Review: Baohong Academy Watercolour Sketchbook (100% cotton)

Ever since I've reviewed Baohong's artist grade and student grade watercolour paper, I was impressed at the quality and also the pricing. When companies like Arches and Fabriano are increasing prices of their paper, and also due to inflation, it's great that there is now another option for watercolour paper, this time from a company from China.

In addition to the paper pads, Baohong also sells watercolour sketchbooks.

The Baohong Academy Watercolour Sketchbook is available with either 100% cotton hotpress and coldpress watercolour paper, and in three sizes:

• 9 x 14 cm
• 12 x 16 cm
• 16 x 24 cm

I had bought my sketchbook in Singapore at Straits Art and the 16 x 24-inch is SGD 32 (USD 24.50) which is a really reasonable price.

The cover is quite thick and is soft padded with this leather-like texture that's nice to touch. The clips I've used on the cover did not leave any retention marks which is quite surprising to me. Not sure what kind of foam they are using inside but it's good.

There's an elastic band to hold the covers together, but this sketchbook does not have a pocket behind.

My sketchbook is still new (months old) so I can't comment on whether it will be susceptible to mold attack in humid environment.

This sketchbook has 24-sheets of paper, or 48 pages. Mine's the coldpress version. Paper weight is 300 gsm and can handle wet washes quite well with minimal buckling as long as you have the paper clipped down.

The binding seems durable. I've not been mistreating my sketchbooks other than just throwing it in my bag and taking it out. There are others who have commented that the binding isn't good when I posted my first impression video (below).

Corners of the cover and pages are rounded off.

Colours look vibrant on the paper.

Granulation texture looks beautiful with no noticeable machine pattern.

I don't think it has the same feel as the top quality paper such as Arches and Fabriano Artistico, but i do enjoy painting on this paper very much.

The paper is able to handle pen and ink very well.

The binding is quite tight but not the tightest. Anyway, I've used lots of water and there's minimal water seeping through the stitching onto other pages.

One downside of the sketchbook is, the paper is not laid consistently to make sure texture on both pages match. Watercolour paper usually has a textured side and smoother side. So for this sketchbook, two pages can be both texture, or one page can be smooth and the other is textured (as shown in photo above). I'm not too picky so this is not an issue for me but it may be so for those particular about this kind of detail.

I've used wet on wet technique with this sketch and I've used a lot of water and the paper handles that without issues. The paper can also handle multiple layers.

The paper does absorb a good amount of water but can dry faster than Arches and Fabriano Artistico. Sometimes I had to spray the paper with water to keep it wet, or maybe the paper dried faster due to the hot weather.

Here's my full video review.

Conclusion

This is a watercolour sketchbook I can recommend easily. Quality is good and it's not that expensive for a 100% cotton watercolour sketchbook. It provides good value for money. The next sketchbook I'll buy from Baohong would be the hotpress version just to test that out.

Availability

In Singapore, you can get the sketchbook at Straits Art, ArtFriend or online at Shopee SG.

Prices I've found are
9 x 14 inch - SGD 13.67
12 x 16 inch - SGD 17.46
16 x 24 inch - SGD 27.33

You can also try Lazada SG.

It's difficult to find the sketchbook on Amazon but you can try:
Amazon ( | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP)

Try Dick Blick Art Materials (US) and Jackson's Art (UK) too.