Handbook Journal Co. Artist Watercolor Journal, 140lb/300gsm Heavyweight Cold Press Paper, Square 8.25″x8.25″, Natural European Linen Cover

I ordered the 200gsm large portrait.Perfect size for color swatching your materials. Managed to swatch all my colored pencils, pens, acrylic paint pens, wax pastels, water-based markers, alcohol based markers and still have half the book left.Grain is a little rough for colored pencils, but then 200 gsm isn’t made for them, anyways. Wax pastels went on beautifully, but obv transferred.Sharpies were visible on the opposite side, but didn’t bleed through.Alcohol markers (last pictured) obviously showed through with only a little bleeding, but was easy to work around for my purposes.I think it works best with my water-based markers, which only slightly show through.Acrylic paint pens worked well, but had to be very wet or it tore up the paper.Size was really the selling point for me: small enough to fit on any stack space and be grab and go. Large enough that I can see a decent amount of colors at one time. Was previously using a much larger book that I found myself avoiding using, which lead to just winging colors, which defeated the purpose of having swatches.If I had to do it again, I’d probably order the 300gsm just to be maximally compatible with alcohol markers, but otherwise, very pleased :).