Etchr Paper Samples

 

300g cold press, 100% cotton paper.  This paper comes in the Perfect Sketchbook, Etchr's top-of-the-line book. It was definitely the easiest to work with wet-in-wet, even outdoors, because the surface stayed wet longer.

A couple of months ago when Parka was showing daily video coverage of the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Auckland, he gave a discount code from Etchr Studios, a symposium sponsor, that was offered to anyone viewing, not just symposium attendees. Wanting to try an Etchr sketchbook for a while, I took advantage of the discount and ordered a pack (review forthcoming as soon as I get around to using one). I also got a swatch pack including samples of four Etchr papers. The pack price, $10 for four A6-size sample sheets, seems a bit steep – until you see that the $10 can be applied toward purchase of a sketchbook in the next order. Fair enough!

So that my experiences would be relatively fresh in my memory, I decided to use all four paper samples on consecutive days during the 30x30 Direct Watercolor challenge. You’ll see some of these sketches again in my direct watercolor finale post, but here they are together uncropped so that the paper type is visible. With only one sample of each paper, I can’t give any a thorough review. But at least with the techniques I used – mostly wet-in-wet, some with multiple layers – all four performed very well, even the 50 percent cotton cold press. (A few specific comments are in the captions.) I’m looking forward to using an Etchr sketchbook as soon as I fill my current Hahnemühle.  

230g cold press, 100% cotton. Even this lighter-weight version of 100% cotton paper took to multiple layers of wet-in-wet work well.

300g cold press, 50% cotton. Although I've been converted to 100% cotton by Hahnemuhle's excellent paper (250g), I must say that even this 50% cotton Etchr paper performed beautifully, maybe because of its weight. I'd want to use it several more times before recommending it, though.

220g hot press, 100% cotton. Whoa, after using nothing but cold press (except for a few random tries years ago), this hot press paper gave me a rattle -- and not in a good way. I imagine it's great to use with a fine nib fountain pen line that would be painted over afterwards, but otherwise, I would surely miss the texture of cold press. The paint flows very differently on hot press without all those bumps to catch on. It would take me a while to get used to this. Actually, it might be worth trying with super-soft watercolor pencils like Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelles . . . hmmm.