PAPER - Types of Watercolour Paper - 3 surface types & 3 weights & How to stretch watercolour paper

I am going to keep this very simple and general.

We will look at:-

MATERIALS

WEIGHTS

SURFACES

HOW IT IS SOLD

SIZES

MATERIALS

There are 3 main types of watercolour paper.

1 Cotton Rag (or cotton)

2 Wood pulp (also called Alpha cellulose)

3 Polypropylene (Yupo is the brand leader in this paper)

WEIGHTS

There are 3 general weights of paper (i.e - how thick or thin it is)

90lbs - 200gsm

140lbs - 300gsm

300lbs - 640gsm

SURFACES

There are 3 types of surface that watercolour paper can have

Hot Pressed (also called HP, or Satin)

Cold Pressed (also called NOT (as in not hot pressed!)

Rough

HOW IT IS SOLD

Watercolour paper can be bought in different ways.

PADS, LOOSE SHEETS, BLOCKS, BOARDS

1 In a pad - either spiral bound of glued on one side

2 In a pack of loose sheets

3 As a watercolour block. This is just watercolour sheets stuck all around on each side with a 5cm gap of unglued paper for you to slide a knife under and cut each sheet off once you have finished and dried your painting). These are more expensive than the first 2 options.

4 As a watercolour board. Here a sheet of watercolour paper is stuck fast to a strong piece of board so that it does not buckle when you wet it. These are very expensive.

5 Rolls - as the name suggests these are large rolls and are very expensive

SIZES

Watercolour paper comes in these general sizes:-

Rolls of paper, which are usually 44 to 56 inches wide by 10 yards long

Elephant is 29 x 41 inches

Double elephant is 40 x 60 inches

Full Imperial 30×22 inches (approximately 76x56cm)

Half Imperial 15×22 inches (approximately 56x38cm)

Quarter Imperial 15×11 inches (approximately 38x28cm

A1, A2, A3. A4, A5, A6 pads

A range of traditional art sizes - 5x7 inches, 9x12 inches, 10x14, 12x16, and others

HOW TO STRETCH PAPER -

Please click this link and watch my video on this process - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXJHrHjhT0

NOW WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW

NO VIDEO!?

(If video does not appear and there is a blank space please click the

"RELOAD THIS PAGE" button or your REFRESH CIRCULAR ARROW icon at the top left of your screen).

Alternatively - scroll down on this blank space and you will see the word "Download" in pale grey. Double click on the word "Download" and the video will open in another screen with Filepicker which you can then watch.

WATCH OFFLINE?

Want to watch offline? Simply double click on the word "Download" and the video will open in another screen with Filepicker. In the bottom right hand corner of that screen you will see 3 tiny white dots in a column. Click on that and select DOWNLOAD. Then you can watch the video when offline on your device!