A3 sketchbooks and pads

A3 sketchbooks and pads have sheets measuring 29.7 × 42 cm, twice the size of A4, so a figure, a still life or a landscape fits on a single sheet without scaling it down. You'll find glued pads, spiral-bound sketchbooks and stapled sketchbooks from Canson, Clairefontaine, Daler Rowney, KOH-I-NOOR and Kreul. Paper weights range from 45 to 400 gsm: thin layout paper for quick sketches in felt-tip pen, drawing paper for pencil and charcoal, and heavy watercolour paper for watercolour paints. Besides white paper, there are also pads with black and coloured sheets.

Which paper weight should you choose for drawing and painting?

The weight decides which technique the paper can handle. The heavier the paper, the better it holds water and layers of paint.

• 45 – 100 gsm – layout and marker paper and thin sketchbooks for quick sketches in felt-tip pen and pencil.
• 120 – 200 gsm – drawing paper for pencil, charcoal, pastel and ink, the standard paper for art lessons at school.
• 220 – 250 gsm – mixed media, acrylic and gouache pads that can also take wet techniques.
• 300 gsm – watercolour pads such as Canson XL Aquarelle, Arches or Clairefontaine Goldline Aquapad, whose paper buckles less when you paint with water.

Glued pad, spiral-bound or stapled sketchbook?

A glued pad holds the sheets together along one edge, so you can easily remove a finished drawing and hand it in at school or frame it. A spiral-bound sketchbook, such as Canson XL or Clairefontaine Cray'On, folds back on itself and lies flat, which makes it easy to take outdoors for plein air drawing. A stapled sketchbook or a hardcover one keeps all your drawings together like a journal or portfolio. The pads have 10 to 120 sheets, and most of them have 20 to 50.

You'll find paper for a specific technique in all sizes in the pastel and charcoal sketchbooks and watercolour paper categories, and smaller sizes among all our sketchbooks.