When I started watercolor painting, I used wood pulp paper. After familiar with the characteristics of watercolor, I switched to 100% cotton watercolor paper. The identified characteristic of wood watercolor paper is poor water absorption. Comparing with cotton paper, the water infiltrates into the wood paper comparatively slowly. Before the water evaporates, the paint pigment migrates with water on the paper surface. It is the fluidity that makes the watercolor painting difficult to control on the wood watercolor paper. After a period of practice and get the skill of water control, I can also get good painting effect on wood paper (see the title picture).

Cotton watercolor paper absorbs water much faster. When color paint is being applied, the color pigment penetrates into the paper and fixes faster. Even if the surface water is still flowable, it is not easy to get “dirty color” when you mix another color of paint on the paper. The color on wood paper is more likely to run away due to the flow of water, which is why the effect of the completed work sometimes are far from that of expected for some beginners (see above picture).

However, wood watercolor paper is not all bad things. It is precisely because the water soaks up slow, in case that the color is not ideal, you can wash the color away and re-color it. The cotton paper can only wash off a little bit of the pigment of its surface and if recolored it tends to become dirty. Wood paper can also use the effect shown in the figure above to produce special pattern, but cotton watercolor paper is not easy to have that feature. In addition, the price of wood pulp paper is much lower than that of cotton paper, but the characteristic of water soaking and scrub resistance of wood paper varies greatly among different brands. It may be the result of the selection of different woods and manufacture technologies applied.

The wood paper I chose was mainly two brands: Canson and Strathmore, and later fixed using Strathmore 400 series, which I think the best wood pulp watercolor paper I have ever used. It is relatively faster water- infiltration and resistant to peeling (see above picture).

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