Watercolor Sketchbook Review Daler Rowney Cachet Aquafine & Langton Prestige

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we are gonna take a side-by-side
look at some Daler Rowney watercolor
paper the other day I got this in the
mail I did a haul video this is the
original classic watercolor a sketch
book by cachet by Daler Rowney and it is
made with aqua fine paper I don't know
if they make this sketchbook with other
grades of paper in it or not but this
was on sale at Jerry's diorama for $12
and it also came with a simply Simmons
white sable which is a synthetic brush a
number three round and some lankton
prestige ATC's and these are a hundred
percent cotton these HTC's and I'm just
gonna do a little demo showing you these
cotton ATC's versus the paper in the
cash a sketchbook here
and so this is the first thing I did I
was just kind of these are all just
little doodles I did we had power loss
today and so I was messing around my
book I did this the other day actually
just kind of been a very low-key
relaxing vacation week with the kids
home from school so I've just been kind
of chilling out and you know this is 140
pound paper it does buckle it is a
hundred percent cellulose the only thing
I really don't like about this paper is
that is that like a tire track
appearance like the texture on this book
it reminds me an awful lot of now if you
can see that texture reminds me an awful
lot of the Strathmore 300 series the
Strathmore paper that has the yellow
cover that's very much like this paper
if you're curious this is the back side
of the paper I painted on because I
figured as a sketchbook you'd want to
try both sides to see you should be able
to use both sides I did find the back
side of the paper to be a little bit
less responsive maybe a little less
sized I find my paint flowed quite as
well on the back side and my paint
looked a little more dull I also went
ahead cuz those we're done with the
Lucas watercolors I also went ahead and
use some Shamika and coke or watercolors
just so I can make sure that it wasn't a
dullness of that Pink's I'm not that
used to using it that's we're gonna use
today so the negatives the negatives of
this sketchbook would be the fact that
it's it's cellulose you know as opposed
to cotton and it the paper will break
down a bit you can see that I've got
some little pilling over here where
actually that might be a bit of pigment
but I did get a little bit of pilling
the face where I tried to lift up some
paper and there I just lifted it up from
that wash you can't use a real stiff
brush on this for lifting if you do like
a soft brush you're fine but but stiff
brush is gonna peel the paper and give
you a little bit of trouble I did find
that my results with my with the hundred
and forty pound cotton paper to be much
more vivid they seemed and the paper
does seem to be a little bit whiter so
that was just kind of like apples to
apples comparison there but for the
price and how are you going to use a
sketchbook typically if I'm gonna use a
sketchbook I'm doing quick sketches and
I am using on the go a lot of times I'm
using like a waterproof pen to sketch
and I'm just doing a quick wash a
watercolor this is perfect for that this
is definitely going to be able to handle
that and you can paint on both sides of
the paper without it showing through
with watercolors and really that's what
that's what I bought the sketchbook for
so it is meeting my expectations and is
worth the price I paid I do believe but
I want to show you a little side-by-side
comparison I love the lankton prestige
paper so much if I'm gonna keep my eyes
on it my eyes peeled for sale because I
think that I could or I would really
love to have some larger sheets of this
so we're gonna just do a little simple
rose we're gonna do the same thing
side-by-side I've got my LinkedIn there
and I've got my watercolor here by de
leur these are both by Daler Rowney this
is the awful fine and this is a lankton
and blank tin very similar surface on
both sides I'm using the side that's
slightly more textured and I'm using the
front side of this paper I'm so sorry
I'm going so I don't know why I'm
talking so fast I think it's because I'm
like the water pump is gonna come on the
furnace or the water comes gonna come on
any second I'm gonna use a water brush
just to keep things simple and I'm gonna
start off by um I'm just gonna use some
water here I want to show you the flow
of the paper I'm starting off of the
Langdon prestige and I'm just gonna
start off just by putting in its kind of
some petals with just water okay so if
you if I took that to light you could
see that I've kind of got like a little
rose there now some people asked about
the brush so what I'm gonna do is just
squeeze a little bit of water onto my my
palate there and then I'll just use this
brush to pick up a little bit of crimson
here and we'll just look at it flow look
at the colors
they feel very nice on this paper
I think I'll also put a little bit of
yellow in there I'm just gonna do it
with a water brush because that's I
don't have a water bucket down here I'm
kind of like going between my studios at
this point in time between my office in
my downstairs studio I really prefer to
film down here but it's so noisy in the
winter but I like the lighting down here
better so you know first world problems
right alright so there I've got this
little very simple little Rose sketched
in here just get the colors and I also
want to put a couple of of petals I'm
just go squeeze out my brush and wipe
off the excess and let's do a few little
water leaf water leaf what's a water
leaf I don't know I even talked in front
of the camera for a long time put some
this green gold in there these are Lucas
watercolors one with this other green
and I think I'll do a little into throne
blue which is the color I'm really
liking and they gets a very lovely flow
in here I kind of like it when it just
I'm just gonna like let it go just kind
of loosey-goosey just a very simple
demonstration here now let's do the same
thing on the on the Aqua fine paper so
we're gonna start off just by making our
little imaginary flower but we can see
my strokes a little bit better here
because I've got a little bit of tint of
blue in my water and oh let's do what I
did before I use the the Robert Simmons
brush this brush is fine it's certainly
not my I don't know it's fine it's it's
not knocking my socks off but it comes
to a nice point I think these are fairly
affordable this is a free sample with
the The Sketchbook gives you a great
point it's I think these are fairly
affordable but they do behave more like
a synthetic I wouldn't think they
they're called a white sable but
they don't to me feel like a sable brush
you know I like the mimics an awful lot
the mimic kolinsky and the mimic
squirrel brushes they're kind of my
favorite
but these aren't bad they're definitely
going to be appropriate for watercolor
and I think they'd probably be fine for
acrylics as well
I'm gonna grab a little bit of that same
yellow if something went yellow today
use I'm not sure doesn't really matter
too much I just want to give you a
little side-by-side comparison now you
can see as the paint kind of settles
into the tractor marks Hill just reminds
me about like a toy toy truck marking
the texture of the paper you can kind of
see that a little bit more but I do find
like if that it does kind of go away you
don't notice it so much as it dries so
if that's kind of dissuading you from
trying that paper I wouldn't let it
especially if you get a good deal on it
but it's definitely I wouldn't use the
aqua fine paper anytime you're going to
want to be putting a lot of time and
effort into something or anytime you
think you're gonna have to scrub back or
do anything like that just because it's
not gonna it's not gonna take that much
abuse okay you just need to know what
the limitations of your paper are I'm
gonna grab a little bit of that into
throwing blue and a little green and I
had that in there I mean definitely
suitable first sketchbook you can't
really beat the price I do like how many
colors behave a little bit better on
that versus the the aqua fine but that's
you know use the right paper for the job
I'm sure that's a lot more expensive of
us to get a sketchbook of that versus
the aqua fine and I'll just do I don't
really want to put a background in there
yet but I do want to just kind of show
you how it accepts a wash because I know
what's gonna blend quite a bit I love
this cobalt blue it accepts a wash very
well and here you can see on this one
that it also accepts a wash well on the
the aqua fine I mean I'm sorry the the
lankton bottom line I like the lankton
an awful lot it reminds me quite a bit
of of arches and actually it doesn't it
reminds me of arches in like Fabriano or
just to go but but they're all great
papers I would say if you
a great deal on it go for either one of
them keep in mind just that the the aqua
fine paper is not gonna be as resilient
and durable as as the 1% cotton paper
which you can scrub back a little bit
more so there you have it if you'd like
to see a review on the Lucas watercolors
I use here so let me know in the
comments below thank you so much for
watching I do also want to apologize for
canceling my live show on Friday because
I had no power but the powers back and
back to being somewhat productive thank
you so much for watching
until next time happy crafting