StrathmoreWatercolor Paper Pack 8x10-10 Sheets - Pack of 3

I assume the correct side of the paper is the less textured side judging on what side of the package the logo sheet etc was packaged. Usually you go by watermarks but since these don't have them I assume they're just facing up when you open the package. I think you could paint on either side just fine, but I used the lightly textured instead of the heavily machine textured side. It is 100 percent cotton and acts like it. I had just done several paintings on smaller Arches scraps I had laying around before doing this one. I didn't feel like the difference was too massive and this kind was pretty cheap at the time at just over a dollar a sheet (pretty good for 100 percent cotton). For the results you get and how nice it is to paint on I'd say it's worth it. It's better to get slightly better paper and have good results than go for cellulose. I paint on cellulose sometimes but the difference between cellulose and cotton is pretty clear. Sometimes it looked like it might pill but it ended up drying without any pilling and I did LOADS of layers on it. So, keep going and every painting has an ugly stage just push through. Overall I'm pretty happy with this line of paper.

My purpose for these is for printing my business cards, with awesome results. Nice thick card quality with textured side. Use my paper cutter to downsize to 5x8 sheets that feed easily into my Epson inkjet printer. Print with crop marks and then cut down to business card size of 2x3.5. One full sheet gives me eight business cards. Holds ink very well and the texture makes it feel as though it's a high-end, professionally printed card.

The media could not be loaded.  I’m an artist who works on many papers. This is currently my favorite paper to work on. I work in multiple mediums and I need a paper that is versatile. This one has a smooth surface perfect for combining dry mediums with watercolor. Even the cold press is quite smooth. I prefer the brighter white of this paper over a lot of other brands and I find it has the ability to take a beating. I’m quite hard on my papers. I rarely have trouble with pilling on this paper and it usually has limited buckling. I do wish it was carried in sizes over 11x14 but maybe one day it will be. I’m adding images of some of the mini landscapes I do on this paper in watercolor as well as a mixed media portrait so that you can see it’s versatility. So far I’ve used watercolor (extensively), charcoal, graphite, gouache, acrylic, ink, liquid ink and colored pencil on this paper with much success. I hope this review is helpful!

I have been painting in watercolor for decades. Always looking for a 100% cotton paper for less precious paintings... sketches, warmups, quick ideas... something that behaves close to as well as Arches but costs less. Bee Paper used to be my go-to, but their prices were stratospheric for a couple of years if you could even find it, so I bought this a while ago to see if it was comparable.It's not.The 140lb cold press from Bee has its faults, but nothing like this Strathmore 500 paper. If it's 100% cotton, I can't fathom why it behaves like *bad* wood pulp paper.I cut an 8"x10" sheet in half so I could make small test paintings to learn about it. First I tried a wet-on-dry painting, simple floral—the paint was drying so fast, even on this small painting, that hard edges were forming everywhere and the paint wasn't even getting a chance to flow from one brushstroke to the next. Strathmore 400, which I use for swatches, frankly performs BETTER than this 500 did.Figuring maybe it could be used for loose wet-in-wet instead, I took the other half-sheet and wet the entire surface thoroughly before painting the same subject. NOT ONLY did it continue to dry so fast that I couldn't avoid blooms, hard edges, and strange forms all over the paper, but the paint STILL wasn't flowing, for the most part—and where a particular color did flow, it sometimes WASHED ENTIRELY DOWN THE PAGE, leaving white paper again where I had just laid down a petal or a leaf!If you've ever used cheap wood pulp paper for your watercolors, you've probably enjoyed it more. I'm stuck with it, as I'm outside the return window. Don't make my mistake.

I like that the paint doesn't soak in right away, you have some time to move the paint around. Very happy with purchase.

Functions very well. 1 package of the 3 received had a sheet that had a latge black smudge

I love this paper! I have seen a few people leave comments about not getting the full 3packs. When I ordered, I got them all. *shrugs shoulders* This paper is a prefect mix between hotpress and cold press. The only reason I say somewhat like hotpress is bc of the details you can add on it but everything else cold press. I would say comfortably, it can take about 3 to 5 thin washes before you may run into issues. Granulating colors still show up amazing, if not better on this paper. Great for art journals, plain air, etc. Even if you don't order from here, I definitely recommend the 500 series watercolor paper.

The watercolor paint soaked in pretty fast and I wasn't able to spread it around much. But it was already cut to the 8x10 I like I was after. Seemed substainial paper and took the paint well.

Excellent water color paper. I would put it up with top quality Cold Press.