For young children who are just learning to draw, parents usually buy the simplest drawing supplies, but any artist will confirm that even small details are important for the full mastery of art. Literally everything matters, not excluding the base, that is, paper. The reason for a child's average marks for fine art may not be a low level of diligence at all, but an album that was poorly chosen by adults.
Usually, children at school paint with watercolors, so the first thing to do is learn how to choose albums for them.
Features:
In order to choose the right paper for drawing, you need to understand as best as possible what the requirements are for the type of paint used for the base. For example, watercolor is a water-based paint, and although its weight is small, the abundance of water used in the painting process requires the paper to be thick enough so that it does not get wet through, allowing the paint to pass through.
At the same time, the high thickness and density of each individual sheet can significantly make the album heavier, which becomes a serious problem for a primary school student. Parents of such a child do not need the thickest watercolor paper, even within the recommended density range.
The fact is that there is a technique called "alla prima", when the base is pre-moistened abundantly with water in order to achieve the most smooth flow of colors. For such a drawing, very thick paper is needed, but at school children do not use this technique: the masterpiece will not have time to dry, and you cannot put it in a portfolio.
For parents, it would be a great temptation to buy an album with the thinnest sheets, because it will be more affordable at a price, but it is unlikely to be suitable for schoolwork.
Albums made of tissue paper are made mainly for pencil drawings, because pencils cannot seep through the base and stain the next sheet.
Nevertheless, at school they teach to paint mainly with paints - the advantage of this technique is that it is a little more complicated due to the possibility of transferring iridescent shades. In addition, the skill of using a brush will help in adult life to paint ceramics and jewelry or other similar creative work.
It should be noted that good watercolor paper often even involves drawing on both sides of the sheet, although this is more often the case for standalone packs rather than full albums. In cheaper varieties, the sides are considered equal, while expensive products often have a "face" and "wrong side".
Professional artists point out that a broken piece on one side of the sheet can be successfully corrected on the second page.
It must be said right away that there is no bad or good paper - there is an incorrectly selected variety. The technique chosen by the artist determines what kind of paper to take, so all existing varieties will be useful to different creative individuals.
Composition
First of all, you should pay attention to the variety of recipes for making watercolor paper.
Cotton
For instance, 100% cotton paper is considered an exemplary product for professionals, which in its composition does not differ much from fabric, however, this option is usually not bought for a child, because paper is too expensive, and it is not sold everywhere.
The product has many advantages:
- high hygroscopicity (ability to absorb water) in the absence of bends from getting wet;
- good drying speed;
- bright color rendering.
Although the baby will not get 100% cotton yet, you should pay attention to the composition of the album: cotton, most likely, is still included in the recipe, and the higher its share, the better.
Linen paper similar in properties to cotton, but less common.
Cellulose
A cheaper, but very worthy option would be cellulose paper. The difference is that cellulose does not absorb water as well, but it is still very resistant to breaking its shape, and therefore it is perfect for the "alla prima" technique, where it is required not to get the base wet, but to keep water on the surface.
Although 100% cellulose paper exists, any paper that contains two or three of those already listed in varying proportions: cotton, linen and cellulose are considered suitable options.
Other ingredients
Somewhat unfamiliar to the uninformed, but still very typical ingredients for inexpensive watercolor paper are various fillers such as spar, gypsum, or aqueous alumina. Due to fillers, the original whiteness of the material is lost, therefore kaolin, chalk and even white lead are also included in the composition, which in no case should be in goods intended for children.
Some manufacturers add blue shades to the paint for bleaching paper - Prussian blue or ultramarine.
There is also an unusual variety - egg paper. It is called so because it is made using ingredients from natural eggs, making it more viscous. There is also an aromatic mint variety.
Formats
Diversity in the assortment of paper products is also introduced by various formats that determine the size of the sheet. A4 is considered the absolute standard for schooling. - the parameters of such a sheet are 210x297 mm. There are sheets of smaller size, but they are more relevant for independent drawing, and not for schoolwork.
For professional training in drawing, large-format sheets are more appropriate - A3, A2 and even A1, where each subsequent format in the list is twice as large as the previous one (while A3, respectively, is twice as large as A4).
Surface
The type of sheet surface is also important.
- So-called clean (smooth) sheet manufactured by hot pressing. It is more appropriate to use it for small works, including drawing small complex details. It is also great for watercolor pencils and washes.
- For beginners, including children, it is better suited embossed paper, which is also made by pressing, but without heating. It is distinguished by its insignificant roughness, which makes it possible to use it in all known watercolor techniques. It is not a fact that it will allow you to reach heights in at least one of the techniques, but thanks to this decision a young artist will be able to try himself in all directions.
- Textured paper it is not pressed at all - it is simply dried, which gives it extremely unusual textures that are clearly visible to the naked eye - roughness or large grains. The texture sheet is great for modeling space - unpainted depressions give a special depth to images of urban and natural landscapes. This type of paper should not be used for thumbnails and other non-embossed objects.
Density
The density of the watercolor paper allows the material to keep out water and not warp when wet, which is inevitable in the process of painting with watercolors. The higher the density, the better the paper is considered. however, beginners are not advised to start with the thickest varieties, because such products are significantly more expensive... The minimum weight for watercolor paper is considered to be 200 g / m2 - and you should start with it.
If the product is not 100% cotton, then at this density it will warp strongly, therefore the sheet must be stretched and fixed on the tablet.
You should gradually switch to more expensive varieties - buy 260 g / m2, then 300 g / m2. At the same time, it is obvious that thin paper made of one hundred percent cotton will be of better quality than thick paper, but it contains a huge percentage of fillers in its composition.
In the case of schoolchildren, this question is rarely relevant, but you also need to choose the right colors for the album. School varieties are usually made of white or other paper of a similar color - this increases the likelihood of accurate color reproduction.
In this case, you also need to pay attention to how whiteness is achieved - due to the quality of the ingredients or due to the addition of bleaching agents - gypsum or paints.
Nevertheless, not all professionals choose exactly the white variations. For many artists, the ideal basis for watercolors is their own tinted paper, on which they themselves first apply a thin layer of white paint. Colored watercolor paper is also sold in specialty stores, and although there is relatively little demand for it, it can still be useful for certain creative ideas.
How to choose?
The above characteristics of watercolor paper are good when choosing a product in a specialized art store, where the range of products of this kind is quite wide, but in the middle office department of a supermarket, where albums for school are most often purchased, such a variety cannot be found. Therefore, it is worth focusing on simpler characteristics that immediately catch the eye.
First of all, you need to understand how the child draws. In a general education school, drawing is usually done right on the desk, and if the lesson is long enough for the paint to dry, you should buy a securely stitched or glued album - this will save it from childish pranks.
For aspiring artists, including art school students, it is better to purchase an album with loose leaves (on a spiral), since it is customary there to stretch the sheet onto the tablet so that it does not warp, therefore it must be separate from the album. The best professional paper is not sold by albums., it looks like a folder with initially separate sheets.
It is worth paying attention to the purpose of the paper. It's good if the manufacturer was not too lazy to depict the expected technique and tools for painting on the cover of the album, but if there is no such information, find the paper weight indicated on it.
If it is obvious from the picture on the cover that the product is intended for drawing with pencils or the density indicated by the manufacturer does not even reach 160 g / m3, such a watercolor album cannot be bought.
At the same time, small children do not need very thick paper either - it weighs quite a lot and, in combination with a large number of textbooks, will create problems for the kid with carrying the portfolio to school and home. For the same reason, small children do not buy albums with a large number of sheets.
For homework, a child who has never tried to paint with a brush before, 10 sheets for a test will be enough - if the child does not like it, this will save parental money.
Considering the frequency of drawing lessons in a regular school (on average, once a week), such a solution with careful handling will be optimal, it will be enough for a whole quarter of the school year.
If the child often spoils the drawings and redraws them again or draws much more often than once a week, you should choose albums of 20 or more sheets.
Chasing brands in the case of an ordinary schoolboy is hardly appropriate, so there is no need to search the Internet for reviews of other parents about this or that manufacturer. Well-known Russian giants of the creative industry "Gamma" and "Ray", as well as any other similar brands of watercolor paper, are fully consistent with the needs of a student of primary and secondary grades, who is not fond of drawing and does not achieve noticeable success in this matter.
Many imported brands, including a fairly well-known company Koh-I-Noorprovide approximately the same level of quality for a higher price. It is necessary to search for a product of a specific manufacturer only if the child clearly has talent and draws professionally, but here it is impossible to give specific advice for everyone, since the choice of paper depends on the favorite technique.
Adequate advice for each individual artist can only be given here by a teacher teaching a young master.
Useful Tips
A detailed description of all the criteria by which watercolor paper is selected still cannot convey all the subtleties of choosing a product of this kind.
If you need to buy watercolor paper, the following guidelines can help:
- The choice of paper (as a variety and type of design - an album or separate sheets) should be strictly linked to the peculiarities of drawing. Parents of a small child should ask the teacher what kind of paper is needed. If any watercolor album is suitable for a general education school, then art school teachers will most likely have more specific requirements.
- You should not choose paper for watercolor on your own as a gift to an artist who understands the topic better than the donor, even if parents choose such a gift for their child.
- The determining factor of quality for most types of paper is not even the composition or the exact shade of the surface, but the ability not to create pills when wet.
Cheap varieties of paper, heavily diluted with fillers, quickly roll off from careless brush movements, which makes a potential masterpiece sloppy.
It is rather difficult to determine this property of paper right in the store, but if the products of this brand have already shown themselves from a similar side, in the future it is worth trying another.
- Creativity is always a search, especially when it comes to optimal watercolor paper. You should not buy an unfamiliar product in large quantities, as its quality can be disappointing. This is especially true in the case of expensive varieties.
- Personal experience always gives much more information than any reviews on the Internet. Of course, if paper of a specific type and manufacturer is recognized by everyone as unsuitable for professional creativity, then you should not experiment with it. But ambiguous comments about the product should not scare away, but become an incentive for self-verification.
It is possible that people who leave negative reviews simply chose the wrong technique for drawing on such a surface, and for you this particular paper may be the best solution.
For a small overview of budget paper for watercolor, see the next video.
