hello welcome to chief joe's art stuff my name is julie and i'm here to impart some knowledge to you
today via a two-minute art tip and today we're talking about watercolor paper surfaces um i had
some questions about this and also viewers ask me like what my favorite surface is well it depends
i mean it depends on what i'm doing and what the original idea is and let me tell you why if you're
not familiar with watercolor paper surfaces and honestly i really wasn't when i started here at
chief joe's in art school they really didn't tell us much of anything about material and
i had to learn on the fly and quick so i wanted to share some knowledge with you guys today that
maybe can help you navigate this kind of decision uh about what surface that you're choosing as you
may or may not know we'll just go ahead and grab us a piece of paper here so i can demonstrate what
i'm talking about but watercolor paper like the really really good kind is actually made
from a slurry of cotton fiber and water and sizing and stuff like that
when the mold or this wire mesh form actually passes through the vat of slurry it's picking up
uh fibers irregularly as it goes through they just kind of land on there in whatever arrangement they
so choose and then you'll get a decal along the outside edges because the fibers are just kind of
sticking and overhanging as they they lay down um when that sheet comes out the other end
there's various treatments that they can do to that surface however if they choose to do nothing
to it at all and just kind of let it be what it is then you have rough watercolor paper which
means that you have the irregularity of the way that the fibers laid down on the surface just as
they occurred so you have a very artisanal kind of rough tooth to that paper because of all the
regularities of the fibers laying down some people really really dig this it has a very artsy quality
and you get a lot of happy accidents because you have less control because the surface
is so kind of irregular i myself um i can create accidents all on my own thanks so rough for me
just particularly is not my favorite but um i've seen some amazing amazing things happen on
rough watercolor paper and artists do just completely astounding things on that surface
so then we go to the next um surface which is cold press and the only difference between rough
and cold press is is that the paper as it comes out is actually pressed between two cold rollers
there's no heat applied it's just actually it's kind of like as i've described it before
ironing your shirt without the iron plugged in you know so you're getting the benefit
of the the pressure but not actually the heat and so what happens is some of that tooth is actually
smooshed down and you don't have quite as an irregular or high tooth on a cold press
now most of you folks that are out there and have some experience in watercolor were likely trained
on a cold press surface and cold press is by far the most popular and it's because so many
people kind of get used to it and understand the way it behaves and they just kind of stick there
and that's totally fine i use cold press quite a bit and then the next surface that i wanted to
talk to you about is actually called soft press this came along you know probably 20 years ago
i guess or more what it is is it's a next step smoother from cold press the paper comes out and
is actually put through a series of rollers on a low heat so again like ironing your shirt on a
low heat setting and so you have more of the tooth lay down and you actually achieve a softer surface
with a with a less toothy surface there were several several manufacturers that that offered
a soft press variety now i believe that we only carry like two i think lana and maybe fabriano
it's not as common and people aren't as familiar with it and so they're a little bit fearful to
try it but it's absolutely beautiful and if you are into detailed work or maybe you
um do some drawing on top with your watercolor and stuff like this it is a great surface to look at
it's absolutely beautiful and then our last one is actually hot press and as you can imagine it's
the smoothest of all of the watercolor surfaces that we offer because the um the paper is actually
milled and then rolled through heated rollers which actually basically irons the cotton fibers
down like it would if you ironed your shirt and so you get a beautiful slick silky smooth surface
it's great for drawing it's great for pen and ink it's great for you know watercolor and you
know all kinds of other applications that maybe the tooths of the other surfaces aren't quite
as conducive if you've ever wondered a little bit about um watercolor surfaces these can be
maybe a help to kind of clear things up and help you in your decision making
when you're shopping for new papers and stuff so we hope that you enjoy enjoy
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