Carolyn A Pappas

I’ve been doing a lot of little watercolors lately, mainly because I am trying to use up this certain sketchbook that I bought as an experiment. I have a long way to go, but I am really unhappy with the paper in it, so I just want to burn through the pages. It is made by Art Alternatives and it is made to look like a moleskine knockoff (it has the similar black cover and elastic band with the little pocket in the back). It is labeled as being for pen and ink and watercolor, but the paper only holds up to very light washes. Besides extreme buckling, the surface of the paper also starts to break apart when you use a lot of water. In my older watercolor sketchbooks, I used to tape off sections of the page because I like crisp edges, but this paper tears when the tape is removed. I’m thinking of trying out just pen or marker on it to see if the paper holds up better. I have a Moleskine watercolor book to start when this one is finished, so we will see how it compares.

Edited to add: If you read the below comments, you can see that the book I have is apparently not intended for watercolor (only very light washes) and the wording on their packaging has since changed. Once I finish up the books I already have I might try out their regular watercolor book, because Moleskines are really too expensive for me to justify buying regularly.