Strathmore 300 Series Mixed Media Paper Pad, Side Wire Bound, 5.5×8.5 inches, 40 Sheets (117lb/190g) – Artist Paper for Adults and Students – Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite, Ink, Pencil, Marker

My sketchbook arrived in perfect condition and exactly on time. this is a huge relief because I’ve heard ordering sketchbooks from Amazon (or off the internet in general) sometimes results in them getting damaged during shipping.Despite knowing exactly how big it was going to be, it still surprised me in person just how big it really was. I didn’t even order the biggest size! Now I’m tempted to try it out sometime…If you like to work on a larger scale but not a huge scale, definitely get the 9×12 because it’s nice and roomy but not Too big either. It would still fit into a standard backpack.My biggest issue with this brand of sketchbook is always that the covers are flimsy and busy-looking, (in my frank opinion they’re downright ugly) but that’s really my only complaint. I tend to paint over the covers and then decorate them, that doesn’t fix the flimsiness problem though. If you are going to be storing this in a backpack and taking it with you, expect the cover to deteriorate over time unless you do something to protect it. My wife had one that she used for over a year and the cover really took a beating.Let’s get into why we’re here though… The paper!I already owned a sketchbook in this series, just a lot smaller, so I already knew what to expect when it comes to the type of paper. It’s beautifully stark white and incredibly smooth. Takes just about everything I throw at it. Alcohol markers will only bleed after very heavy application, they do ghost but you should always expect that with alcohol markers honestly. Watercolor doesn’t ghost from my experience so far, and so of course it doesn’t bleed either, the pages do warp but if you close the sketchbook after it’s dry and set something heavy on top of it the warping becomes very minimal. I have never tried double siding watercolor in this sketchbook but that’s just because I don’t really double side ever. I think you can get away with it if that’s what you like to do though.But this is a sketchbook, so you’re probably not going to be making finished pieces in it anyway. If you were planning on making finished watercolor pieces in it though I would maybe suggest something else because of the warping. Works perfectly fine for my doodling though.All-in-all I recommend this sketchbook because I love the paper and for the price I think it’s a great deal. Your mileage may vary because everyone has different tastes. Try it out though, because if you don’t like it you can always rip out the (perforated!) pages you’ve used and give it to someone else!I think this would make a great gift for a beginner artist who doesn’t know exactly what mediums they want to use yet, nice and flexible.