Bee Paper 6" x 9" Watercolor Paper Pack, 140lb, 50 Sheets

A friend recommended this Bee watercolor paper that she is impressed with. I generally use Fabriano and Arches - both excellent quality - but I like experimenting with other lesser known to me brands. What I like about the Bee paper: at 140-lbs it handles watercolor and acrylic nicely with no buckling even with a lot of water; the size 6x9 is so handy to keep in my art tote to take to a class or a friend's house to artplay. The price seems reasonable to me although I haven't done the math to confirm it. Yes, I could cut any paper down to 6x9 but this is a very convenient package of 50 sheets at about $18. Well worth it to me.

This is incredible quality watercolor paper for its price point, and is now my go-to for swatching and drafts. Its a good weight and doesn't buckle as much as many other similar papers. It would work great for painting holiday cards or for an art journal. Ngl, it doesn't quite compare to the top cotton rag papers. The sizing works well for a few washes, even a light, quickly removed coat of resist, but expect some tearing/staining with colored resist that stays on too long. And the size doesn't hold up to even a gentle scrub unfortunately. Even still, watercolors move beautifully over this paper, so I will be using this as my primary test paper going forward. Great product.

Up until now I've only ever used wood pulp watercolor paper, so this is my first time using a cotton paper. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money just yet when I'm still pretty inexperienced with watercolor, but I think the price is well worth it for how many sheets you get!Cotton definitely makes a world of difference when it comes to watercolor, even with cheaper, student- and artist-grade paints. For reference, I used Arteza watercolors for my testing. I believe they are considered artist-grade. The paints flow really well for wet-on-wet compared to wood pulp. They layer nicely without lifting up the paint below it. They also blend pretty well on the paper itself! Streakiness from the brush is virtually gone with cotton paper.I also tested a few different metallic paints (also Arteza) to see how they flowed on this kind of paper, and they also performed well! Normally, with wood pulp paper, I'd have a pretty decent amount of streakiness and it'd dry unevenly, leaving a thicker amount in some places compared to others because of pooling. I also wanted to see if they stuck to this kind of paper any better than wood pulp paper by rewetting and lifting them and it doesn't seem like they do, but that's just the nature of the metallic watercolor paints and not a fault of the paper. Oh well!Unfortunately, I had to give this 4 stars instead of 5 because my pack of paper seemed like it had something heavy sitting on it, and it dented about 8 sheets of the paper. They can be my practice sheets, I guess.

This is my favorite watercolor paper. For people who are having problems: please note there is a FRONT and a BACK side to this paper. The back is not well "sized" meaning it will not absorb watercolors properly and the colors will look more dull and dingy on top of spreading out oddly. I hate how hard this paper is to tell which side is the correct side, but the pack I received worked very well on ONE side.This 140# version of bee paper can handle a generous wet wash of paint without pilling or overly buckling. Tape the edges and I get no buckling. Its so cheap I feel like I can practice without being scared of wasting paper. My colors look more vibrant and I can achieve better effects with the paints than I can on less quality papers. I almost said cheaper papers, but this paper is actually quite cheap and somehow still high quality. Most paper at this price point is not 100% cotton rag. I recommend it for professional and beginner alike. I especially find granulating paints in a wet wash really go wild on this paper, which is ideal for special effects. I do not use the "lifting" method for shading, and I would not recommend this paper for that. Legion's Stonehenge Aqua or Arches papers have a much more durable surface that can handle scrubbing. The bee paper is better for basic techniques and true colors with very little surprises. Sometimes other brands do weird things, like my Strathmore 500 makes colors speckle or granulate differently than my Bee paper.I've used this paper for acrylic painting with much success. I was able to use it for heavy pours of paint as well by using masking tape and adhering the paper to any firm board/panel/tray. I poured my acrylic onto it and waited for it to dry before removing the tape. Once dry it was only very slightly wavy/bent, which was easily fixed by sitting the painting under a stack of books overnight. Great versatility here for such an inexpensive paper.

I love this paper. As a beginner/intermediate watercolor painter, this is my favorite paper for practice. It's a heavy, 100% cotton paper, so it behaves much better than a wood pulp paper when using wet techniques. For a cold process paper, the texture isn't too rough, which is good for control, but it still has enough to grab the pigment. The 6x9 size is perfect for beginners, as I find making smaller pieces to be lower pressure. And I don't feel like I'm wasting a bunch of money if I don't like what I painted. I love how affordable it is and that it comes in giant packages of 50 sheets. I highly recommend this paper for watercolor work.

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