This week, i try something out of my comfort zone and paint a watercolor on hot pressed paper. It’s a watercolor paper totally smooth surface, with absolutely no texture…
Maybe you’ve noticed it, i’m painting a lot on cold pressed paper or on rough paper. Both of them are papers with lots of texture on it so that it will add or reinforce texture effects. But for this painting i went with a smooth paper ! Why ? Just because i wanted to try it. To try is the best way to know if you’ll liket it or not. Hot pressed paper is often used by illustrators because it can be scanned and not showing all the texture and grain of the paper on the scanned image. And I painted on it too for some illustration worked i’ve done like the one on the left. So i was very curious to see how this paper will behave with my own loose watercolor style.
This has been way harder than i thought ! Here on the left you can have a look on my first try. Maybe i didn’t choose the good subject for a first time, but this is crap. It looks so drafty, i have the feeling that i fought with my brushes. And nothing went as planned ! At some times i wasn’t able to make my colors flow on the page and seconds after they were flowing everywhere. I was lost. As lost as when i started watercolor. And i realized that i had developed so much habits with my usual paper. Painting after painting, i think less and less of how my paper would behave because i know it. It reinforced my opinion that practice is the best way to learn a technique.
Painting on hot pressed paper in video
SUPPLIES :
Brushes : Escoda Ùltimo nº8 rigger, Princeton Neptune 1/4″ flat, Escoda Versatil 1/2″ flat, Escoda Versatil nº6 round.
Paper : Arches hot pressed.
Colors : Ultramarine blue (Daniel Smith), Cobalt blue (Schmincke), Cerulean blue (Daniel Smith), Verona gold ochre (Daniel Smith), Quinacridone gold (Daniel Smith), Burnt sienna (Schmincke), Neutral tint (Winsor & Newton).
And here you have the finished painting (click to enlarge) :
