Strathmore STR-561-1 24 Sheet Assorted Tint Charcoal Pad, 9 by 12", Multicolor, 9"X12"

Very nice textures. To be honest the tones in this set are a lot darker than I’d imagined they were going to be, the first pages being a sort of olive green.I’ve heard it’s double sided but I’ve not tried the back of the paper.One thing I will say is that this paper is very thin - I was hoping for paper that had sheets a bit sturdier - these were slightly warped from being posted through the letter box and if you turn these too fast it’s easy to put creases into the sheets and it is sadly VERY easy to tear - I’ve already had two drawings wrecked because of the paper being quite flimsy. For the price, it makes me a bit sad that the paper is SO thin.The texture is sort of ribbed it a little like a tweed fabric and it takes charcoal nice but if you use a good sharpener, you can still get some nice lines.One downside is there is NO perforations on each sheet which for the cost of these pads, I would kind of expect. If you want to remove these sheets, you need to cut carefully as my first Drawing tore a bit trying to remove it from the pad.Otherwise very nice to draw on, blends charcoal with a paint brush very nice but the paper doesn’t get too smudgy. Haven’t tried with blending stumps or fingers yet, only paint brushes. Looks great though. Professionals will probably love it.