Why Buy the Good Stuff?

Recently I received a stack of beautiful white watercolor paper from a dear friend. She found it at a yard sale and thought it might be of use to me.  The paper is crisp and has a lovely texture when I run my fingers over the surface. I am guessing it’s 90 lb. in weight and has no rag content.  It accepts ink like a dream and I was hoping it’d do the same with watercolor paint so, I drew the chair I had put in my sketchbook a week or so ago on a piece to give it a try.

Maddening to paint on, cheap watercolor paper would be ideal for markers or pen and ink work.

As watercolor paper it’s not so great, but as a lesson in why to use the good stuff every time it was ideal.  Having no rag content the paper doesn’t have the ability to absorb any water or pigment so the wet paint sits on the surface.  Any puddles left are bound to make “cauliflowers,” or run back into the dry areas and disturb the pigment there.  I put a shadow shape at the wrong angle, which gave me the chance to see if I could lift the pigment back off of the paper.  The good news is, it lifted right off.  The bad news was that the paper came off, too, pilling up and leaving a fuzzy white layer in its place. 

The area where I lifted the paint (and paper) to correct an error

It has been years since I tried to use a paper with no rag content and now I remember why.  Often times, beginners try to learn to paint in watercolor with student grade pigments and cheap paper and end up thinking they aren’t any good with the medium- when the truth is that using the very best tools and materials will pay off big time in how and what they achieve.  Don’t cut corners with water media if you want to become proficient with it.  Save up, buy the good stuff and see how much you can love this fabulous paint.  For me, Arches 140 or 300 lb. paper is as good as it gets.  Try it; you’ll like it!

Thanks for stopping by- Alice