Paul Rubens 100% Cotton Hot Press Sketchbook Review

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I’ve finally come around to trying out one of the Paul Rubens brand 100% cotton watercolor sketchbooks. I stayed away from them for so long because of the perforated edges in the sketchbooks. When I work in a sketchbook, I generally want the pages to be permanently secured inside.

Well, while shopping for new sketchbooks to try, I came across this sketchbook and was really drawn to the price (about $10* at my time of writing this for the small 3.8″ x 5.2″ size. *Remember, price can change!)

When I went to purchase this sketchbook, I wasn’t paying any attention to the description beyond whether it was 100% cotton, so I’d forgotten about the perforated pages. So here I ended up with this sketchbook after avoiding it for so many years. Destiny, I suppose.

I’m kind of glad I forgot about the perforations, because this really did give me a chance to try out the paper and see what I thought of it. This actually turned out to be a nice sketchbook for the most part, perforation aside.

These are competitively-priced when comparing them to some of the other popular brands out there, like the white canvas-covered Etchr Sketchbooks. That’s a big draw when you can find yourself paying upwards of $50 for an A5 sketchbook with top-of-the-line paper in it (looking Koval’s way. Not a dig at them, though, they do use best-quality paper and their craftsmanship is beautiful.)

So lets get into what this sketchbook is like.

This is a hardcover sketchbook which appears to be covered with faux leather. They either come in black or pink, so depending on how daring you’re feeling, you can let your personality shine with your color selection. The front of the sketchbook has their logo printed on it in metallic gold.

It comes shrink-wrapped in plastic with their branding wrapped around the book. The book features a more-than-generously long ribbon bookmark, but no elastic closure band.

I could do without the bookmark and would rather have had a closure band, as this sketchbook tends to alligator open.

Sample of the book fanning open due to lack of an elastic closure. Stickers not included!

Instead of watercolor end pages, this sketchbook uses black paper. I suppose it’s a kind of nice aesthetic touch, although it prevents you from doing any sort of a wet media opening spread.

The back of the sketchbook features a pocket where you can stick business cards and the like. I tucked the packaging label inside here in case I want to refer to it for future reference, although most of it is in Chinese. (Paul Rubens brand art supplies are manufactured in China.)

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

This book is case-bound but features perforated pages. Not ideal, I think, for permanent storage of your artwork in a sketchbook, but ideal, perhaps for those of you who like to use sketch pads and remove your artwork.

As is typical with most case-bound sketchbooks, the first and last spreads in the sketchbook will not lay flat. I consider those pages sacrificial any more and just use them for scribbles, ink tests, etc.

On to the paper itself.

It’s a nice, thick 140-lb (300gsm) paper, very similar to the paper in the Baohong sketchbook I reviewed last. I definitely appreciate thicker paper in my sketchbooks since it helps reduce warping.

From what I can tell, these 100% cotton sketchbooks only come in hot press (and maybe that was another reason I’d never bought one before, as I tended to work exclusively on cold press for quite a while.) They have a cold press paper, but it’s 50% cotton.

This paper was really nice to work on. I did a few watercolor-only paintings in this, and it did a great job. The texture of the hot press paper supported all my work with Neocolor II pastels wonderfully, as well as my Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor colored pencils. It also took ink nicely. 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 nicely to masking fluid and washi tape, too, although I didn’t use either much in this sketchbook except maybe a couple times at the most.

There was a little 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. This is something to also watch out for when painting over the perforations. While paint didn’t just rush through the perforation marks, you can definitely see it peeking through on the back side of the page where you painted over the perforation.

The page count is 38 pages front and back. 40 if you want to count the somewhat unusable pages at the ends of the book that I mentioned earlier.

There’s very little difference in the texture of the pages from front to back, and I found I encountered minimal warping and bucking of the pages where I painted with watercolor.

So, would I recommend these sketchbooks? I think so, so long as the perforation doesn’t put you off. The price is really good compared to similar brands and really, the paper itself Is pretty nice. These sketchbooks also feel very well put-together.

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

Pros	Cons
100% cotton paper Thick, 300gsm paper Hardcover Lay flat binding	No elastic closure Perforated pages

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

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List of materials:

Contains affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.

Paul Rubens 100% Cotton Hot Press Watercolor Journal
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