Baohong Academy 100% Cotton Hot Press Sketchbook Review

Another quality watercolor sketchbook.

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Just when I was starting to think the market had maxed out on 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks, I come across this little gem: the Baohong Academy Watercolor Sketchbook.

I’ve heard about Baohong paper maybe once before. It’s not something I see talked about much, at least in the artist circles I follow. However, a while ago, I stumbled on a YouTube video by Kris DeBruine talking about Baohong paper being one of the best, “student grade” 100% cotton watercolor papers you can find. Mind, she was talking about the paper itself, not sketchbooks.

First, my mind was blown. A student grade 100% cotton watercolor paper? Well, thanks to Baohong, yes, such a thing exists. Are you paying attention, Canson, Arches, and others? Truly, I’m used to student grade being terrible cellulose blends, so this was really amazing to me.

I was intrigued by her review of the paper so decided to try my luck to see if they actually made any sketchbooks. Lo and behold, they do! They are available in both hot and cold press. As of my writing this post, the cold press version comes in two different sizes, as well, while the hot press only comes in something close to an A6 (4.7″ X 6.2″). The product page for this on Amazon actually showcases both hot and cold press in at least three different sizes, but the Amazon store didn’t have them all. Perhaps they’ll stock more in the future.

Price-wise, I was a little disappointed to find that the sketchbooks weren’t really less expensive than some of the other popular brands out there, like the white canvas-covered Etchr Sketchbooks. I still wanted to try it out regardless. After all, I seem to have created a niche for myself in reviewing sketchbooks, especially watercolor sketchbooks. One more sketchbook to add to my review list!

This is a hardcover sketchbook which appears to be covered with faux leather that has a sort of “puffiness” to it, for lack of a better description. The back of the sketchbook has their logo embossed on it.

When you receive this sketchbook, you’ll note that they package it in a way to make it appear that the logo is on the front, with the elastic closure getting wrapped around the back of the sketchbook, instead of how you usually see most western brand sketchbooks wrapping the elastic closure around the front. I couldn’t get used to that reverse use of the elastic closure, so I flipped the book so the logo was on the back and used it that way.

Because of how they package this, they also put their UPC sticker on what I consider the “front” of the book. And, unfortunately, the UPC sticker does not peel off easily. Mine ended up leaving residue behind. I’m sure I could have probably removed it with maybe a razor, but I made my life a little easier by just putting a decorative sticker over the top of the residue, instead. Problem solved.

The elastic closure is pretty nice. One side of it is a smooth ribbon texture, while the other is very soft to the touch. It also feels really sturdy. It did a fine job of keeping the sketchbook closed while I traveled with it.

The end pages of this sketchbook are not watercolor, like you see with most watercolor sketchbooks. They’re a thick card stock. You can still draw on it – I even did an illustration with water soluble Neocolor II pastels and a light wash of watercolor around it, and the paper held up fine.

This sketchbook does not contain a pocket at the back like you see with some other brands. I usually tuck the labeling into those pockets when they’re available. Since this one didn’t have a pocket, I taped the label inside the back cover instead. I’m glad I do this, because who knows when I’m going to want to refer back to one of these several sketchbooks again later and wish to remember the details of the manufacturer.

I reserved the back end pages for scribble tests and the like.

This book is case-bound like most decent hardcover sketchbooks. It does not have a ribbon bookmark. I think I’ve mentioned in the past that a missing bookmark really isn’t a big deal to me. It’s not too hard for me to find my place as I work through a sketchbook…usually it’s just a matter of flipping to the last page that’s warping slightly.

This case-binding did end up creating that similar issue I see with most sketchbooks, where the first and last spreads in the sketchbook will not lay flat. I just considered those pages sacrificial and jumped straight to the pages that did lay flat in the rest of the book. This may be a point of frustration for some of you, so I thought it worth mentioning.

Now let’s talk about this student grade 100% cotton watercolor paper. I loooooooved it.

It’s a nice, thick 140-lb (300gsm) paper. What other sketchbooks have that weight of paper? My really nice, expensive sketchbooks, such as the Etchr Perfect Sketchbook and my Koval sketchbooks. And performance-wise, I’d say this student grade paper held up and performed just as well as those professional grade papers.

This makes this book a bit more of a value when you consider the cost of those other brands’ sketchbooks. For instance, the Baohong A5-size sketchbook runs about $30 on Amazon (while I’m writing this), while the A5 Etchr Perfect sketchbook would set you back $40. A similar-size Koval sketchbook runs about $50. But then I consider Koval sketchbooks to be in a league of their own. (Please remember prices and availability may change.)

Keep that quality in mind if you’re considering purchasing one of these sketchbooks.

This paper was wonderful to work on. Since I’ve sort of gravitated over towards doing more work with water soluble media and inks, I stuck with their hot press version. I did do a couple watercolor-only paintings in this, and it did a great job. The texture of the hot press paper, however, supported all my work with Neocolor II pastels wonderfully, as well as did a great job supporting ink. I didn’t really see any feathering where the ink was concerned, and the paper did just fine with layers of wet media. It even did a beautiful job showcasing granulation with my watercolors. Colors looked beautiful and vibrant.

It held up beautifully to masking fluid and washi tape, too. (I think I still have PTSD from the Viviva watercolor sketchbooks’ terrible paper that ripped off in chunks when removing washi tape.)

As with most stitch-bound sketchbooks, there can be possible bleed-through when painting an entire spread across the center. It’s just pretty impossible to make something water-tight when you have stitch binding.

I do want to back up a bit and talk about the size of the sketchbook again. I mention it’s an “A6” sketchbook, but I’m finding more and more that those sizing guides tend to be arbitrary, depending on the manufacturer. This book is actually a little larger than the Etchr A6 sketchbook, if you’re curious. This actually made this sketchbook a little bit of a challenge sometimes to pack with me, especially if I was trying to keep my bag of art supplies small.

The page count is 46 pages. 52 if you want to count the somewhat unusable pages at the ends of the book that I mentioned earlier. This is also the same amount of pages you get in an Etchr sketchbook.

There’s very little difference in the texture of the pages from front to back. You can spot the texture when working with dry media (or water-soluble media.) It’s nothing too terribly distracting in my view. Note, too, that they have “BAOHONG” watermarked on various pages. I don’t feel the watermark did too much to disrupt any work I did on those pages.

I found I encountered minimal warping and bucking of the pages where I painted with watercolor.

So, what’s my verdict? Would I recommend these sketchbooks? Absolutely. The price and the paper are just fantastic. I think the puffy faux leather cover takes a little getting used to, and it’s slightly larger size might throw some people off, but those are really honestly not big issues at all, as far as I’m concerned.

My only word of warning with these sketchbooks is that there appears to be widely varying shipping times on these. I assume they come from China. When I purchased mine, it arrived fairly quickly. But that was several months ago. As of my writing this, the product page on Amazon warns it could take one to two months to ship. That might not be all that appealing for some of you, especially if you’re itching to work in it right away.

These sketchbooks feel very well put-together and the paper is really nice to work on.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful product for any watercolor artist who enjoys working in sketchbooks on really nice 100% cotton paper.

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Thick, 300gsm paper Hardcover Lay flat binding Elastic closure	Not consistently available on Amazon Not a standard A6 size (larger) Possible long shipping times

Have you used a Baohong 100% cotton student grade sketchbook? What are your thoughts?

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List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Baohong Academy Watercolor Sketchbook
Etchr Sketchbook
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Pastels
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brushes
QoR Watercolors
Platinum Carbon Ink
TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen