What is "Not" watercolour paper?

Although it is difficult to tell from the above picture, this is a wash on Schut Aquarel Flamboyant, extra rough paper. This paper is acid free and 50% cotton. Weight is 115 lbs. Made in Holland.

There are basically three types of watercolour paper. Cold Pressed, Hot Pressed, and Rough. However, sometimes you might see watercolour paper labelled as 'Not.'  This means the paper is 'not' hot pressed, but cold pressed paper.

Once in awhile you might find a paper called 'soft press.' Currently, I believe the Fabriano company makes the only soft press paper available. I haven't tested it, but the company says that it has a texture that lies between a hot press and a cold pressed surface.

Cold pressed paper has some texture but not as much as 'rough' paper does. Hot pressed paper is smooth, without texture. The surface texture varies from company to company so it is well worth the effort to experiment with more than one brand. Because this could become an expensive venture, try to find sample packages of watercolour paper.

If you belong to an art group, testing watercolour paper could be a fun group project. Each person participating would supply sample size pieces of one brand of paper. Reports could be written on the findings of each paper.

As a variation on this theme, the group could organize, and purchase a number of different watercolour papers which would then be distributed to participants in sample size pieces for testing.

If you have any questions about watercolour paper please don't hesitate to ask. If I don't know the answer I'll find someone who does.