By: Giovanni Antunez
watercolor

How to paint with watercolors – the basics – Part I

Watercolor paper part I

Watercolor paper – almost everyone who try to paint with watercolors have to struggle in finding the appropriate paper. In my opinion, the paper is the hard part of the technique, because most ‘good’ papers are more expensive. So, quality and price make it things a little complicated. The good news, some places sell paper that is fairly good…

Ave de Paraiso (Bird of Paradise)

A parade of Ave de Paraiso (Bird of Paradise) – watercolor on paper – 2016

The painting above was done with a ‘regular’ paper sell by JoAnn Fabrics (I have no financial connection with this store) – the paper could be sold in other stores on the Internet. This paper is sold already cut, it is small (6 x12 inches – for small projects), and it can hold a lot of water without the development of lumps.

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This is the JoAnn fabrics paper – Ranger Surfaces Watercolor Paper

This watercolor paper has a low price, and works well for dry, and wet techniques. Another option can be the paper sold by Strathemore, it costs a little more, but it is also resistant to water, and scratching techniques.

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This is the Strathmore paper – it can be found at Walmart and, most common Arts and Crafts stores

Besides the two highly recommended (by me) paper brands above, most papers available at Dollar’s stores, and others similar places are good for sketches, but they are not resistant enough to serious watercolor work, they producte lumps when repeated layers of colors, and water are added, and also they break easily, or, become bulged, which damage the appearance of the work.