watercolor paper

So you ready to start to paint with watercolors?
We will start with the paper.
Watercolor paper comes in many sizes, textures, compositions, and thickness . It is also available mounted on a panel and in a block form.
For the beginner I would suggest the smaller size paper, maybe like 8x10.
Before we go any farther one thing to remember is in watercolor painting you don’t use any white paint. The paper is your white.
This brings us to the composition of the paper. The cheaper paper is made with wood pulp which will yellow with age, so the parts of your paintings left to look white will yellow with age. The best paper is made with 100% rag content and will not yellow.
The texture refers to the painting surface. In art stores you will find, rough, medium and smooth. Type of painting normally dictates the texture to use. Landscapes look good on rough and medium, smooth is more for detailed styles.
Thickness or weight of paper is a subject in its self, which includes stretching the paper. I will address this in my next posting.