Total Art Soul - for artists

Following on from my pencil adventures (don't know how I stand the excitement :) ,  I've been searching for the perfect paper to use them on.  I must admit, up until this point I'd largely just picked up whatever appealed and played with it, but now I've got to produce a series of images for a single client it suddenly became a serious issue.

As these images will be reproduced for printing, I needed paper that would provide a clean, crisp image. That shouldn't be too difficult, surely- paper is generally white and flat. Isn't it?

I narrowed it down to hot press paper (I always use watercolour paper, even for drawing ) - that has a smoother surface, which I need to get in the detail. Further reviews ruled out papers that were too creamy and would look dark when photographed. I was feeling quite smug and organised until I tried to narrow it down further to find one that wasn't sized with gelatine (I'm vegetarian). Sizing incidentally affects how much water the paper absorbs, in case you'd not got that far yet.

After about four hours I found one site that offered thorough reviews and product info on a whole pile of watercolour paper - this'll make things simple thinks I.....


'the rattle
has a slight warble '


Eh?


'it has a soft tooth  
from the blanket '  

Sorry, what ???



Now, I know all these things have got to be called something, but what's wrong with words like 'texture' all of a sudden? Not only was I starting to wonder if I should also use a secret knock next time I went to get paper, poor Rich was developing a twitch just listening.

Before any prospective painters run screaming from the room, help is at hand.  I've had to include the link here as this glossary of terms is several pages long, but it is in alphabetical order :)


http://www.paperindex.com/resources/glossary/

It's no wonder so many people buy a box of paints and a pad to try this out, then never get any further. So many of the products in art stores don't come with any kind of explanation or instruction- something I will endeavor to clear up in a later post. In the meantime, rest assured that you're not the only one starting to feel like they're in a Bill Bailey routine, when all you wanted was something white and flat to draw on...

Karen (the one without the beard)