It's harder than Saunders and the medium grain is pretty rough. It's taken a bit to get used to it. It stays wet as long as Saunders so make sure you have a hair drier or you're waiting a long time. Great for dry brush and making sparkles on water. Wet on wet is good and stays wet for ages but wet on dry dries very fast and can leave streaks. Better than fabriano artistico but I would probably go with Saunders