A4 sketch pads and sketchbooks

A4 sketch pads and sketchbooks have sheets measuring 21 × 29.7 cm, the same size as ordinary printer paper, so they fit easily in a school bag or a document wallet. It's the format for art lessons at school, everyday sketching and your first attempts at watercolour. Here you'll find glued pads, spiral-bound sketchbooks and hardcover sketchbooks from Canson, Clairefontaine, Daler Rowney, Talens Art Creation, KOH-I-NOOR and Darwi. The pads have 10 to 120 sheets with a paper weight of 45 to 400 gsm, and besides white paper there are cream, black, brown kraft and coloured sheets too.

Which A4 pad do you need for school?

For drawing lessons, a pad of cartridge paper weighing 120 to 180 gsm is all you need. You can draw on it with pencil, charcoal or pastels, then simply tear the finished sheet off the pad and hand it in. When your class paints with watercolours or gouache, pack a pad of paper from 200 gsm as well, as it won't cockle as much when it gets wet. For the youngest children there are Canson Kids pads and Bobo pads featuring Krtek the Little Mole. Design and architecture students use thin marker and layout paper of 45 to 70 gsm, which lets the sketch underneath show through.

A sketchbook for every day, or a pad for a specific technique?

A hardcover sketchbook, such as the Talens Art Creation Sketchbook with 80 sheets or the Daler Rowney Simply Sketchbook, goes everywhere with you, and you draw in it with a pencil, pen or felt-tip as if it were a diary. For a specific technique, choose a pad with paper that is made for it:

• Watercolour – pads of 185 to 300 gsm, for example Canson XL Aquarelle, Arches or Clairefontaine Goldline Aquapad.
• Felt-tips and markers – smooth 70 gsm marker paper, for example Canson XL Marker or Daler Rowney Graphic Series.
• Mixed media, acrylic and oil – pads of 220 to 400 gsm that can take several layers of paint, for example Canson XL Mixed Media or Clairefontaine Paint'On.

You'll find a larger format for figures and landscapes in the A3 sketchbooks and pads category, paper for watercolours in every size in the watercolour paper category, and other formats among all our sketchbooks and sketch pads.