Let's talk about paper

There's a lot of brand fetishism when it comes to materials - and I sometimes have a problem with this. (No kiddding.) I especially have a problem with this when the product is not lightfast but is priced for the pro, and when we, as a community, take the kool-aid and pass it around gleefully like it's the best beverage of the century.

If you are going to call yourself an artist, stake a claim to your creativity, and "grow wings" and all that - why would you not want to put your money into serious materials that cost only slightly more and sometimes much LESS than the toy of the moment?

Roz Stendahl's excellent excellent blog has outed some of my favorite materials as NOT lightfast.

Benefit from the wisdom of Roz's lightfastness testing here.

 

Spoiler alert: bad news about my favorites and probably some of yours: inktense and graphtint pencils. They are Dye based and fugitive. 

Now I use these like crazy - but every single time I use them I get out my scanner - and it's that illustration that I consider the finished work - the original is not something I would sell.

 I like the characteristics of these pencils too much to pass them up entirely.  But they are seriously fugitive - if you aren't scanner happy I would not use these. Period. Check Roz's tests!

If you are scanner happy like I am, and if pixels not paper are your "output" while you still do analog work, then you may be interested in my next statement.

If you want to save money - save it on pigments.  Don't save it on your substrate. Journal from the gut on any paper - but work seriously on good paper. 

 

Now why would anyone apply fugitive cheap ass media to excellent paper that's just going to be scanned anyway? I have a good reason.

Answer: the behavior of media on the paper is completely different from what you're probably used to.  Get ready for lively marks, happy accidents that you don't have to push and shove for, bleeds and drips and subtleties you just can't get without a fight on mediocre paper.

Part 1 : Watercolor.

Fabriano Studio Hot Press versus Uno (Rebranded as Artistco Soft Press Ultra White)

The Fabiano Studio hot press is nice, if you want a sheet of high-grade bristol, but expect your pigment to just dance around on the surface of the paper.  I like Fabriano Studio for collage, sheet journaling, and experimentation. It's not super cheap, but I think it's a bit more freeing than the pressure put on me by a Moleskine, and the paper is solid under glue and paint.

When I applied my relatively crappy (admit it they are!) Koi watercolors to the Uno - holy poopsicles, people.   My Koi colors suddenly rose to the occasion and started to behave like they had delusions of being Holbeins. The warm colors especially - got dreamy.

 Uno is discontinued, but I'm told that Fabriano Soft Press paper is the same thing. At 12 something bucks for 3 sheets via Blick,  the average mixed media junkie is thinking "you're kidding me" - well you'd be right except that would be 12 odd bucks for 3 22x30 sheets.

Don't worry, you don't even need a guillotine. If you've ever folded and reverse-folded and torn a great sheet of paper, you know how easy it is to get 12 small sheets out of 6 mega sheets.

Arches Pads versus Fabriano Studio

A lot of watercolorists insist on Arches. It's only marginally more expensive than Fabriano product and often priced the same. Now, in the studio-grade taped pad category, the Arches is significantly better and less Bristol-like. I love my hot press pad at about 10 bucks for 12 sheets of 9x12 hot press. The Fabriano is about 5 bucks for a pad of 8x10, a size I actually like using. Arches shoehorns you into 9x12. And with pad paper, forget about tearing smaller.

I've had the better Arches in block form, and honestly, I don't care for it remotely as much as Fabriano Artistico.  Your preferences will vary.   Arches is top notch paper, obviously.

 I'm a fan of sheet over block, I've found that it always seems as if some of the budget of a block goes into the block construction and out of the paper.

No Way.

If you just can't stomach this kind of pricing, you could go for the Fluid watercolor blocks by Global Arts, but do the math on the sheets of Artistico and you'll ask yourself why bother, other than convenience.  I think the Fluid is OK - it's better than Strathmore or Bee which I won't even use with watercolor.  (Both are awesome journal papers though.)

Small blocks for fast little works are decent enough.   You will get some of the flow and absorption that is missing from cheap paper - you probably won't step backward if you're doing water media.

Part 2 :The BFD with BFK

 

Acrylic? Gelli Plate? Drawing?  

Rives BFK has your back.  Again, BFK is pricey, but it's about 100 bucks a roll - think what 5 ho-hum paper journals run you.

Rag papers like these pick up a variety of mark making that other papers won't.  They hold up under erasure more. They wound in interesting ways when you scratch or over-erase them. They catch an amazing amount of subtlety if you're a gelli plate person, but you gotta treat them a little differently.  I'll show off some gelli stuff on BFK lighweight next post.

PLEASE don't do anything but collage in deli papers - monotype doesn't have to be a throaway free for all - you can take pride in your prints enough to put them on decent papers and consider them real works!

If you're dying to try something else, I'd do all my serious drawings on Legion Lenox 100 and that's that.  I haven't done much printmaking with Lenox, and I'm not sure it'd be great with gelli, perhaps I should see.

The poop with Faber Castell Gelatos - brutally honest craft product reviews

Gelatos. They were on sale, ok? I hoarded a few and they...sat and sat.

I played with them briefly. They're like drawing with lipstick, they re-activate with water, and they never seem to truly dry either, like an oil pastel having a bad day.

I was not enjoying the Gelato kool aid, and they sat for a while in my stash.

A not so secret? The poop with gelatos, is apparently that the "scrapbooker" level item and the kid's item which costs half as much are the same thing repackaged, though Faber Castell swears up and down that they're not.

Here's a nice shootout on YouTube by the Frugalcrafter, shout out to her. . Apparently there's no fading difference after 1 month either.



My gelatos sat and sat, and then I watched this Donna Downey tutorial for some reason - and that changed everything.



I'm a sucker for dripping paint. I Blame one of my favorites from the high art world,  Pat Steir.

So I thought I'd get a little cascade going on one of my journal spreads. Lo and behold, gelatos really get happy when you add the water to them. They deposit color while moving down the page in a way that a wash of Cotman watercolor just doesn't even come close to! (I tried both.) I'm not sure that Neocolor 2 would move with the flow the same way.

Would I use these to draw? Not really. Would I use these on fabric? How are people getting any kind of permanent adhesion with 'em? I can't see it. They don't stamp brilliantly well. But they do flow down a page of paper like butter when you spray them.

So I like having these for my dripping paint moments.

Others will disagree and insist that gelatos are a great multitasker, but I find them a single-use item. If you don't really care about dribbling things around - use your watercolors, use some good acrylic ink washes, use neocolor, use inktense blocks or pencils, use stamp inks for stamps.

Brutally Honest Craft Glue throwdown: Newspaper decoupage/mache

A decoupage heart. A glue throwdown: Mod Podge? Collage Pauge? Or go eco retro and use wheat paste?

So I wanted to get a layer of 100 year old newsprint onto some foam hearts for some fast gratification, and I decided "hey, you...let's test out different methods of doing this to see which works best!"

This newsprint is OLD and crunchy, so initially I thought soaking and wheat paste were not on the table.  Don't worry, nothing of major cultural interest was harmed here, just some meh pages from the ad sections of papers I bought for this kind of purpose. I'd use a flyer from a certain middlebrow grocery chain if I had one on hand, you don't have to be a vintage paper fascist like I am!

So we've got ONE step of ONE project three ways.  For your consideration.

CONTENDER A: MOD PODGE. (Plaid)
Technique - using water and mod podge, a combination of soaking, massaging brushing, tearing - in order to coat the subject.
SMELL: Grade School Craft table. Elmers-like.
MESS: Meduim-low.
CLEANUP: medium annoying.
VERDICT: Fail. -200 points. Do not pass go.

Oh everything started out smooth sailing. I was sure that Mod Podge was going to clearly outshine all other options - the paper went on silky, clean, straight and nice. Then, at about the three minute mark, all those tiny little strips began to stick to my fingers. And I mean stick.  And then the frustration commenced. Gahhhh!

I do not recommend this to anyone as a way to do this effect. It really looked like it was going to be today's winner, but as you see, I got fed up and stopped bothering. I'll be pulling this one apart and doing it over. I was honestly NOT expecting Mod Podge to bring the fail to this party, but for this application, I'd avoid it altogether. This doesn't mean that mod podge isn't ideal for everything else you can think of, just not THIS.


CONTENDER 2: COLLAGE PAUGE (Aileens Tracy Bautista branded)
Technique - using water and collage pauge, a combination of soaking, massaging brushing, tearing - in order to coat the subject.
Smell: Like acrylic gel nails at the nail salon. Not that I go often, but it's definitely THAT smell, kinda. Meh.
Cleanup: Same as Mod Podge
VERDICT: Surprise Win. This process is annoying so win is relative.

 Ok, it's not perfect, and I really don't like those little crumbly things that start to work themselves up as you handle your item at about that five minute mark of doom.  If this scarecrow had a brain, she'd paper mache one side of all her hearts let them dry and then flip them, but this is about getting a move on if you're an etsy seller or an impatient floozy like me, not someone who's gonna chill out with some rose petal tea in a vintage teapot while it dries.

Verdict: initially I wasn't feeling it, but relative to everything else? I am pleased. And I'm actually not surprised - I've NEVER been disappointed in an Aileen's glue since I was 11 and gluing pompoms to various cardboard crappacchino, capische? 

Aileens glues generally perform exactly as they say they will on the box. Collage Pauge is one of their less thrilling products, in my opinion, but it still pretty much does what it sets out to do! Yay!


CONTENDER 3: WHEAT PASTE (Your kitchen and an optional dash from your stash)
Technique - using water and wheat and acrylic medium , a combination of soaking, massaging brushing, tearing - in order to coat the subject.
Smell:  Vaguely like newsprint and cookies.
Mess factor: High.
Cleanup: Easy peasy.
ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED: Eco soundness and cost.
VERDICT: Better than a poke with an embroidery needle, but I'll take Collage Pauge, thanks!

Less than thrilled with A and B, I thought we needed a good control, so I whipped up some wheat paste with water, added a squirt of Blickcrylic gel medium to bind things, and away we went.  This won the speed round, but in my opinion kind of looks it.  The only really awesome part of this is the text that visibly says "behead an Englishman."  You're not going to get that from Tim Holz reproduction papers.

So what do you think? Did I miss something? Is there some tip to Mod Podge that I overlooked to keep from sticking to my project enough to want a glass of sherry at 9 am? I hope this helps you in your teeny weeny paper mache moments.

NB:  At this point in time I am paid by nobody and given product by nobody, and if I continue with BRUTALLY HONEST reviews, I imagine I won't be! If you appreciate this, do consider some facebook LOVE as a little favor to me, eh? Thank you!

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