Re using good supplies… I suspect many of us struggle with that. Hells bells, I haven’t even managed to open my A. Gallo paints yet. I sit and look at them. 🤪. I’m off to see if you did a comparison between the Windsor and Newton and Arches watercolour cotton papers.
Handy colors would be to stick to the color wheel ie perhaps lemon yellow, cad yellow hue, cobolt blue, french ultrmarine, pyrol red, rose magenta, paynes grey for mixing darks dont use it straight it will look like flat. Could also add an orange a purple and a nice green if you like although you could just mix them with the other colors....I also favour red iron oxide and some turquoise blue because I paint sea scapes and animals....So tweek your pallet to suit your needs...Paper wise chose 300gsm acid free and try samples as you will learn what suits your style... ie I love saunders waterford cp...Lovely haul I enjoyed shopping with you as we are in lockdown here in oz...Enjoy them :) You chose good colors.
wow! There are so many art materials! It feels so good to buy art materials! That's great. Keep our meeting! 👍 379 Watch the video to the end. Have a happy day today!
Oh my goodness, thank heavens one of those stores is nowhere near me. That looks like way too much temptation! I think you got a great deal and it's so fun to have gift credits to spend!
@@SketchesnScrubs save money. White tiles from a hardware store and white serving dishes from kitchen sections are the way forward for large pallets. 🤓
I haven't been into an art shop since before the pandemic - that place looked amazing! I'm not surprised you spent three hours in there. What a brilliant haul! The Sennelier set is lovely. I'm really enjoying your videos! I think I'm going to binge watch while I work and also pack for my trip back to Suffolk this week. x
Good quality art supplies will help you get the results from hours and hours of practice. And in terms of the paint, the professional paints are loaded with more pigments, so you use less paint. And the colors are vibrant! Have fun!
Cass arts is awesome and the customer service is excellent, that's who I bought my first professional paint set from, shipped all the way to Sweden at a reasonable price, the supplies are fairly priced some surprisingly cheap.
Yes I am just like you when it comes to using my expensive supplies. I started out 3 years ago with cheap Canson XL Mixed Media Paper 90 lb. then moved up to Canson XL Watercolor 140 lb./300 gsm2 paper. Same thing with my watercolor paint, Arteza 24 set Watercolor Tubes then just recently after using up my Arteza to the Winsor & Newton Cotman 40 watercolor set.
Yes to a comparison of W&N and Arches paper! And your own responses to both, how you feel about them. Subjective views are good too! I think you will enjoy the Sennelier as you seem to like botanical and florals.
Watched this video a year after it was posted and am so jealous of getting to visit an art store like that!! Amazing!! I have been eyeing that sennelier set forever and think that might be one of my upcoming splurges. Although I have tons of paint at the moment so am trying not to buy more for a little while. I have lots of professional paint and pads of Arches, and have to remind myself it’s ok to use my expensive supplies. That’s what they’re for! I tend to use my cheaper paper and store brand paint more freely because I don’t feel like I’m wasting them on practice and learning.
Congratulations on you awesome art supply haul! You did an outstanding job of buy quality supplies at great prices. I love the Sennelier watercolor set, it’s beautiful and finding the mop brush! What an awesome gift! I want one, too. ☺️ I’m so glad I found your first vlog post and I can’t wait for your next one. You’ll be over the moon 🌝 after you use the professional artist grade products 🥰. Take care, stay safe and well. I just looked up the Sennelier watercolor set you purchased on Amazon and it’s $208.90 usd, that should be 176.06 Euro!
I love the Winsor Newton watercolor paper (hot press) - it takes loads of abuse. So lucky to have such a great art store. I'm from St. Louis Missouri and we only have a couple of small art stores
I don't have a real" art store" in my town,but I love going trough the craft store and gind new things☺ I would spend 6hours in the art store just to buy 4 things because the most things are expensive😂
Congratulations on that haul! I've only been to that store once - I'd actually forgotten about it. I'm so glad you reminded me. Those tiny smith tubes will last you forever! I've got a few of them and they're still going strong a year later. I've recently gotten out of doing watercolor - I had a bad case of covid and watercolor was just too hard on my body and mind. I switched to colored pencils and am so glad I did! I was hoping to see some pencils in your purchases, as they do work well over watercolor, but no luck for me today. That box set is great and when I saw it had a mop brush, I cheered for you :) Happy painting!
@@SketchesnScrubs Sorry if this gets long, there are lots of questions :D paints: I do both. I put half the tube (or 25%) in a half pan, and leave the rest in the tube. (I put cling wrap between the cap and the tube, cause if there's paint there it will act like super glue, and the wrap helps you open the tube more than once.) It's okay if the pan dries out, it reactivates with water just fine. Use tiny tiny amounts, consider the paint concentrated. pencils: your timing is perfect. I did a review of my pencils that just went live today. It might help you. But I'll recap just for the subject of using them with WC. Brutfuner (120 rounds or squares, they're the same): a super budget brand, you get 120 pencils for 20 quid. Don't be fooled by the price, these pencils are amazing and has the coloring community in a tizzy. But they're straight up color pencils and not the best choice for a WCerist. Faber Castell WC pencils: A really good choice, solid company, good product. Get the smallest set (I think it's 12? 6?) it's a good starting point just to see how they work and if you like them. Several ways to use them, but that's another subject (and extensive!) Derwent Inktense: My personal recommendation (other opinions may vary). You can use them like a pencil or add water and hellllooo vibrancy. They are ink based, so once dry, they don't move again when the page is rewet. They can be used as an undercoat, with the WC paints on top, and/or use them for small details or shading on top of the WC. Hope this helped :)
@@SketchesnScrubs I guess there's an artist in here somewhere. I used to sew quilts, hence the email address but I haven't been doing much of it now because of pain. I have been playing with watercolors and Die cutting.
Hi, I know I’m watching this video yonks after you’ve made it, but I only just found your channel. Have you tried the Bockingford watercolour paper? I find the CA paper intolerable, even for practice, but the Bockingford is a really nice one that you can get at a reasonable price. I am just trying it on a block for the first time and it’s a game changer - I think I like it more than Arches! As for mop brushes, the Jackson’s Raven ones are very affordable and I love them. And hey, it’s really nice to see someone who is openly cautious about the pennies shopping! Must say.. wel jel of the sennelier box though!
I already watched this and commented under my private/personal account awhile ago, but wanted to say how hard I felt it when you did the slo-mo “400 pounds” lol! We definitely share the supplies obsession! 🤩
Hi! I’m new to your channel & subscribed because I really love the personal vibe. Uptight watercolour videos are too stressful. I’ve always wanted to go to Cass Art but it’s just impossible for me so I’ll have to live vicariously through you, if you don’t mind 😅 I started off with their watercolour paper but as I use a lot of water they just weren’t so good for me, sadly. I just bought myself some Hahnemühle collection 300gsm paper for when I’m better skilled. I hear good things about Hahnemühle’s expression paper too as a cheaper cotton alternative to practise on so I’m looking at getting some of that as we speak 😂
The categories that you bought in would probably be the same for me. Except I might add in colored pencils or gouache as categories too. (If you haven’t already) could you do a swatch of that Daniel Smith paints because no matter how close they are from tube to paint they are always different !
Great haul!! I can’t wait to see comparisons. I bought a ceramic palette earlier this year an I love it. I still use the cheaper plastic one for acrylic but hands down my ceramic palette is way better. I bought the arches paper around the same time but I have not used it. I’m waiting for a fully dropped idea that I have practiced drawing and painting a few times. That paper is not cheap so I don’t want to waste it. I thought it was super funny that I have the two same palettes in my Amazon cart. I wanted venture out an try Daniel Smith tube paints as already have the Winsor & Newton Watercolors in tubes. I’m curious to see I like them compared to Winsor & Newton paints. Happy painting!!! TFS Cheers!
@@SketchesnScrubs haha yes! There one in north London too, though I’m not sure how big that is! I definitely need to make the trip to Fulham though 👀 rip my bank balance! Aw thank you so much! I’m loving your videos too! ❤️
You CANNOT, CANNOT achieve what watercolours are made for and can do unless you use 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper - anything other than 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper will, at best, allow you to achieve only a fraction of ALL the possibiities of what watercolour can do on 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper. Your choices of the W&N watercolour block & Arches block were extremely good choices.... I don’t know how experienced you are with using watercolours but I can tell you to paint on 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper is a game changer and using anything less is absolutely torture to use AND it’s next to impossible to achieve what you want on any other paper.... I, like many people starting out with watercolours, bought cheaper paper to practice on till I got good enough to warrant spending money on REAL watercolour paper and was soooo frustrated that I couldn’t get the beautiful wet in wet affects that others seem to achieve effortlessly - out of desperation I bought I sheet of Arches 300gsm cold pressed watercolour paper and immediately, with next to no effort at all I was able to achieve the effects I wanted sooooo easily. EVERY watercolour artist will tell you that THE MOST IMPORTANT thing when wanting to paint with watercolours is the PAPER, it HAS TO BE 100% COTTON, SIZED paper.... there is no getting away from this, a very good watercolour artist can make a half decent painting using other paper but they will struggle with it for sure... BTW you CAN get sheets of watercolour paper sooooo cheap (it’s always cheaper to buy watercolour paper in sheets than by buying it in a pad (worse option) or a watercolour block. Jacksons Art Supplies or Ken Bromleys sell watercolour paper in packages of 5 or 10 sheets cut into ¼ or ½ sheets & deliver them cheaply. I live in Australia and I couldn’t afford to paint with watercolours if I had to buy my paper & supplies from Australia - buying from the UK & having it courier delivered is cheaper than buying it here in person.... so you, in the UK are soooo unbelievably lucky to have these 2 art suppliers on your doorstep...
used cannon xl that came i palleteful palletesfor may 21 i absolutely hate it née pad for my 10 ur old granddaughter lol it started coming apart first light wash, never again it's not even good for experimentation, it's just horrible! i do like the strathmore 400 series but it's mostly 100% cotton from now on for this girl( girl hahahaha) 55 ur old no longer a girl! thanks for the response and the advice i've taken it to heart!!!!!!!
i am using fabriano, saunders waterford , arches, and believe it or not stonehenge which i really love for some reason i got it at jerry's artarama at their anniversary sale i got 8 blocks and some arches pads, plus 8 imperial size sheet of both fluid , and stonehenge like both of these as well
@@SketchesnScrubs If you buy Arches watercolour paper by the sheet (Imperial size 56cm x 76cm) you can paint on BOTH SIDES which is very economical, especially when you are learning/experiementing with watercolours. Unfortunately I cannot guarantee that you can paint on both sides of any other brand of watercolour paper eg; Fabriano, Saunders Waterford (sometimes you can with Saunders Waterford but more often than not you can’t, Fabriano absolutely out of the question), Stonehenge & the rest - it all has something to do with the sizing of the paper & other stuff, so even though Arches maybe more expensive than the rest, you can guarantee that you can paint on both sides of the paper, so in fact you are getting 2 sheets for the price of one, when it comes to experimenting (BTW, I know of a very prominent Australian watercolour artist who paints on both sides of his paper and sells those paintings - framed)… I absolutely adore Winsor & Newton Professional watercolour paper and I am able to paint on both sides of this as well (I’m talking of the sheets, not the blocks or pads) but it is noticably different than painting on the ‘right’ side… Arches watercolour pads are made on a different machine than their watercolour sheets - same for Saunders & Waterford - & therefore the paper is just different, in my opinion it is horrible to paint on & it doesn’t behave the way watercolour paper behaves - & I also think the sizing is somehow different on the pad than the sheets. The machine used to make the pads is not a drum (cylinder mould) machine, the fibres of the papers used to make the pads are laid in a different way due to the machinery & this causes the paper to arc significantly when wet, which can be an absolute pain when painting wet on wet - which is what watercolour is ALL about - but that’s just one of the differences between the pads & the single imperial sheets of watercolour paper, plus cm for cm, the pads are soooooooo much more expensive than the single sheets & are vastly inferior in quality. I’m not sure if the watercolour blocks are made on the new machines the pads are made on or if they are made with the traditional cyclinder mould that the sheets are made on…good luck with your experiment & don’t tear too much hair out if u find you are getting frustrated with your papers…
Spending 3 hours in an art store is a vibe 😂 you got such great bargains! Thank you for sharing 👀
Porcelain palettes are great because they are heavy, so they don’t move when you mix your paint. You will love ❤️ it.
Yes dear comparison between the Archie's and cassart expensive paper will be nice
I’m so jealous! I’ve never been to a physical art store and it’s so great that you took us with you
Great haul and video, you chose such great supplies 😍 Looking forward to seeing what you create with them!
Ooh, am I jealous or am I jealous! Good haul…
You made REALLY good choices:-)
Re using good supplies… I suspect many of us struggle with that. Hells bells, I haven’t even managed to open my A. Gallo paints yet. I sit and look at them. 🤪.
I’m off to see if you did a comparison between the Windsor and Newton and Arches watercolour cotton papers.
@@SketchesnScrubs you're welcome. I'll be waiting to see what you've created!
Love your choices :) hope to see more videos :)
I think you made the right color choices with the Daniel Smith tubes
Handy colors would be to stick to the color wheel ie perhaps lemon yellow, cad yellow hue, cobolt blue, french ultrmarine, pyrol red, rose magenta, paynes grey for mixing darks dont use it straight it will look like flat. Could also add an orange a purple and a nice green if you like although you could just mix them with the other colors....I also favour red iron oxide and some turquoise blue because I paint sea scapes and animals....So tweek your pallet to suit your needs...Paper wise chose 300gsm acid free and try samples as you will learn what suits your style... ie I love saunders waterford cp...Lovely haul I enjoyed shopping with you as we are in lockdown here in oz...Enjoy them :) You chose good colors.
Good for you! Enjoy your art supplies!
wow! There are so many art materials!
It feels so good to buy art materials!
That's great. Keep our meeting! 👍 379
Watch the video to the end.
Have a happy day today!
Oh my goodness, thank heavens one of those stores is nowhere near me. That looks like way too much temptation! I think you got a great deal and it's so fun to have gift credits to spend!
I love the sennelier set. So pretty. Hope you enjoy it. I only use porcelain pallets now unless I’m out of the house. Makes a big difference to me.
@@SketchesnScrubs save money. White tiles from a hardware store and white serving dishes from kitchen sections are the way forward for large pallets. 🤓
I haven't been into an art shop since before the pandemic - that place looked amazing! I'm not surprised you spent three hours in there. What a brilliant haul! The Sennelier set is lovely. I'm really enjoying your videos! I think I'm going to binge watch while I work and also pack for my trip back to Suffolk this week. x
Good quality art supplies will help you get the results from hours and hours of practice. And in terms of the paint, the professional paints are loaded with more pigments, so you use less paint. And the colors are vibrant! Have fun!
Cass arts is awesome and the customer service is excellent, that's who I bought my first professional paint set from, shipped all the way to Sweden at a reasonable price, the supplies are fairly priced some surprisingly cheap.
Yes I am just like you when it comes to using my expensive supplies. I started out 3 years ago with cheap Canson XL Mixed Media Paper 90 lb. then moved up to Canson XL Watercolor 140 lb./300 gsm2 paper. Same thing with my watercolor paint, Arteza 24 set Watercolor Tubes then just recently after using up my Arteza to the Winsor & Newton Cotman 40 watercolor set.
I can just imagine your joy
Beautiful friend😃✌️nice👍..
Yes to a comparison of W&N and Arches paper! And your own responses to both, how you feel about them. Subjective views are good too! I think you will enjoy the Sennelier as you seem to like botanical and florals.
Watched this video a year after it was posted and am so jealous of getting to visit an art store like that!! Amazing!! I have been eyeing that sennelier set forever and think that might be one of my upcoming splurges. Although I have tons of paint at the moment so am trying not to buy more for a little while. I have lots of professional paint and pads of Arches, and have to remind myself it’s ok to use my expensive supplies. That’s what they’re for! I tend to use my cheaper paper and store brand paint more freely because I don’t feel like I’m wasting them on practice and learning.
Congratulations on you awesome art supply haul! You did an outstanding job of buy quality supplies at great prices. I love the Sennelier watercolor set, it’s beautiful and finding the mop brush! What an awesome gift! I want one, too. ☺️ I’m so glad I found your first vlog post and I can’t wait for your next one. You’ll be over the moon 🌝 after you use the professional artist grade products 🥰. Take care, stay safe and well. I just looked up the Sennelier watercolor set you purchased on Amazon and it’s $208.90 usd, that should be 176.06 Euro!
Really enjoyed this video! Thank you. Thanks too for explaining hot press and cold press. 💕
I love the Winsor Newton watercolor paper (hot press) - it takes loads of abuse. So lucky to have such a great art store. I'm from St. Louis Missouri and we only have a couple of small art stores
The Hahnemühle watercolor sketchbook are in portrait size as well . They are coldpressed and cheap
I don't have a real" art store" in my town,but I love going trough the craft store and gind new things☺ I would spend 6hours in the art store just to buy 4 things because the most things are expensive😂
Congratulations on that haul! I've only been to that store once - I'd actually forgotten about it. I'm so glad you reminded me.
Those tiny smith tubes will last you forever! I've got a few of them and they're still going strong a year later.
I've recently gotten out of doing watercolor - I had a bad case of covid and watercolor was just too hard on my body and mind. I switched to colored pencils and am so glad I did! I was hoping to see some pencils in your purchases, as they do work well over watercolor, but no luck for me today. That box set is great and when I saw it had a mop brush, I cheered for you :)
Happy painting!
@@SketchesnScrubs Sorry if this gets long, there are lots of questions :D
paints: I do both. I put half the tube (or 25%) in a half pan, and leave the rest in the tube. (I put cling wrap between the cap and the tube, cause if there's paint there it will act like super glue, and the wrap helps you open the tube more than once.) It's okay if the pan dries out, it reactivates with water just fine. Use tiny tiny amounts, consider the paint concentrated.
pencils: your timing is perfect. I did a review of my pencils that just went live today. It might help you. But I'll recap just for the subject of using them with WC.
Brutfuner (120 rounds or squares, they're the same): a super budget brand, you get 120 pencils for 20 quid. Don't be fooled by the price, these pencils are amazing and has the coloring community in a tizzy. But they're straight up color pencils and not the best choice for a WCerist.
Faber Castell WC pencils: A really good choice, solid company, good product. Get the smallest set (I think it's 12? 6?) it's a good starting point just to see how they work and if you like them. Several ways to use them, but that's another subject (and extensive!)
Derwent Inktense: My personal recommendation (other opinions may vary). You can use them like a pencil or add water and hellllooo vibrancy. They are ink based, so once dry, they don't move again when the page is rewet. They can be used as an undercoat, with the WC paints on top, and/or use them for small details or shading on top of the WC.
Hope this helped :)
I love 💕 cassart shops 😊
Your Sennelier box will become a family heirloom 😉
Really nice haul. I really like the box at the end. 😀
@@SketchesnScrubs I guess there's an artist in here somewhere. I used to sew quilts, hence the email address but I haven't been doing much of it now because of pain. I have been playing with watercolors and Die cutting.
good you spent all that money on your hobby. not everyday, but you disservice it. Haver fun.
I hope you have been enjoying all of your art goodies!! What a beautiful paint set, and your mop brush!! All your paper... so exciting!
Hi, I know I’m watching this video yonks after you’ve made it, but I only just found your channel. Have you tried the Bockingford watercolour paper? I find the CA paper intolerable, even for practice, but the Bockingford is a really nice one that you can get at a reasonable price. I am just trying it on a block for the first time and it’s a game changer - I think I like it more than Arches! As for mop brushes, the Jackson’s Raven ones are very affordable and I love them. And hey, it’s really nice to see someone who is openly cautious about the pennies shopping! Must say.. wel jel of the sennelier box though!
I already watched this and commented under my private/personal account awhile ago, but wanted to say how hard I felt it when you did the slo-mo “400 pounds” lol! We definitely share the supplies obsession! 🤩
Hi! I’m new to your channel & subscribed because I really love the personal vibe. Uptight watercolour videos are too stressful. I’ve always wanted to go to Cass Art but it’s just impossible for me so I’ll have to live vicariously through you, if you don’t mind 😅
I started off with their watercolour paper but as I use a lot of water they just weren’t so good for me, sadly. I just bought myself some Hahnemühle collection 300gsm paper for when I’m better skilled. I hear good things about Hahnemühle’s expression paper too as a cheaper cotton alternative to practise on so I’m looking at getting some of that as we speak 😂
The categories that you bought in would probably be the same for me. Except I might add in colored pencils or gouache as categories too. (If you haven’t already) could you do a swatch of that Daniel Smith paints because no matter how close they are from tube to paint they are always different !
Great haul!! I can’t wait to see comparisons. I bought a ceramic palette earlier this year an I love it. I still use the cheaper plastic one for acrylic but hands down my ceramic palette is way better. I bought the arches paper around the same time but I have not used it. I’m waiting for a fully dropped idea that I have practiced drawing and painting a few times. That paper is not cheap so I don’t want to waste it. I thought it was super funny that I have the two same palettes in my Amazon cart. I wanted venture out an try Daniel Smith tube paints as already have the Winsor & Newton Watercolors in tubes. I’m curious to see I like them compared to Winsor & Newton paints. Happy painting!!! TFS Cheers!
@@SketchesnScrubs I had no idea paper has an expiration date. 😳😱 I guess I need to start to using it. Thank you for the info!
Great video! Would love to see a comparison of video!
Omgggggggggggg I have to go there …
I need to supply hand good art
you made excellency choices wait till u see the difference you'll be ahocked
Really enjoyed this! Looking forward to hearing the feedback on the purchases
@@SketchesnScrubs the 100% cotton paper vs your usual cold press!
YOU ARE SO SWEET LOVE WATCHING YOUR BLOG IM JUST LEARNING SOME ON WATER COLOR AND THANK YOU FOR IMFO GOD BLESS YOU ITS SO MUCH FUNM USA
Omg I just found you, I NEED to visit this Cassart!! Have you been to the huge Jackson’s before? It’s in Fulham
@@SketchesnScrubs haha yes! There one in north London too, though I’m not sure how big that is! I definitely need to make the trip to Fulham though 👀 rip my bank balance!
Aw thank you so much! I’m loving your videos too! ❤️
thanks for this :3
It is also for me hard to spend on expensive art supplies
awesome new friend here suscribed and liked didi
And we are not “guys” btw, thanks!
You CANNOT, CANNOT achieve what watercolours are made for and can do unless you use 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper - anything other than 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper will, at best, allow you to achieve only a fraction of ALL the possibiities of what watercolour can do on 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper. Your choices of the W&N watercolour block & Arches block were extremely good choices.... I don’t know how experienced you are with using watercolours but I can tell you to paint on 100% cotton, sized watercolour paper is a game changer and using anything less is absolutely torture to use AND it’s next to impossible to achieve what you want on any other paper.... I, like many people starting out with watercolours, bought cheaper paper to practice on till I got good enough to warrant spending money on REAL watercolour paper and was soooo frustrated that I couldn’t get the beautiful wet in wet affects that others seem to achieve effortlessly - out of desperation I bought I sheet of Arches 300gsm cold pressed watercolour paper and immediately, with next to no effort at all I was able to achieve the effects I wanted sooooo easily. EVERY watercolour artist will tell you that THE MOST IMPORTANT thing when wanting to paint with watercolours is the PAPER, it HAS TO BE 100% COTTON, SIZED paper.... there is no getting away from this, a very good watercolour artist can make a half decent painting using other paper but they will struggle with it for sure... BTW you CAN get sheets of watercolour paper sooooo cheap (it’s always cheaper to buy watercolour paper in sheets than by buying it in a pad (worse option) or a watercolour block. Jacksons Art Supplies or Ken Bromleys sell watercolour paper in packages of 5 or 10 sheets cut into ¼ or ½ sheets & deliver them cheaply. I live in Australia and I couldn’t afford to paint with watercolours if I had to buy my paper & supplies from Australia - buying from the UK & having it courier delivered is cheaper than buying it here in person.... so you, in the UK are soooo unbelievably lucky to have these 2 art suppliers on your doorstep...
used cannon xl that came i palleteful palletesfor may 21 i absolutely hate it née pad for my 10 ur old granddaughter lol it started coming apart first light wash, never again it's not even good for experimentation, it's just horrible! i do like the strathmore 400 series but it's mostly 100% cotton from now on for this girl( girl hahahaha) 55 ur old no longer a girl! thanks for the response and the advice i've taken it to heart!!!!!!!
i am using fabriano, saunders waterford , arches, and believe it or not stonehenge which i really love for some reason i got it at jerry's artarama at their anniversary sale i got 8 blocks and some arches pads, plus 8 imperial size sheet of both fluid , and stonehenge like both of these as well
@@SketchesnScrubs If you buy Arches watercolour paper by the sheet (Imperial size 56cm x 76cm) you can paint on BOTH SIDES which is very economical, especially when you are learning/experiementing with watercolours. Unfortunately I cannot guarantee that you can paint on both sides of any other brand of watercolour paper eg; Fabriano, Saunders Waterford (sometimes you can with Saunders Waterford but more often than not you can’t, Fabriano absolutely out of the question), Stonehenge & the rest - it all has something to do with the sizing of the paper & other stuff, so even though Arches maybe more expensive than the rest, you can guarantee that you can paint on both sides of the paper, so in fact you are getting 2 sheets for the price of one, when it comes to experimenting (BTW, I know of a very prominent Australian watercolour artist who paints on both sides of his paper and sells those paintings - framed)… I absolutely adore Winsor & Newton Professional watercolour paper and I am able to paint on both sides of this as well (I’m talking of the sheets, not the blocks or pads) but it is noticably different than painting on the ‘right’ side… Arches watercolour pads are made on a different machine than their watercolour sheets - same for Saunders & Waterford - & therefore the paper is just different, in my opinion it is horrible to paint on & it doesn’t behave the way watercolour paper behaves - & I also think the sizing is somehow different on the pad than the sheets. The machine used to make the pads is not a drum (cylinder mould) machine, the fibres of the papers used to make the pads are laid in a different way due to the machinery & this causes the paper to arc significantly when wet, which can be an absolute pain when painting wet on wet - which is what watercolour is ALL about - but that’s just one of the differences between the pads & the single imperial sheets of watercolour paper, plus cm for cm, the pads are soooooooo much more expensive than the single sheets & are vastly inferior in quality. I’m not sure if the watercolour blocks are made on the new machines the pads are made on or if they are made with the traditional cyclinder mould that the sheets are made on…good luck with your experiment & don’t tear too much hair out if u find you are getting frustrated with your papers…