Ok, so if painting watercolour pictures?...

Fancy Hats · Joined: 25 Apr 2009 Posts: 4

What should I paint on?
I'm doing a mock art exhibit for a school project and I'm painting watercolour pictures. But I'm not sure what to paint on, presentation wise. I have painted on a canvas before, and I've painted on paper.
Would be ok if I painted on paper from like a sketch pad, or should it be on a special canvas? Confused

Tango · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 1360 Location: Melbourne

Painting on paper is fine and the usual surface for water colours unless you want to go to the expense of canvas.. but the trouble with sketch pad paper is that it is probably to thin and will buckle when wet ,, water colour paper that is under 300gsm weight ( thickness) needs to be stretched ( which means wet and taped down to a board ) to stop it buckling.. Water colour paper can be expensive as well, if you are going to do a lot of paintings you could buy a watercolour pad , but you would probably be limited by the size that the pads come in...

gggraph

The results on drawing paper (cartridge) are usually disappointing. As Tango points out, it WILL buckle - probably even if stretched. Plus, the tooth (surface texture) doesn't lend itself to watercolour.

I assume that you are not going to take up watercolour full-time, that you want to create something that is obviously watercolour for the purposes of a display. I would be going 300gsm Arches medium (cold press) or even rough, depending on the subject. If you want to play really safe, go 600gsm. It's more expensive but is very unlikely to buckle on you. Both are usually available as full or half sheets.

Cheers

Grant