About watercolour paper - a post from Pillowfort

[mific]

I'm linking to and reccing this post called Demystifying Paper by sinopiasaur, over at Pillowfort. It's a detailed explanation of the types and specifications of watercolour papers, and I found it interesting and useful.

I don't know much about all this as I've only gotten back into traditional art in the last year or so and never had any training, so I'd be interested to hear what more expert members of the comm think about what sinopiasaur says, or any other information anyone has.

For myself, I need a heavier paper like 300gsm as I do often work pretty wet. But I've realised that other than occasional gift works like Christmas presents or cards, I hardly ever need archival quality as I scan everything and share it on line. I've had problems with Fabriano and Arches hot press papers - I find them very unforgiving and hard to do blending on although I like the smoother surface for detail work, so I'll probably experiment more with other brands. 

During Inktober, one hassle has been getting pens to work over an underlayer of coloured inks. My dip pen gets fibres caught in the nib, my glass pen isn't fine enough for most details, and fineliners get clogged on the underlying ink and I guess also by the paper's fibers once I've started damaging the surface with a layer of wet colour (even once it's thoroughly dry). Also, rougher papers are harder to use pens on and clog the tips/nibs more. Any suggestions about papers that are good for drawing on with pens over a watercolour/ink underlayer? 

Comments

[yhlee]

Thank you for the link!

Good luck with your quest for paper--I admit I have no suggestions, as I almost always do the inking first and watercolor over, which is not your technique. I hope someone else has a solution for you.