Pamplemousse BFK Rives Paper Watercolor with white and brown-black ink Click to enlarge

I don't know about you, but I've been around citrus all my life and I'd never heard the word "pamplemousse." Today, when I needed a subject for a quick paper test, I decided to use some grapefruit that were sitting on the kitchen counter.

I was rather surprised to find that pamplemousse is French for grapefruit!

After I did the kitten in the prior post, I decided I wanted to test out the BFK Rives paper a bit more. I really wanted to see what it would do with just watercolor without a lot of ink. Since I had also purchased some new waterbrushes (Pentel Aquash) and some new pens (Uni•Ball), I figured I'd test them all at one time.

First the paper...if you click to enlarge, you'll see some odd marks on the large (whole) grapefruit. I'm guessing that's something to do with sizing. Look at the edge of the fruit...see how the edges bled and feathered? I'm not sure if that happened because the paper wasn't totally dry or if it's a characteristic of the paper. Either way, I'm no liking it overly much.

The pens are both Uni•balls, one in white and one in brown-black. The white was great for reclaiming the lost highlights and section lines in the cut fruit. The brown pen was used for the journaling and border. No problem with bleeds or feathering on this paper.

The Pentel Aquash waterbrushes are fun to work with if you like long pointed brushes! I primarily used the large one and find it very generous with water. A little to generous at times. All the same, I'll probably be taking those to NOLA Live!

I'm going to try testing the paper one more time, but if I had to decide today, I'd have to say it would be staying home!

So what fun new art toys have you played with lately?! Do share!

Kitten and Yarn Watercolor and Carbon Black Ink BFK Rives 175 g paper

With the upcoming trip to New Orleans getting ever closer, my search for a sketchbook paper that makes me happy is picking up pace. The kitten above was sketched in carbon black ink and then painted with watercolors.

The BFK Rives is a printmaking paper and accepts watercolor well. The paper has a very soft finish to it that allows for wild and varied results from the pens I normally use on location. (It always pays to check how your favorite tools act on a new paper!) I finally used a flex nib fountain pen with the Carbon Black ink to sketch this. My Lamy (with the same ink) bled and feathered to the point of distraction. Not pretty!

I've also found there isn't too much correcting on this paper. If you click to enlarge the kitten, you'll see I had difficulty with his mouth. I like the paper and I think it would work well on location, but I'm still searching!

I also tested out Cartiera Magnani Acquerello watercolor paper and knew as soon as I started out with my color swatches I wouldn't be taking this paper. The paper has a very distinctive pattern to it that become very evident when I put down my washes. Not unpleasant, just not what I'm looking for in my sketchbook!

Tombow Lightfastness Test

On the Hunt 3.5 x 8.5 Handbook Watercolor Journal Ink, watercolor & gouache

The gremlins are running amok in my life. They've gotten into my video equipment, the sound equipment, software, online services, my email account and things I've mailed through the USPO.....just to name a few areas where they're having a jolly fine time wreaking havoc! I'm not sure if they're stirred up because of the full moon or if the axis of the earth is off by some slight millisecond or it's just my turn. Whatever it is, I'm more than tired of it and ready for some semblance of what passes for normal around here.

The image above (assuming Blogger loads it as it seems to have had its fair share of gremlins, too) is one based in symbolism. The colors, the design, the items represented in the piece all have special meaning to me. Someone else looking at it may wonder what the point of the art was, but when I look back at this page, I'll know. No words need to be written on the page.

Using symbols in our work to represent things we don't want to give voice to or any more importance than it already has, is a wonderful way of getting them onto the page and out of our heads. Now that I've put the gremlins on notice, I hope they go back to wherever they came from!

Update on the Handbook Watercolor Journal....if you look at the very top of the page and along the left side, you will note dark and light splotches in the pigment. This was caused by very uneven sizing. Sloppy, really. Luckily, the paint grabbed darkest at the top of the page and is suggestive of sky with clouds in front of it. The side splotches just look like a bad wash job!

Since I don't often do full page washes, I'm not overly concerned with it; however, because of this and a few other things I've noted along the way, I would only recommend this book from a standpoint of pure experimentation and play or to test the long format. It is unfortunate too, as this book will not become a staple sketchbook in my world because I do like the format very much. I think it would be better to make my own, with paper I prefer than live with the unpredictability of when and where uneven sizing may show up.

The paper testing goes on.... (more here and here)

I am still working in the Pineapple Journal with the Canson Edition watercolor paper and I must say I am enjoying it quite a bit. The colors are bright and lively, the paper does NOT buckle under repeated washes and it dries fairly flat as well.

Detail of corrected area

This is a partial slice of the page and it's partial for two reasons....one, it's not finished nor is it likely to be and two, it based very loosely on an image I've seen out on someone's blog and until I have it in writing that they will allow me to use their image I will not post it in its entirety. It's about copyright law and respecting other artists' rights. That's the first tale of caution. It's way easy to get caught up in an image and forget to ask!

The second tale of caution is if you look closely at the brown area you may be able to discern two areas that were "corrected." If not, take a look at the next image.

Detail of attempted correction

See the two dark "lines" of pigment? One curves to the left and one to the right? I wanted to add yellow petals in this area so I lifted the color as lightly as I could with a scrubbie. Once dry, I attempted to add color back over the area. Yuck! The surface was very fuzzy with no sizing left and no amount of burnishing would repair the damage. The only thing I could do was to put the heavy brown pigment back. It is far more noticeable on the actual page than in the scan.

It would seem that the Achilles heel for this paper is that you do not make significant course changes or correct large mistakes. Once the pigment is down, it doesn't come up easily nor does the paper accept pigment back over the corrected area very well. I also tried using a correction using clear tape. No good there either as it lifted the paper fibers when I lifted the tape.

In short, this paper is not Arches and does not take a repeated beating. However, as a watercolor sketching paper to be used in bound/stitched books, it's has Arches beat hands down for the lack of cracking of the paper, warpage and ease of use!

Accordion Fold Journal - Canson Edition Watercolor Paper

Thanks to Ann at BlueBird Hill and Pam at South Carolina Low Country blogs, I have a new paper to play with and the first results are posted above! Ann and Pam both highly endorsed Canson Edition Watercolor paper and as luck would have it, the art store had two pieces in the 140 lb. weight left. I told them to stick my name on them, I was on my way!

First four panels with the "cover" still blank

I picked up the paper late on Saturday and torn it down for a journal that evening. I had a scrap that was a little over 2 inches (5.08 cm) wide and 22 inches (55.88 cm) long. I created an accordion fold with 8 panels. The images I painted are random things that cropped up over the weekend. Wildflowers, a new mug (which you saw yesterday), more flowers, a slice of cake (which you saw yesterday) and some tomatoes from an outdoor market we went to on Monday.

Close up of middle panels

Results: the paper folds well with no cracking. Again, it seems the pigment sits up on the surface of the paper with little seeping into the fibers as I was able to remove color with little trouble. The colors are very vibrant on the paper and this may be part of the reason! Corrections were easy as it allowed me to erase with little or no trouble. I still want to test it a little further though.

End of the journal with final panel blank

If you purchase this paper, you will notice a definite, marked difference in the textures between the front and back of the sheet. It isn't something that will bother me as I don't paint across the page that often, and I like the idea of having a rougher texture for some subjects. The decision will have to be made to either work in page/date order or to skip around if you want to choose the best paper surface for the current subject matter. Since my journals always tend to be a little erratic anyway, this hasn't proven to be an issue yet!

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with this "scrap" journal and I highly recommend this type of "play" if you are testing out a new paper—it provides spontaneity without the usual threat of a brand new journal to "break in." I hope to have the sketchbook/journal put together later today and I'll post it tomorrow if it is done in time! As I continue to test out the papers (Stonehenge and Canson), I'll post the info here.