CHOOSING THE RIGHT ART PAPER SUPPLIES
Are you an aspiring artists? What art supplies will you need? There are many tools that you need to get started but let’s look at the different types of paper.
Watercolor paper comes with a “hard size” on top of the paper, allowing the water to penetrate and the pigment to remain on the surface. This gives the painting its brilliance and also allows for corrections. You can get Watercolor paper in different textures. The smoothest is ‘Hot Press’ (HP) and because it has been compressed to a harder surface it’s less absorbent. Secondly there’s ‘Cold press’ (Not) which has a medium textured surface and is the most popular, it’s especially good for beginners. Then there’s ‘Rough’ which is highly textured paper and is the most absorbent of hem all. Because of the smoothness botanical artists often prefer hot pressed paper, it allows them to be very accurate in their rendering. These papers can weigh anything between 90 lb to 400 lb. The heavier the weight of the paper the less the paper will buckle when wet. Watercolor papers can vary in whiteness from bright white to a creamy off-white and are available in tinted colors. They come in sheets, pads, rolls, and blocks.
Drawing/Cartridge paper is a high quality type of heavy paper used primarily for illustration and drawing. It comes in a variety of smooth textures. It is available in loose sheets, pads, hardbound and softbound sketchbooks and rolls. There’s Bristol paper which is a strong and durable, multi-purpose drawing paper. The surface is really hard, heavily sized, polished, and compressed. You can use it for airbrushing. Other suitable drawing papers include Stonehenge paper which are very popular as well.
Pastel paper is used for charcoal, soft and hard pastels. It’s generally also colored paper that comes in a few different textures, all with some amount of tooth or weave that will catch hold of the pastel particles. Ingres is a laid paper with a mesh imprint from a screen. Random texture gets its surface from a cloth matt imprint. There are a few types with toothy textures while a few come with the color screen-printed on and others are waterproof for working the pastels with water. As for oil pastels, the paper is hard and white and usually comes in a pad with glassine paper interleaving to protect it from smudging.
Using either oil or acrylic these papers are generally canvas textured and primed for painting. Most of the papers prepared for acrylic paint are universally primed to accept both oil and acrylic. When painting with oil paints the paper must be sealed completely to keep the oil from separating if the paper is absorbent and to also prevent the rotting of the paper over time. Acrylic paint can be used on any paper but it’s usually designed to mimic canvas. Oil and acrylic painting papers are an economical choice for making a study or sketch prior to the major work on canvas.
- Studio Six