Hey friends! It’s been a long while and I hope you are doing well in your artistic journey. Today I have a review of Mont Marte Cotton Watercolour Paper Pad, which may be of interest to you. To start, I bought this at my local HomeSense, part of TJMaxx just like Marshalls and Winners in Canada. Now, Mont Marte is a budget brand that I frequently see at HomeSense and Marshalls. While some of their products are surprisingly decent (e.g. their gouache), most are clearly for the occasional hobbyists and students.
Product Specifications
As soon as I saw that this is 100% cotton, with the price tag of just CAD$4.99, I bought two. Each of them has 10 sheets in A5 size, which are perfect for doing watercolour cards. (I usually halve each sheet for cards, by the way.) I don’t know how much this would retail at a regular store, as HomeSense/Winners/Marshalls usually undervalue the actual retail prices. Still, I would say $4.99 is quite a steal.
At 200gsm, this feels much thinner than the 300gsm cotton paper I usually use. The paper felt particularly thin after drying; it almost felt like the 80-100gsm cardstock when dried.
By the way, the texture of the paper is true to its claim, which is medium tooth.
Performance of Mont Marte Artiste Cotton Watercolour Paper Pad
I deckled the edges and started by misting the paper lightly, and instantly the paper buckled like it didn’t put up a fight. I used salt, but the effect was less visible since I had reworked the background. By the way, this was painted double sided; while there was no visible paint that seeped through, the paper is too thin to use on both sides if you have very dark paints on both.
Moreover, I used a lot of water to wet the paper, and the paper struggled. If you are a beginner prone to using too much water, or if you intend to use this paper for many layers and washes, this may not be the right paper for you.
Second Painting
On the second painting, I did quite a few layers but with a bit less water. Despite being 100% cotton, maybe because the paper is a bit thinner, I find that it dries fairly quickly. I ended up wetting sections at a time to paint because when I wet the whole piece, the paper dried before I had a chance to blend the paint.
As for lifting, it is more true to most regular watercolour paper, once the paper dries you may not be able to lift much. This is very different from some of the budget paper like Lightwish or Potente, which I find to have too much sizing, to the point that it’s very difficult to layer because the paints lift when you rewet the paper.
Again, the paper felt very thin after the paint has dried, so even though it is 200gsm, the paper will stay curled even if you have taped it down like I did with the cat painting. I compared it with the Etchr sketchbooks (the regular line, not the Signature), which have 220-230gsm paper, and the Etchr paper felt twice as thick.
One thing to note is that the washi tape didn’t damage the paper when I removed it. I had thicker paper (like the Strathmore one) that gets damaged when I removed the washi tape at a 45 degree angle. This paper surprised me in this aspect.
Mont Marte Cotton Paper Review
It feels like I am nitpicking when this is a budget art supply at such a low cost. So I will say that apart from it being thin and won’t take in heavy washes, Mont Marte Cotton Watercolour Paper Pad is a decent product. I just wouldn’t say it is artist quality. It is artist quality compared to their usual, if that makes sense. If you are not using a lot of water you will be perfectly fine with this paper.
