Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

iam a professional full time artist and i will only use Arches, Fabriano Artistico, Saunders Waterford and Hahnemuhle papers for any commission work or anythiny i sell etc. I bought this kind of knowing it was gonna be alittle on the cheap side and kinda junk. All i can say that its mehh, middle of the road Chinese sloppy qaulity. The paper is bad and it dulls the color of your watercolors very very badly. It really is like painting with mystery paint,, because you never know what color you will end up with when it dries.The presentation of Paul Ruben its always flashy and great but its still dries. Chinese merch. The leather cover has some glue on the leather from the making of the cover. The paper is 100% cotton hot press yes but its trash! The glue around the block is black and it has soaked into the paper and stained it about a quarter inch into the block of paper ... why they chose black is beyond me but its very obviously seen on the paper border. So you have to cut the edges of the paper so it ca t been seen on the finished work. The paper is junk.... trash and its SLOPPY!! The book cover should have been made alittle bigger too because the corners of the block are flush with the cover so they can easily get damaged. It is real leather and has an elastic strap, but its all dented up and has glue all over the leather . I bought it as a journal to take around for watercolor sketches just for fun and it failed miserably. So like i said i knew what i was buying and what it was for. It is however good for colored pencil work! I was very surprisedabout that... so I will get my use out of it. Just because paper is 100% cotton, doesn't mean it is gonna be good or amazing! DONT CHEAP OUT ON YOUR WATERCOLOR PAPER!!!! the paper is more important that the paint with doing watercolor. Trust me....