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

[olivermoss]

I don't use watercolors much, but in the mediums I do use paper is a big deal. The first marker paper I got was terrible and I eventually started blaming myself for not being able to get markers to work like other people could.

I have strong feelings about Rendr paper because it was the first good paper I used. Suddenly, so many things I'd been trying to do with my markers, pens and pencils just started to work. It's not the best for markers and I think I am going to eventually switch to just using loose cardstock.

There are a lot of ins and outs to using different mediums together and how they work with paper. I used to wind up with a mess every time I tried to ink a sketch.

[mific]

I watched a youtube tutorial by Laovaan, https://youtu.be/ZIbNaMd4ByM on markers, and I remember he said he tried special bleedtgrough-proof marker paper but had abandoned it and prefers cardstock now.

[olivermoss]

Cool. In that video he seems to be using line art printed on printer paper. That is actually suggested in Copic branded how-to books these days, instead of them suggesting Copic paper.

A lot of papers sold as marker paper are terrible, and will make a person feel inept. Right now I am doing pencils on sketch paper, using a light box to ink onto cardstock and then coloring that. I am happy with it for now, but if I eventually wind up just using cheap computer paper after everything else I've tried I don't know if I will laugh or cry. I should just use up my 'marker pads' as sketch books.