Review: Dorerart Watercolour Sketchbook (50% cotton)

The watercolour sketchbook to avoid

This is the Dorerart or Dorer Art watercolour sketchbook I bought at ArtFriend, local art shop here in Singapore. The price is SGD 27.

Dorerart is a new brand to me and I wasn't able to find any company info online.

The sketchbook comes in two sizes: 12 x 16cm and 16 x 24cm (slightly larger than A5). Paper surfaces available are coldpress and hotpress. I had bought the hotpress version.

There are 24 sheets of paper in this sketchbook and the paper is made with 300gsm 50% cotton watercolour paper.

The cover looks like it's made with PU leather and it has some texture on it.

Even though it's a hardcover, the cover isn't that hard.

There's a pocket at the back.

I don't really have much confidence with the sketchbook's durability as after just one day of use, there's already a tear on the page that's glued to the back cover. The front and back pages glued to the covers are thinner and not the thicker watercolour paper.

After more months of usage, there was another tear on the inner cover. The inner spine has separated from the cover's spine.

In the photo above you can see two signatures with a big gap between.

This sketchbook is not made to last. You can avoid this sketchbook just for this reason regardless of paper quality.

The paper is bright white and watercolour looks really vibrant on it.

Pen and ink works great on the paper.

The paper doesn't feel like it's properly sized to handle watercolour media. I can use some wet on wet techniques on it but don't expect much movement with the paint, or blending.

Paint just don't feel like moving on the paper. While having 50% cotton is nice but ultimately how the paper performs comes down to a combination of cotton content and how the paper is treated or sized. For example, the 60% cotton Fabriano Rosaspina paper works really well with watercolour.

The paper quality is just not good enough for watercolour. Even if you use inks and markers, I would still not recommend this sketchbook due to durability issues mentioned above.

You'll be better off going with a Hahnemuhle watercolour sketchbook or the Baohong Academy watercolour sketchbook.

The Dorerart watercolour sketchbook is really for people who have no expectation of quality.

Availabilty

If you still want to buy one, you can find the sketchbook from ArtFriend and Shopee SG.