We specialise paper sales for watercolour paper, and Xuan Paper for Chinese painting. Do you know Chinese painting also is a kind of watercolour painting?
Common formats of watercolour paper: Sheet, Block and Pad.
Usually sheets are large sized and could be cut into any desire sizes.
Basic Finishes of Watercolour paper:
Hot Press(Smooth, Fine)
suitable for drawing and you could combine pencil drawing with watercolour painting and colour is brighter than other textures. As no texture, slightly less wash control, dires quickly.
Cold Press(Med. Grain/Texture)
Used for most purpose, most popular paper, IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT TO PAINT, CHOOSE COLD PRESS.
Rough (Coarse, Heavy Texture, Strong Grain)
made for loose textyure and dry brush effects, such as landscape painting.
Weights of Watercolour paper
Most decent watercolour paper is available in various weights, but the most commonly used are: 300gsm. 300 g/m2, and 200 gsm.
If you use heavy washes, the 300gms can buckle if the watercolour paper hasn’t been previously stretched. You can pre-stretch your watercolour paper;
If you don’t want to stretch the paper, then using a 300lb watercolour paper is the answer, but with the paper being double the thickness, it’s often double the price.
Owing to language conversion on packaging, keep the words below for happy shopping.
Hot Press=Fine, Smooth, or Fine Graine
Cold Press=Med. Grain or Med. Textures
Rough= Coarse, Heavy Grain