Complete Artist’s Manual: The Definitive Guide to Materials and Techniques for Painting and Drawing. Simon Jennings
Читать онлайн книгу.
× 22.5cm (7x 9in)
Jacqueline Rizvi rarely works on white paper. The rich, glowing effect of this simple still life is enhanced by the use of toned paper as a base for delicate washes of watercolour and body colour.
| WATERCOLOUR PAPERS | A well-known professor of painting used to say that no artist really succeeds until he or she has found his or her ideal paper. Today there are plenty of excellent watercolour papers on the market to choose from, and it is well worth experimenting in order to find the one that best responds to your working method. |
Paper production
There are three ways of producing watercolour paper: by hand; on a mould machine; and on a fourdrinier machine.
Handmade paper
The very best papers are made of 100 per cent cotton, and are usually made by skilled craftsmen. Handmade papers are lively to use, durable, and have a pleasing irregular texture. They are expensive, but worth the cost.
Mould-made paper
European mills produce watercolour paper on cylinder-mould machines. The paper fibres are formed into sheets with a random distribution, close to that of handmade papers. The paper is durable, extremely stable, and resistant to distortion under a heavy wash.
Machine-made paper
Although inexpensive to produce and to purchase, machine-made papers are less resistant to deterioration, but they may distort when wet. Some papers also have a mechanical, monotonous surface grain.
Choosing paper
Watercolour paper is an excellent surface for acrylics, pencil, ink, gouache and pastel, as well as watercolour. The character of the paper, and its surface texture, play a vital role in the finished picture. Very often it is the choice of paper that is to blame for a painting going wrong, rather than any inadequacy on the part of the artist.
Some papers are superior in quality to others, but it does not necessarily follow that an expensive paper will give you better results. The important thing is to find a paper that is sympathetic to what you want to do. For example, it is no good using an absorbent rag paper if your technique involves repeated scrubbing, lifting out and using masking fluid; the surface will soon become woolly and bruised.
Popular papers are available in local art shops. Specialist art shops stock less common and handmade or foreign papers; some are also available by mailorder direct from the mill or through distributors, who can send sample swatches, price lists and order forms.
Once you have settled on a favourite paper, it pays to buy in quantity. The bigger the order, the more you save.
Paper sizes
Sizes of papers will differ from country to country, and it is still common practice for art suppliers to describe paper in imperial sizes. The following table is a guide to imperial sizes and their metric equivalents.
Medium
22 × 17½in
(559 × 444mm)
Royal
24 × 19in
(610 × 483mm)
Double Crown
30 × 20in
(762 × 508mm)
Imperial
30½ × 22½in
(775 × 572mm)
Double Elephant
40 × 26¼ in
(1016 × 679mm)
Antiquarian
53 × 31in
(1346 × 787mm)
Experimenting with watercolour papers
Try out different textures and makes of watercolour paper until you find one which suits your painting style. As you become more knowledgeable, you will also be able to choose a paper to suit your subject.
In these examples, the artist has chosen a smooth texture for the nude study (below), which is perfectly appropriate for the tone and texture of the flesh. The winter-evening snow scene (centre) is ideally suited for a medium-texture paper which conveys the effect of misty light and captures the subtle grain of the snow. A rough-texture paper (bottom) communicates the solidity of the building and the dampness of the weather to the viewer.
Choosing watercolour papers
Choice of watercolour papers is very much a matter of personal preference; one artist’s favourite may be another artist’s poison. The chart below is intended only as a guide to a versatile selection of widely available papers. They have all been tried and tested by professional watercolour artists; however, your own assessment may be quite different.
Paper content
Apart from water, the main ingredient in making paper is cellulose fibres, derived from either cotton or woodpulp. Cotton is used for high-grade papers, woodpulp for others. Some papers contain a blend of cotton and other cellulose fibres, offering a compromise between cost and quality.
Cotton rag
The best paper is made from 100 per cent cotton. Although the term ‘rag paper’ is still used, the raw material nowadays is natural cotton linters. Rag papers are very strong, yet pliable, and withstand demanding techniques.
Woodpulp
Woodpulp produces a more economical, but less durable, paper. Confusingly, papers made of 100 per cent woodpulp are sometimes advertised as ‘woodfree’; this is a technical term meaning wood broken down by chemical means, rather than mechanical ones – it does not signify that the paper has not been made from wood. Mechanical woodpulp still contains lignin, which releases acids into the paper over a period of time, causing it to yellow and embrittle. The chemical woodpulp used in woodfree paper is processed to remove all the lignin.
Weight
The weight (thickness) of watercolour paper traditionally refers to the weight of a ream (500 sheets) of a given size, most often imperial (about 22 × 30in or 56 × 76cm). For instance, a 72lb paper is a light paper, 500 sheets of which weigh 72lb. The more accurate metric equivalent of grammes per square metre (gsm) is now common. Lighter papers (less than 300gsm/140lb) tend to buckle and wrinkle when washes are applied, and need wetting and stretching on a board before use. Heavier grades don’t need to be stretched unless you intend to flood the paper with washes.
Absorbency and sizing
All watercolour paper is internally sized to varying degrees, to control its absorbency and produce a more receptive working surface. Heavy sizing produces a hard surface with little absorption and a long drying time; this allows you to push the paint around on the surface. Colours remain brilliant, as they are not dulled by sinking into the paper. Lightly sized papers are softer and more absorbent, with a shorter drying time. Alterations are more difficult because the paint sinks into the fibres of the paper, but absorbent papers are suited to direct, expressive painting methods.
Internal sizing
Internal, or ‘engine’ sizing means that size is added to the paper at the pulp stage, and contained in the body of the paper. Internal sizing renders the paper robust and prevents colour washes cross-bleeding beneath the paper surface, even when it has been abraded.
Surface sizing
Many watercolour papers are also surface-sized, which is done by being passed through a tub of gelatin size (hence the term ‘tub-sized’). Surface sizing not only reduces the absorbency of the paper but it also produces a more luminous wash (on absorbent papers, colours tend to dry far paler than they appear as a wet wash).