Watercolor Paper Weight

It s fairly stout can be stretched to avoid buckling when wet dries quickly and is medium priced.

Watercolor paper weight. 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. This watercolor paper comes in five different weights of 185 300 356 640 and 850 gms along with different height and length variations. 90 pound paper is a student grade and is rather thin. 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.

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. Contrary to popular belief heavier papers won t necessarily paint better. Watercolor papers typically require stretching before you paint otherwise warping or buckling will occur during the drying process. Their weight is 140 pounds 300 grams.

140 pound paper is probably the most popular choice. The three standard watercolor paper weights are 90 140 and 300 pounds. The standard machine weights are 190 gsm 90 lb 300 gsm 140 lb 356 gsm 260 lb and 638 gsm 300 lb. 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.

Light paper is anything less than 140 lb 300 gsm and heavy is 300 400 lb 600 850 gsm. It is made of 100 cotton and both sides are available for illustration. It buckles when wet and can t endure much scrubbing for changes. 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.

Weight is not indicative of quality. Art supply 11 x 14 premium heavy weight watercolor painting paper pad 140 pound 300gsm pad of 12 sheets pack of 2 pads. Heavy paper can absorb more water and rarely needs stretching. The thickness of watercolor paper is indicated by its weight measured either in grams per square meter gsm or pounds per ream lb.

However this time users of watercolor pencils will be more interested in this product. The most common weights for watercolor papers are 140 lb. Paper weight is determined by two different methods. Paper less than 356 gsm 260 lb should be stretched before use.

Otherwise it is likely to warp. The 4 basic weights of watercolor paper is 90lb 140lb 300lb and 400lb. Which is what we will be comparing in today s study.