Watercolor Papers — Transcript

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1. 0:00Let's learn about watercolor papers in
2. 0:02this lesson. Watercolor papers usually
3. 0:05comes in two categories. One is
4. 0:07professional grade paper. Second one is
5. 0:09student grade paper. I highly recommend
6. 0:12you to use professional grade paper for
7. 0:14high quality results.
8. 0:16Watercolor paper also comes in different
9. 0:18textures. Generally there are three
10. 0:21kinds of textures for watercolor paper
11. 0:23which is called hot pressed, cold
12. 0:26pressed and rough paper. Hot pressed
13. 0:29paper. Here you see Arch's hot pressed
14. 0:32paper. Hot pressed paper means the
15. 0:35surface has very less texture. It's
16. 0:37almost smooth. That's called hot pressed
17. 0:40paper. Whereas a cold pressed paper has
18. 0:44texture on its surface. If you compare
19. 0:47both you can see the difference. This is
20. 0:50co hot pressed paper and this is cold
21. 0:52pressed paper. And rough paper will have
22. 0:55even more textured surface than a cold
23. 0:57pressed paper. That's called hot
24. 0:59pressed, cold pressed and a rough paper.
25. 1:02I don't have rough paper with me to show
26. 1:03you. There are different reasons or
27. 1:06situations where an artist uses a hot
28. 1:09pressed paper or a cold pressed paper or
29. 1:11a rough paper. When a detailed heavily
30. 1:15detailed work like a portrait need to be
31. 1:17created, maybe a artist will use a co
32. 1:20hot pressed paper. Another reason for
33. 1:23using hot pressed paper is when they
34. 1:25want to take a digital copy of what they
35. 1:27have created so that the texture of the
36. 1:29paper is not coming into the digital
37. 1:31print and cold pressed paper is most
38. 1:34commonly used by most of the artist.
39. 1:36It's good for almost all purposes I
40. 1:39would say and rough paper is used when
41. 1:42you want to create very highly textured
42. 1:44kind of work like landscape works can be
43. 1:48done on a rough paper. So the texture of
44. 1:51the paper itself will produce a good
45. 1:53effect in your painting. Watercolor
46. 1:55papers also comes in different weight or
47. 1:59the thickness of the paper. So what
48. 2:00you're seeing here is 300 gsm paper.
49. 2:04This is how it looks like. And the most
50. 2:06commonly used thickness is 300 gsm. You
51. 2:10can go for 300 gsm thickness for your uh
52. 2:13paintings. The heavier the paper, the
53. 2:15thicker the paper. It will not warp when
54. 2:19you are applying water on this so that
55. 2:21it will be easy for you to work on a
56. 2:23thicker paper.
57. 2:25There are two important specifications
58. 2:27that you need to look for when you are
59. 2:29choosing your watercolor paper. One is
60. 2:31whether it's a 100%age cotton or 100%age
61. 2:34rag and whether it is acidfree. So
62. 2:37100%age cotton paper is most ideal for
63. 2:40best results. And if it is acidfree, the
64. 2:43paper will last longer and it will not
65. 2:45have any discoloration over a longer
66. 2:48period of time and the paper the paint
67. 2:50will not fade on a acid-free paper.
68. 2:53Watercolor paper can also come in
69. 2:55different formats. One of the formats is
70. 2:58watercolor blocks. What you see here is
71. 3:00a watercolor block. In a watercolor
72. 3:02block, all the papers are glued
73. 3:04together. So you paint on the surface of
74. 3:07the paper that is coming on the top.
75. 3:10After this is painted, you can remove
76. 3:12this paper from this block and then
77. 3:15paint on the paper which is lying
78. 3:17underneath it. So this is a watercolor
79. 3:20block. Similarly, you get watercolor uh
80. 3:23blocks in different sizes. Another
81. 3:25format in which you give you get
82. 3:27watercolor paper is like pads. So this
83. 3:31is a watercolor pad where one side of it
84. 3:33is either binded or uh glued. So here
85. 3:37you see the watercolor pad.
86. 3:40This is how it looks like. And also you
87. 3:43get watercolor papers as loose sheets.
88. 3:46So here what you see is a loose sheet of
89. 3:49paper. Watercolor paper also comes in
90. 3:51rolls. Especially if you want bigger
91. 3:54size watercolor paper. You go for buying
92. 3:56rolls which you can cut into the size
93. 4:00that you want and paint on top of it.
94. 4:03The advantage of using a block is that
95. 4:06when you paint, when you wet the
96. 4:08surface, when you paint with water on
97. 4:10the surface, the paper will stay steady
98. 4:12and it will not walk warp too much. That
99. 4:14is the main reason, main advantage of
100. 4:16using watercolor blocks, but it will be
101. 4:18on an expensive side compared to loose
102. 4:20sheets of paper. If you are using loose
103. 4:23sheets of paper, you can use a board
104. 4:26like this. This is an acrylic board that
105. 4:29I'm showing here. You can use a wooden
106. 4:31board or a plywood board, whatever is
107. 4:33convenient for you. On that board, you
108. 4:35can fix the loose sheet of paper. So,
109. 4:38you place the paper on the board and
110. 4:40with a masking tape. This is a masking
111. 4:42tape. So, you can use a masking tape and
112. 4:45fix the paper onto the board.
113. 4:51I'm just showing you how to do it.
114. 4:56>> [snorts]
115. 4:57>> This is how you fix it on the board.
116. 5:01Make sure that after fixing you press
117. 5:03this very well so that there are no gaps
118. 5:06between the masking tape and the paper.
119. 5:09If there are gaps then there are chances
120. 5:11of water and the paint going inside
121. 5:13these gaps and you don't get a clean
122. 5:16border outside. Watercolor paper also
123. 5:19comes in different sizes. So this what
124. 5:22you're seeing here is a quarter sheet. A
125. 5:24full sheet is like 22 in by 30 in is
126. 5:27called a full sheet. And then you have
127. 5:29half sheet, then quarter sheet, then A4
128. 5:32sizes. Different sizes are available.
129. 5:35And here what you see here is a 14x 20
130. 5:38in. You can choose the size that is
131. 5:40convenient for you, but I highly
132. 5:42recommend you to choose a size not less
133. 5:44than a quarter sheet or a A3 sheet. You
134. 5:47can also paint on other surfaces other
135. 5:49than paper like woodboard or canvases.
136. 5:53But you have to treat the surface with a
137. 5:55gesso called watercolor ground. Once you
138. 5:58have treated the surface with watercolor
139. 6:00ground, then that surface is ready for
140. 6:02painting with watercolors.
141. 6:05Let's take a quick recap of what we
142. 6:07learned about watercolor papers.
143. 6:08Watercolor painting surfaces can be a
144. 6:11paper as well as other surfaces. When it
145. 6:13comes to paper, it may have different
146. 6:15types, textures, weight, specifications,
147. 6:18format, and size. What are the different
148. 6:21types of watercolor paper? Generally,
149. 6:22there are student grade paper and
150. 6:24professional grade paper. I highly
151. 6:26recommend you to use professional grade
152. 6:28paper for all your watercolor lessons.
153. 6:31Then we have different textures for
154. 6:32watercolor paper. Hot pressed means the
155. 6:35surface is very smooth. And then comes
156. 6:37rough surface which has which is heavily
157. 6:40textured. And then you have cold pressed
158. 6:43paper. This paper has medium texture and
159. 6:46I recommend cold pressed paper if you
160. 6:48are a beginner and starting to learn
161. 6:50watercolors. When it comes to the weight
162. 6:52of the paper, the weight is measured in
163. 6:55g per square meter. 300 gsm is the most
164. 6:58commonly used weight. You should look
165. 7:00for two important specifications when
166. 7:03choosing your watercolor paper. Whether
167. 7:05it's 100% cotton and whether it is
168. 7:07acidfree. Watercolor paper also comes in
169. 7:10different formats either as loose
170. 7:12sheets, blocks, ads or rolls. And then
171. 7:15we have different sizes of watercolor
172. 7:17paper. A size of 22 in by 30 in is
173. 7:20called a full sheet. Then you have half
174. 7:21sheet, quarter sheet, A4 sizes, A3
175. 7:24sizes, etc. I highly recommend that you
176. 7:26use a size not less than a quarter sheet
177. 7:28or an A3 sheet for your paintings.
178. 7:31Watercolor painting can also be done on
179. 7:33other surfaces like canvas, wooden
180. 7:35boards and any other surface. Only thing
181. 7:38is that the surface has to be first
182. 7:39treated with a special type of gesso
183. 7:42called watercolor ground. Hope you have
184. 7:45a good idea about watercolor papers and
185. 7:47different watercolor painting surfaces
186. 7:50that you can use to create your
187. 7:51watercolor paintings.