Paper is important

So I’m on a quest to find myself a good Artist quality paper. I’m no money tree so it won’t be a crazy $100 paper made by the water god Poseidon but it’s going to be good regardless!

Cheap Watercolour Paper

There’s so many out there! And it’s easy to fall for the cheap pads because who really wants to spend lots of money on paper and not know if it’s going to make a difference or spend all that money but you paint like a beginner or don’t paint often etc..

For the last few months I have used straight out of the dollar store watercolour paper; they not archival at all and are made poorly,
I did a recent painting, which nearly made me cry because I ruined a good drawing in the process.

Cheap paper, is woeful, soul destroying. It is painful to deal with. It will not carry the water or the pigment the way it is suppose to, it will fade/discolour and it will buckle like plastic under a heat-gun. But most of all they just don’t do what watercolour paper should do.

Listen, I’d have loved to of discovered a cheap cheerful paper but I don’t think it’s possible, and I really cannot stress enough how bad these papers have made me feel.
I have had to question my brushes, my pigments and my own skills. Painting should not be stressful. It may be challenging of course but it shouldn’t feel like everything is going wrong from the moment you first lay down some paint! Watercolours are beeeeeeeautiful, but not on these pads.

Semco, Mont Marte and Reno Art Watercolour Pads of mine

Please learn from my mistakes and get yourself a real watercolour paper like Canson, Strathmore, Fabriano, whatever. And be careful of student lines, listen to your fellow artists – they have been through it too!
Don’t tell yourself “Oh this will be good for practice”, “It’s just for until I get the feel for watercolour painting”, “I’m just testing it out”.

I don’t think it matters what level your at or what your purpose is, just get a proper watercolour paper. I have made the cheapie mistake three times already and I’m hindered in growing as a painter because of it. That said, not all is lost… I will keep these papers for colour charting, test my mixing while painting or.. perhaps so my kids can doodle on them and do hand prints LOL

I do feel bad for blaming my papers but I’m not the first to say it either, I have watched countless Youtube artists whom warned me about cheap paper, they were right… 😦

Anyway… these are the papers I’m looking at at the moment: ♥

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Hope to purchase my new paper over the next fortnight and do my first painting! I will look at doing a comparison between the new pad and my “best” old pad just to show the differences 🙂

All in Hot Press, all 300gsm

I’d love to hear from you and what your favourite watercolour paper is and why? 🙂

♥