Professional Watercolor Papers: A Performance Comparison II

This video takes an in-depth look at 11 professional watercolor papers and one student paper, testing each for quality and its influence on painting. Professional artist, Jill Poyerd, guides the viewer through multiple paint applications so they can see for themselves how each paper responds to different painting situations. The papers reviewed are:

Shizen
Millford
Hahnemuhle - The Collection
Winsor & Newton (new version)
Schut Nobless
Strathmore - Imperial
Strathmore - Aquarius II (recently discontinued)
Two Rivers
Baohong
Bee Cotton Rag
Hahnemuhle - Expression (student paper)
Hahnemuhle - Turner

**Note that since the publication of this video, Strathmore 500 Series Aquarius II watercolor paper has been discontinued.

Watch EPISODE I:

#artchannel, #youtubeart, #arteducation, #watercolor, #watercolorpainting

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Enjoy more of Jill's videos at @JillPoyerdFineArt

Jill also produces ONLINE PAINTING CLASSES available on:

Beginner to Master Art Academy

[greekveteran]

I came back, to say that a year ago, the wrong paper choice, almost made me quit, my fresh at that moment, watercolor journey! This video saved it, and I'm still refering to your videos, when I want to try something new, to find out what paper to choose!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH, for everything you've done!!! <3

[starr-starr]

Once again, a brilliant, in depth comparison of professional watercolor papers. I learned a lot from this! Thank you so much for all this hard work.

[awatercolourist]

Just like your first paper comparison video, this is an excellent and informative video. Thanks so much for making it 🙂

[Crlglz]

Your video is so professional and love your voice! Thanks for sharing all the testing on the papers.

[lucieburelle]

Thank you so much. I appreciate your generosity, scientific approach, objectivity, and pieces of advice.

[alicem]

This was a pleasure to watch. It was a well organized and well executed exploration. Thank you so much for your efforts! I’ve been curious about a few of these papers.

[MBDronePhoto]

That was very helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to produce this paper test.

[jennw]

Wonderful followup! I watched your first video on paper so many times.... I cannot BELIEVE YouTube didn't show me this one! Sadly, Aquarius II has apparently been discontinued. Too bad since it was so unique, and a cult favorite for certain art uses other than watercolor. Ugh, the warp on the Winsor & Newton... it used to lay so flat! It seems your W&N was sized better than my samples (from the looks of your wet-on-dry wash test). Mine were bought just after the transition; perhaps they improved it. Hahnemuhle Cezanne/The Collection and Lanaquarelle have turned out to be my favorite papers, but you are right about the speckling. It happens more the finer the pigments are, so your phthalo green in the wash test showed it well. I have been curious about Hahnemuhle Expression, but the price has never been favorable enough (in the US) for me to bother to try it. It is, in theory, harder sized than The Collection, but your tests didn't particularly reveal that. I've been curious about the Turner paper, just because of the lack of surface sizing, so that was fun to see. I wonder, did Turner use this type of paper? In that vein, I was so surprised to see that Milford was only internally sized. I've tested a small sample but it was hard to tell much. It's hard sizing is apparently legendary in Britain, where some really love it to create snowy effects with quick and expressive dry brushing. Baohong has become very well regarded here on YouTube... it is available in loose sheets on Amazon and Etsy, as well as rolls on AliExpress (although the Chinese paper sizing is very confusing... I haven't been able to quite find the 22x30 on AliExpress).

[js]

New subscriber. I'm a newbie learning heaps from your fantastic tutorials. Thankyou for all your time and work. It is greatly appreciated.

[stewarth]

So much great information. Thank you for putting so much effort into this!

[GoldenTweezer]

Very thorough and detailed ! Also great narration !

[Opel]

Very interesting and informative! Thank you.

[terrifyingtyrannosaurusturtle]

I caught this one super early! I'll definitely watch this one after work, really looking forward to it!!!

[mb]

Thank you so much for this!! You are helping us a lot with your informative videos!!

[errorhttp]

wow thank you for your wonderful videos

[MohanrajK]

Thank you Jill for this video. I am using Expression paper recently. I felt it was drying too fast. Now your test has confirmed this .. will try to be little faster now 😁

You should test Chitrapat too.. it's white Handmade cotton paper

[nicoleperron]

Going to look for your other paper video, thank you so much for this.
I just had the experience of trying Canson XL 140 lbs paper thinking that all watercolor papers were cotton, OMG I thought there was something wrong with me!
It's not the same as Arches, but Arches has gotten so expensive, I was looking for something comparable, I tend to work rather wet.
This is why I'm now very invested in learning about watercolor papers

[mulekicker]

Great job product testing and performance summary. I am so new to art and watercolor my shade would be somewhere next to sap green. Luckily, I started at thrift stores, and big box 1st. time discounts and only getting a couple entry level products.

[karlkanner]

Thanks so much. This was absolutely wonderful and really informative!

[wildflower]

Great video, but disappointed you didn't put a results chart up at the end. I will have to go watch the reviews at the end to make my own chart, because it was handy to be able to compare all the attributes together. I must have missed it if you mentioned why Arches wasn't one of the papers compared?