Getting Started: Watercolor - Paper & Journals
Begin your Journey into Watercolors - Buying Paper and Journals
Disclaimer: This blog does contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you!
So… A little relevant background…
…on me, and how I share what I know…
Confession: I just don’t really listen to anyone…
Mostly I do the research on my own, and decide which way is best for me, and what I want to do or achieve. If I find that it doesn’t work, I will either change what I am doing, or ask for help. But, if I don’t ask for help specifically… I looooooathe unsolicited advice. Probably my biggest pet peeve. Can you relate?
Why am I telling you this?
Really, just so that you know where I am coming from. I will share with you what I know is *best* to do/use for watercolors, and then what I do - which sometimes is different, sometimes not.... Cause, I am that way.
I figure, my whole world is an experiment, and I gotta do the thing the way I feel is the right way for me to do it! I want you to be able to feel like you can do the same thing.
In my world, ART has no rules. Experiment!
With that being said, let’s get on with what the heck you’re supposed to put your brand new watercolors on! If you don’t know what I am talking about, take a minute, open this in a new tab and read it: Purchasing Watercolors (Part one of this “series”!).
SO they sayyyy, if you’re going to go all out on anything for watercolors, to get good quality paper. There are a ton of paper options, but the favorites seem to be 100% cotton for sure. Honestly, I have never paid attention! Ha!
There are many factors to watercolor paper to consider, there are hot press, cold press, and rough watercolor papers. Hot press is a smooth paper, cold press has more texture (tooth), and rough, is super textured. Many people love cold press watercolor as they love the little bit of textured paper. But really, it’s personal preference, try them all!
For starting out, just get something you’re comfortable spending money on! Watercolor paper can range from very cheap, to … outrageously expensive. Ha. The higher the GSM (grams per square meter) or LB the thicker and more expensive the paper. The typical safe type to go for a beginner is 300gsm or approximately 140lb paper. 300gsm paper can typically take a bit more water, which is great when you’re first learning how much you like to use.
To tell you the truth, I will paint on any quality paper, no matter the consequences. I don’t necessarily advocate for that, but I advocate to do what you think is right for you. The reason I tell you to use such high weight paper, 300gsm, is because lighter weight papers can often buckle (wrinkle), bleed through, or even pill (like sweaters do) with too many layers of watercolor/water. Most of this can be mitigated, but, it can be frustrating when you don’t know how to deal with it yet.
Now, there is definitely something to be said about quality products, you will likely have a better experience with higher quality products, but you can also just learn to use what you choose to buy, too. But you may find out that it is not great for the style you’re developing, however, that is okay! It’s all a part of the process!
Ways Watercolor Paper is Sold
There are many different ways in which you can buy watercolor paper too! It’s all a lot to take in, I know. Haha, but, bear with me!
Individual sheets, I feel this is better for when you are starting to want to do real professional stuff. I haven’t purchased this before. So I don’t have much to say about it. But it is something people can do. Many brands are available in sheets. You can also buy it in a big roll too!
In a block, which is a stack of watercolor paper, that is glued together on 3-4 edges of the paper. This helps prevent the paper from warping (You can tape down individual sheets with masking or washi tape to achieve the same thing). One of the best brands of watercolor paper is called Arches and is highly boasted, and available in blocks (not cheap). You can find many off brands in blocks too, if a block is something you’d like to try!
In a notebook/journal, spiral, bound, or glued on one edge. I personally prefer this, because then I don’t have to figure out what to do with all the paintings! They’re all just in the book, which is so much fun to flip through! It’s much more portable too. And you can still tape the pages down if you feel the need to try and help the paper from warping and buckling too much (I don’t bother much with it). This is where I will focus my recommendations.
Spirals and Pads
Some reliable notebooks I have used before, and would recommend are the Canson XL Watercolor Pad, and the Strathmore Visual Journal 400 Series. I don’t currently, but I typically like to have one of these on hand to practice something new in (I can’t seem to get the Canson to ship here from Amazon… lol), or just do crazy random color things, etc. I totally recommend picking up one of these to play with. They are decent quality, and super easy to find.
Now, to step that up, if you prefer like, a hard bound journal like I do, you can find a few different kinds. They typically are a little more expensive. But these hardbound journals are great for on-the-go art! So perfect for urban sketching, and nature journaling!
Journals
A highly boasted brand by some of my favorite artists like Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene is Hahnemühle. It is a German brand, they have 200gsm paper, which, while I haven’t had the pleasure to use them, it may mean you might need to be a little more careful with the amount of water you use, but you will learn fast, so don’t worry if you want to go with this one!
Now, here is another that I would totally buy, if I didn’t already have 38475894568 notebooks, these Etchr Books look so great! I was recently turned on to them from some watercolor group on FB because I am always on the look out for B5 (size of notebook) journals, it is just my favorite size, and I don’t much like working in A5. There is nothing wrong with A5 and I do recommend going that route, because B5 is harder (and often more expensive) to find! These have 100% cotton paper, which is supposed to be amaaaazing, and you can totally decorate the cover. The B5 is on my wishlist, ok, because it looks awesome…
Another few very commonly used journals among watercolorists are the Strathmore 400 series watercolor books, the Moleskine watercolor journals, and the Stillman & Birn Mixed Media Delta Series books. Each of these I have used and they preform as expected! You should be able to find them in multiple sizes, but I seem to be having an issue on Amazon with that today, could be needing a restock. Anyhow, you can search around Amazon and see if there’s something you feel will suit you better, or try out the ones I recommended above.
What I Use Currently…
Now it’s time to talk about what I use… To be completely honest, I don’t even uuuuuuse watercolor paper. Again, I don’t really recommend this because as a beginner, this may upset you by making you think you’re doing poorly, when in fact, it is likely because you are not using decent watercolor paper.
I currently am using and obsessed with Archer and Olive dot grid journals… They are 160gsm (thicker than a normal journal for sure!). Again, super not made for watercolors, as the paper does buckle a little bit, but with practice and care, I make it work for me, because… I have a notebook problem. I really love the dot grid too! For me, the dot grid fades away as I create art, but it is super handy for when I am doing any writing, so it stays nice and straight!
An Alternate…
I did, however, find an actual watercolor notebook with dotgrid, and omg, I want to try them so bad, but they don’t come in my preferred size! These super cute Primrosia journals are, adorable, and I have heard good things! They do have a lower gsm than I recommend for beginners, however, they claim the paper is actually watercolor paper, and it will act just a little different than my aforementioned Archer and Olive journals. The Primrosia should preform a little bit better in comparison.
Final Thoughts
Whatever you end up choosing to use you will have a bit of a learning curve, because every brand of paper is going to behave just a little different from each other. So, definitely be easy on yourself! Watercolor is not an easy medium to master! And it will take a lot of practice to build your skill.
I do want to reiterate that you will have a better time using paper meant for watercolor, and an even better experience if you use a higher gsm/lb. Lower than 300gsm (140lb) WILL work, if 300gsm papers are out of your budget, but even the cheapy watercolor notebooks I shared with you today have 300gsm paper. If you do end up going with like, 160gsm (Like the Primrosia mentioned above) just be wary of the amount of water you use so you’re not bleeding through the paper to another page. I just don’t want you to be unhappy when you’re first starting!
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to leave a comment! <3
What’s Next
I still need to talk about brushes, what you can use to apply your watercolors to your brand new paper! That will be the next installment of this Watercolor series! So definitely stay tuned! If you’re too impatient to wait and see when I finally write that up (I get it! I do lol) you can check out my Amazon Storefront and check out the products under “Starting your Watercolor Journey”.
You can always find me over on Facebook and Instagram, I am pretty much posting daily there about my life! It’s been so fun to share! Also, I’ve got myself a YouTube, the last video I shared was a Flip Through of the art I did in January!