top. This flattens the page a bit more as well.Not too badI considered 4 stars instead of 5 because it's a bit expensive, but that might be the issue with this type of paper over-all rather than a fault of this brand. I'll be buying another one when mine is full.

I took this on holiday to paint . It was small enough to pop in my art travel bag, and the fact it is a block, I didn’t need to stretch the paper or use a block underneath. Very nice quality

This is a great quality small scale watercolour pad perfect for small studies and urban sketching.

This is good quality as expected from Bockinford. I'll be buying this forever!

Very happy with this watercolour pad and will definitely buy again.

Exactly as expected