It surprises me not too many people have mentioned Winsor & Newton watercolour paper. At CAD$18 each currently on Amazon.ca, the price is more than reasonable for 100% cotton cold pressed watercolour paper.
The Specs
This wired watercolour paper pad is made in Italy.
Though the description does not say whether the paper is sized, the Amazon product description said it is internally and externally sized. It is cylinder mould made, just like Arches. However, I do find that Arches paper stays wet longer, and takes more washes before it buckles.
The Wash Test
I did four paintings following Let’s Make Art tutorials to test the paper. The paper buckled a bit with medium amount of water. It does stay wet longer than cellulose paper but not as long as Arches.
For the two paintings above, I tested whether I could lift the paint easily, and also with salt. The lifting was very easy, while salt went on just fine as well.
Next, I did some florals on the paper. At times the paint dries rather quickly and leaves hard edges and blooms, but if I rewet the paper I can still blend it out. By the way, I have used different paints on this paper, including dye based paints (from Let’s Make Art), MeiLiang and also Craftamo x Emma Lefebvre watercolour pans. They all worked fine on this paper.
Summary
Overall, I like this watercolour paper by Winsor & Newton, but I am not in love with it like I am with Arches. It is better than cellulose paper, but because the paper is fairly small, I am not able to do too much on it. It also comes in 9×12″ but not 100% cotton like this one. I hope Winsor & Newton will offer a bigger size version of this. The price is really good for professional 100% cotton paper, but I’d still recommend getting Arches. If I have to compare, I actually like the Craftamo 100% cotton paper better than this as well.
