Watercolor Paper Weight

90 pound watercolor paper will accept a fair amount of water but is best used with less water than the average watercolorist uses and cannot survive a lot of scrubbing or abrasion of the paper.

Watercolor paper weight.

Which is what we will be comparing in today s study. The pad comprises 25 pages of hot pressed sheets which have a size of 5 by 7 inches. Paper less than 356 gsm 260 lb should be stretched before use. Watercolor papers typically require stretching before you paint otherwise warping or buckling will occur during the drying process.

140 pound paper is probably the most popular choice. Moreover the manufacturer will also allow you to pick between hot pressed cold pressed and rough paper textures depending on your needs and the artwork that you re going for. Paper weight is determined by two different methods. It is made of 100 cotton and both sides are available for illustration.

The 4 basic weights of watercolor paper is 90lb 140lb 300lb and 400lb. Contrary to popular belief heavier papers won t necessarily paint better. Typical weights for watercolor paper are. Weight is not indicative of quality.

The most common weights for watercolor papers are 140 lb. Light paper is anything less than 140 lb 300 gsm and heavy is 300 400 lb 600 850 gsm. This watercolor paper comes in five different weights of 185 300 356 640 and 850 gms along with different height and length variations. It s fairly stout can be stretched to avoid buckling when wet dries quickly and is medium priced.

The thickness of watercolor paper is indicated by its weight measured either in grams per square meter gsm or pounds per ream lb. 1 measuring a ream of 500 sheets 22 x 30 in pounds lbs or 2 by measuring a single sheet in grams per square meter gsm or g m2. Heavy paper can absorb more water and rarely needs stretching. It buckles when wet and can t endure much scrubbing for changes.

The three standard watercolor paper weights are 90 140 and 300 pounds. The lighter the weight the more buckling and warping you will encounter the higher the weight the thicker the papers and less as a result less warping. In fact i don t even like most 300lb oh excuse me 638gsm paper and i m not alone thicker papers cost a whole heck of a lot more and tend to be more absorbent which doesn t work for me because i prefer my pigments to float. However this time users of watercolor pencils will be more interested in this product.

It is also the least expensive. The standard machine weights are 190 gsm 90 lb 300 gsm 140 lb 356 gsm 260 lb and 638 gsm 300 lb. Otherwise it is likely to warp.