Testing Various Papers for Watercolor for Painting & Woodblock Printing

I have slowly been collecting and testing papers for woodblock printing and watercolor painting. I do not yet have some of the famous watercolor papers such as Fabriano, but here are the ones that I have collected so far.

WOODBLOCK PRINTING PAPERS

It started with woodblock printing. As woodblock printing is a Japanese art form and also because of the pandemic I had limited access to papers designed for woodblock printing in regional Australia. I could only find Awagami papers which can be ordered online. For woodblock printing in colour, either watercolour or gouache paints are used. Even using Awagami papers, I struggled to produce satisfactory prints, and I thought it was my carving, paints, paint to glue to water ratio, my printing technique, or my baren, and was very frustrating. So I decided to order Awagami sampler, and decided to make a booklet of paper samples. Luckily with Awagami papers, I can find the contents and sizing information, so I wrote down those info on the back side. I was surprised to learn that some of the papers I was printing on, even though they were marketed for woodblock printing, had no sizing on them. No wonder I had hard time achieving a descent print quality. In Japan, artist sizes their own paper when they want to use unsized paper. For that I needed more tools and materials I could not easily get in Australia.

WATERCOLOUR PAPERS

I also tried to print on western watercolour papers, which did not work. When I started painting watercolor, I noticed the differences in how the paint colors blended on paper, how they dried, and the vibrancy of colors. So I decided to collect all watercolor papers I had and add them to the booklet.

I made a ring-bound booklet of papers in A5 size, like this.

I managed to find samples on Jackson's, which is a lifesaver, since the high quality papers are too expensive for me to turn it into the sampling booklet page.

Here are all 21 watercolour tested papers I have in my booklet so far. Click on each one to see it bigger and its info.

School Art Supplies Mixed Media Paper 300gsm

Arches Aquarelle Hot Pressed 300gsm 100% Cotton

Arches (sheet) Hot Pressed 185gsm 100% Cotton

St Cuthberts Mill Saunders Waterford Hot Pressed 300gsm 100% Cotton

St Cuthberts Mill Saunders Waterford Cold Pressed 300gsm 100% Cotton

Baohong Academy Cold Pressed 300gsm 100% Cotton

Legion Stonehenge Aqua Cold Press 300gsm 100% Cotton

Jackson's Two Rivers Not 630gsm Cotton + Linen

Legion Stonehenge Aqua Hot Press 300gsm 100% Cotton

Jackson's Two Rivers Not 300gsm Cotton + Linen

Jackson's Two Rivers Not 410gsm Cotton + Linen

St Cuthberts Mill Saunders Waterford Rough 300gsm 100% Cotton

St Cuthberts Mill Bockingford Hot Pressed 300gsm 100% Woodfree Chemical Pulp

St Cuthberts Mill Bockingford Cold Pressed 300gsm 100% Woodfree Chemical Pulp

St Cuthberts Mill Bockingford Rough 300gsm 100% Woodfree Chemical Pulp

St Cuthberts Mill Millford Cold Pressed 300gsm 100% Cotton

Canson Montval Watercolour Cold Pressed 300gsm Contents Unknown

Canson Heritage L'aquarelle Rough? CP? 300gsm 100% Cotton

Awagami Bamboo Select 170gsm 70% Bamboo + 30% Recycled Paper

Fabriano Studio Watercolor Hot Press 200gsm 25% Cotton

Awagami Hakuho Select 220gsm 45% Kozo + 55% Cotton

You can tell from photos that papers that are not 100% cotton, not including Awagami papers, produce duller colours. I understand now why artists say to always get 100% cotton paper for watercolor painting. From my experience, I'd advise you to get materials that you can afford but not the cheapest, like those found in craft shops marketed mainly for kids. Cheap materials will only frustrate you and even make you doubt your skills, when the problem may be the materials you are using. In the long run, you will waste money on cheap stuff. That said, it's not true that the most expensive is the best. Many artists use Arches papers, but they are very expensive. I found that the first Arches paper I tried, the 185gsm, which is cheaper than 300gsm, still gave me beautiful results and did not warp too badly. Also, Baohong Academy paper, which I assume from the product name that it's student grade, is very good! Don't let the name "academy" fool you to thinking it is another lower quality paper. Baohong also offers professional grade papers at a higher price, but I went for academy since I saw someone review them and said they could not tell the difference.

Price is affected by your location too. I assume that since I am in Australia, Arches or Saunders are very expensive because of shipping cost. Baohong, on the other hand, is a Chinese company, which is geographically much closer.

I hope my tests help you in deciding which ones to try out, and which ones to avoid.

FYI I used Sennelier watercolour in half pans on these tests. On the Millford paper, I tried my newly acquired granulating watercolours. On Baohong, I tried different mediums.

I painted my first watercolor (mixed media, to be precise since I used neocolor 2s) piece on Arches hot press 185gsm.

Moths and Friends, 2025