When I just started painting, I spent a lot of months trying to figure out why my progress isn’t satisfactory. I was not heavily invested but it was frustrating. There was a time I thought I was not skilled enough to paint. But thanks to my stubborn head, instead of giving up, I dedicated time in learning more about the techniques and tools used in watercolor.
Good quality watercolor paper plays a very important role to our success in watercolor painting. Wrong ones will give you endless frustration and a waste of time.
Remember these two things;
100% cotton
Acid-free
If the watercolor paper acid-free, it means the white surface will not turn yellow over the years as acid-free slows down the ageing of the paper.
Qualities or Materials Used
Student (Cellulose) It doesn’t absorb water and pigment as well as cotton does, and isn’t as durable so it can’t handle multiple washes⠀
Artist Grade (100% Cotton) It’s much durable, absorbs water nicely, and can handle water loading and a variety of techniques easily. It doesn’t turn yellow over time (Acid Free)⠀
Forms of Watercolor Paper
Sheet
Block
Pad
Roll
Paper Surfaces
Hot Press – Very smooth. Best for detailed painting
Rough – Coarse texture. Best for bold painting techniques ⠀
Cold Presses – Slightly textured. It’s the most versatile paper that can be used to almost any project.
Weight
The weight of watercolor paper is related to quality because the best paper comes in different weight. Weight is important in terms of amount of water we will be using and the techniques that we will be applying. Heavy papers doesn’t need stretching, light papers may buckle and wrinkle which makes it harder to paint on.
Tried & Tested Watercolor Paper That Did Not Dissapoint
The watercolor paper we use have a huge significance on the quality of our painting and the process of doing it. You might save couple of dollars with low quality paper, but you’ll find that watercolor pigments doesn’t do well on cheap surfaces, making some techniques difficult to execute.
After few years of studying watercolor and painting almost everyday, these are the papers that works well with the process of my work, techniques and amount of water I used.
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