Not gonna lie, Meeden Watercolor Paper Block and I were off to a very rough start! After hearing good things about this budget brand cotton paper, I finally bought the 7″x10″ block to try it out. Read on for a review, including some shocking discovery that might happen to you too.
The First Page of Meeden Cotton Paper
It’s hard to show in the picture but the first page of the paper block was very smooth. My iPhone camera enhanced the texture automatically, but it is very fine grain in person.
Right away, I was skeptical. The first page had a lot of weird spots and unevenness to it, and felt too smooth to be cold pressed. To be honest, my experience with Shizen unsized paper scarred me so much so that I feared this would be another waste of money.
I started with a light wash of colour on the first page, and right away, the paper bubbled and peeled off on the side. The paper felt very thin, there was no way it was a 300GSM paper. At best it felt like a thin hot pressed paper.
The paint went on streaky and uneven. I couldn’t work with it at all.
Once I took the page out, it was evident this paper was not 300GSM. I put it against a 300GSM paper and you can see that this first page isn’t even half the thickness of a 300GSM paper:
I looked up the reviews on Amazon and one reviewer mentioned the paper was very thin and not cotton, I suspect this was what happened to her. Since this paper had a lot of good reviews from artists, I decided to try the second page under it.
The Real Meeden Cotton Paper! Phew!
Thankfully, the second page looks significantly better and much more like a 300GSM paper!
Since I initially gave a decent review for Bee Company Watercolour Paper only to discover it didn’t work well with masking fluid and washi tape, I made sure I review Meeden Cotton Paper properly. I used washi tape on all four sides not to prevent the paper from warping, as this is a paper block that’s heavily glued down, but to see whether the tape will rip the paper. I also used masking fluid on the setting sun.
Performance Review of Meeden 100% Cotton Watercolor Paper Block
For this painting, I used a lot of heavy washes. It’s been a while since I painted anything so please overlook areas that could have been better. The paper did not warp or peel off on the sides. Moreover, the glue on the side stayed intact. The masking fluid and washi tape did not rip the paper at all. I had a good time painting on this paper. This is certainly better than Bee Company watercolour paper, which was less textured. This Meeden paper was equally textured on both sides so you can definitely paint on both sides.
Here, I painted “Our Happy Ending” on the other side of my “Torii at Sunset” Meeden paper:
At CAD$19.99, this block comes in 20 sheets, which is a better deal than the Fluid 100 paper blocks, and I dare say that this is even better, as this is glued on all sides.
After I finished the painting, I found a small opening from one side and slid a bone folder in and detached the paper. It was much easier than my Strathmore pad, which the glue needed to be cut for the subsequent paper underneath.
All in all, Meeden 100% cotton watercolour paper block is a very good find, I highly recommend it!
Does The First Page Count?
I realize that the first page might have counted toward the 20 sheets. I don’t want to cut the paper all out to count them, so I measured the thickness of the block. The whole block measures 0.9cm, and each sheet measures about 0.04cm, so I don’t think the first page is part of the 20 sheets. I will put an update here when I have gone through the whole block.
