Art Paper and Testing Techniques

The wrong paper. Yep, I did it again. I chose Arches Aquarelle for my current piece - hot pressed, a nice smooth paper, a good white without being cold.... did all the drawing, then tested my first brushload of color on an offcut... oops. Did they put ANY size in this paper? The fibers absorbed so much water you could see them swell. Luckily I can get away without totally flat washes with this one. And why, oh why, didn't I do a test piece first? Especially when I constantly give that advice to readers!

TEST YOUR TECHNIQUES. Whenever you are starting something new, have some of the same paper spare - buy an extra sheet if you have to, or use the back couple of pages of your sketchbook. Never try anything out on different paper or on a finished work. Different papers behave very differently - the masking tape might lift only graphite off one sheet, while ripping a heap of fibers from another. A reader recently wrote asking for help about a buckled drawing. The heavily shaded area had flattened and rippled, partly because of the soft sketchbook surface underneath. We discussed a few rescue attempts, but I wasn't optimistic. A few moments of shading a dark tone in the back of the sketchbook would have established that there was going to be a problem at the outset.

Some things to test your paper for:
• Sizing - water-resistance for ink wash and watercolor pencil
• Thickness and strength - will it stand up to vigorous technique?
• Tooth - will it hold the graphite, charcoal or pastel layers?
• Tooth again - can you erase your medium?
• Texture - is the surface fine enough for the amount of detail you need?

More on Paper:
Paper - What's in it, and how to care for it
Why is Art Paper Expensive
Paper for Graphite Pencil
Paper for Charcoal and Pastel
What are Parchment and Vellum?
Which Paper for Giclee Printing