Up next in 10
What paper is BEST for acrylic painting? | Mixed Media vs Acrylic vs Watercolor paper Test
18K views
Aug 1, 2022
Ever wondered what type of paper would be best for your acrylic painting projects? We are testing and comparing mixed media, acrylic and watercolor paper and see which ones do well for various acrylic painting projects. Paper Tested in this Video: Arteza watercolor paper: https://www.thebuzzedartist.com/watercolor-paper Arteza mixed media paper: https://www.thebuzzedartist.com/mixedmediapad Arteza canvas paper (400gsm): https://www.thebuzzedartist.com/canvaspads Phoenix canvas paper (230gsm)
View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video, we're going to be talking all about paper
0:05
Now, when everyone thinks of acrylic painting, you probably think about having a canvas to paint on
0:11
But as you may already know, canvas can get pretty expensive. So lots of artists, especially those that are just starting, like to turn to good old-fashioned paper
0:22
Because it is thin, takes up less space, and it's just generally less expensive than its canvas cousins
0:28
But by now you probably also figured out that the very act of choosing the right paper isn't entirely cut and dry
0:35
And you know what? You are absolutely right, you beautiful piece of person. In fact, there are several types of paper out there that yield different results for your acrylic paintings
0:44
So here's what's going to go down. Instead of going through hours and hours of painting sessions just to figure out what type of paper that you like to work with
0:52
or buying a bajillion paper pads that you'll probably never use, or you're just kind of tired of harassing that Michaels employee for the ninth time in a row
0:59
to tell you all the secrets of the art world. Come on, Chad, who really is the Mona Lisa
1:04
I will be doing all that hard work for you in this video. Yeah, baby
1:08
I'm going to be doing some paper experiments. We're going to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly
1:13
so that you can decide what paper you would prefer for your next art project
1:18
Let the experiments begin. now to begin this experiment we first got to understand one important criteria about paper
1:27
in general and that is its weight that's called gsm which is grams per square meters whenever
1:33
you're dealing with an acrylic project you want to make sure you have heavy paper aka paper that's
1:39
at least 120 gsm or above and in fact the higher the gsm the better and in our experiments we're
1:48
going to be proving that. And the reason why you want thick paper is because when you're painting
1:52
and using the water-soluble nature that is acrylics and the bristly bristles of your brushes
1:58
your paper needs to be thick enough and strong enough to withstand all of that. So if you've
2:03
ever painted on say printer paper for example, printer paper is going to warp, it's going to
2:08
buckle, and most likely tear. It won't be able to hold its own when trying to hold all that paint
2:15
on itself. It's literally going to rip up like a cheap suit. Don't do it. Now this experiment is
2:19
going to involve three different types of paper that you would commonly find in an art store or
2:25
to start out with. Now with each of these paper types we're going to be looking at a set list of
2:30
criteria and I'm going to test against those categories to see how that paper reacts, what
2:35
the paint looks like, and basically any other observations that we can make. So let's dive on a
2:45
of paper and then cut them down into similar sizes so we can have easy comparison. You'll see
2:50
that I have four pieces here because two of these pieces of paper are canvas paper and one is a 230
2:56
gsm while another one is 400 gsm. So you have different weights of paper and I wanted to show
3:02
that here so we can see how it reacts when we apply acrylic to it. So let's talk about the types
3:06
of paper that we're using. We have a mixed media paper. This is Arteza's premium mixed media which
3:11
comes in at about 180 gsm. We have canvas paper from the Phoenix brand, it is at 230 gsm. We have
3:19
canvas paper from premium arteza and that's at 400 gsm. Also have watercolor paper from arteza as well
3:27
This is a new one that they actually sent me so I really interested to see how this performs in comparison to the other papers And this one weighs in at 300 DSM which is surprisingly thinner than their canvas paper And I do also want to make note that all the papers
3:42
I'm using here are acid-free, so they won't yellow over time. And even though I am using
3:47
these specific brands of paper, my intent is to universally show what each kind of paper can do
3:53
regardless of the brand. So while one art brand's watercolor paper may be better than another brand's
3:59
watercolor paper, the comparisons still remain relatively similar. So just be sure to take the
4:05
gist of each of these experiment results as you go. The specific categories we're going to be
4:11
testing against are flow, spreadability, warpage, blendability, and texture. So after I cut all my
4:19
pieces of paper together, I proceeded to test according to these various criteria. And after
4:26
thoroughly testing each paper type I decided to compare my results. Let's first talk about flow
4:33
For the flow category what I'm referring to here is the creation of crisp sharp lines and how
4:38
difficult or easy it is to accomplish using a detail round brush. For the mixed media paper and
4:44
the watercolor paper I did notice that my paint was really sucked into the paper and I did notice
4:50
that I was running out of paint about three quarters of the way through which means that I
4:54
need to reload my brush with more paint and water to ensure my lines stay smooth and crisp and sharp
5:02
But on the other hand, when I tested it on my canvas papers, I noticed that the paint did not
5:06
get as readily absorbed into the paper, which allowed me to keep my lines really crisp without
5:11
needing to reload as often. So if ever you've struggled making clear crisp lines, you may want
5:17
to consider the type of paper that you are using because depending on what it is, you may actually
5:23
have a lot more trouble than others. And kind of going in the same lines, the second criteria
5:28
which is spreadability, this refers to how much paint your paper surface wants to absorb, which
5:33
can lead you to use up more paint in the long run and may require a bit more work from you to get
5:38
even coverage on your surface. So with the mixed media paper and the watercolor paper, kind of like
5:44
how I saw with the flow category, my paint was immediately being sucked into the paper and I was
5:49
noticing that it needed to reload much sooner and thereby use more paint. It doesn't mean that it
5:56
comes out looking worse or bad. It just needed more. It just needed a bit more work. Now with
6:01
both the canvas papers, both the 230 and the 400, I easily could spread out my paint on one brush
6:08
load without having to reload as often, thereby reducing my paint consumption. So if you're
6:14
looking for paper that gives you the best crisp lines and spreadability without a whole lot of
6:19
extra work or paint, canvas paper does the job really well. Now going into the warpage category
6:27
I decided to look at how my paper buckled and warped as I applied various painting techniques
6:32
like water blending and heavy paint buildup to the paper surface. What I noticed was my mixed
6:37
media paper, my 230 GSM, and my 400 GSM canvas paper samples seemed to be the most affected by
6:44
the warping, especially with the 200 GSM canvas paper, got hit the hardest with not only warping
6:50
but concentrated buckling spots where I added water for blending. This again totally makes sense
6:56
because this paper is lighter than the 400 GSM and thereby is more susceptible to warping. But
7:03
when I was painting on the watercolor paper I experienced minimal buckling I barely fought with the paper and I was able to evenly paint throughout the entire process which is a godsend if you trying to work on specific areas and details and you don want your paint to kind of get welled up in certain areas of your paper
7:22
So in the warpage category, watercolor paper won by a landslide. In fact, I didn't even have to tape it down. That's how sturdy it was
7:30
Okay, so the next category I just cannot wait to get into, which is blendability
7:35
And blendability looks at how easy it is to blend colors together to get the smoothest looking blends and areas
7:42
I wet a certain area on each paper with water, and then proceeded to mix some colors together on that moist surface, just to see how things react
7:53
Now here's where it got a little interesting. When I went to test the blendability section and add water to the two canvas papers, I noticed that the surface integrity of the paper itself was starting to disintegrate
8:07
Okay, I'm definitely seeing some paper piling on some corners here. I'm also getting some paper pile up here. Maybe just not as much as thinner paper
8:17
That's a little concerning, especially if you're trying to do a lot of blending and you like to use a bit more water on your canvas paper
8:23
You'll have to be very careful when you're doing that. Of course, the paper that had heavier weight didn't pile as much, but it still piled a little bit, which was a little sad
8:32
And as for the multimedia paper, the blending was as you would expect. You had to work a little bit to get the colors to work together
8:39
But all in all, it did a pretty good job. But the watercolor paper completely blew me away
8:47
The paper is very thick and extremely absorbent. It allows for paint and water to flow very, very easily together to give you optimal blending
8:57
without compromising paper integrity or getting paper piles. And that's a big thing I fell in love with
9:03
You get amazing looking color blends and you can layer a ton of paint and build
9:09
without ever compromising your paper integrity or getting a lot of buckling
9:13
If you're looking for a paper surface that can give you the best, beautiful, most organic looking blends and colors, I would definitely hands down choose watercolor paper
9:26
Now let's talk about texture. The texture category is really something to pay attention to here because this is the biggest one that can yield different looking brush strokes and paintings depending on the paper that you choose
9:37
so like multimedia paper and watercolor paper are both fairly smooth while canvas paper mimics the
9:44
surface of canvas fabric, showing thread patterns. When I painted on both the test samples and actual
9:50
paintings, I noticed similar results. And just to elaborate this point further, I made three types of
9:55
paintings of the same subject but on three different types of paper, mixed media, canvas paper, as well
10:02
as watercolor paper. With the acrylic paper yet you can definitely see the textures from the fabric
10:08
showing up underneath unless of course you really pile on the paint then it may not be as apparent
10:14
Because of those little textures your brushes are going to catch on to it and give you a little bit
10:20
of a rougher surface. Some artists are totally about this look because it appears much more
10:25
organic and a tad more abstract while others don't really like that fabric pattern to show through
10:30
and that's purely your preference. This is mixed media paper. You don't really see the texture of the paper
10:37
showing through from the brush strokes. Great for quick work. It's great for you to kind of flesh out an idea
10:42
and kind of see where you want to go with something but you not exactly going to get the most sharpest of brushstrokes with using multimedia paper And then compare that to our watercolor paper You can see
10:54
here that watercolor paper, just the blendability is really, really nice. The brushstrokes are smooth
11:00
You can really go far without having to worry about fabric of the canvas itself. So for example
11:07
what I would probably use canvas paper for are more for landscapes and any paintings that I prefer
11:12
to paint on the looser side. And I would reserve my watercolor paper for the more glass smooth
11:18
painting projects that I like, such as my pop art paintings, my cartoon characters, or if I even want
11:24
to give my landscapes a more precise, sharper look. It's just a different painting aesthetic
11:29
and it's purely up to you what you like and what you don't like. So if you made it to this point
11:34
in the video, congratulations, because that was just a lot of information. So I just figured
11:39
Let's just sum it up really, really quick on all the things that we have discovered in this experiment
11:44
We know that paper comes in many different forms, and the heavier the paper is, usually the better
11:49
If you're looking for great texture, a surface that uses less paint, and a surface that enhances really good paint flow and spreadability, canvas paper is your main man
12:01
If you are looking to do some quick painting mock-ups, do some practice in between canvas paintings, or you want to combine your paintings with other media like colored pencils, paper mache, markers, what have you, mixed media paper is fantastic for this
12:16
Lastly, if you're looking for paper that's going to just have absolutely breathtaking, amazing blendability and colors
12:24
if you're looking for paper that's going to give you a lot of robustness with layering, looking for smooth paint application, it's super sturdy against buckling so you have a better painting experience
12:34
and gives you a more glass-like smooth paint finish, watercolor paper is your main squeeze
12:41
Now, just a quick shout out to Arteza. They did provide me with this watercolor paper for free
12:46
And I just have to say, like, I am blown away. I legit am changing my painting strategy from now on
12:53
Whenever I'm doing my more professional paintings that I'm doing for commission
12:57
definitely going to be using this watercolor paper because it feels amazing
13:02
And if you guys are interested in checking out what this watercolor paper is
13:05
or any of the items that we've talked about in this video, I will include my affiliate link in the description below
13:12
That means I get a small little commission if you happen to buy anything from that link
13:17
but at no extra cost to you. Just think of it as a little thank you for going through this whole rigmarole
13:22
to prove a couple things for you. All right, my queenbies, I hope you enjoyed that experiment
13:28
and learned just a few extra things that paper can do for your projects
13:32
in addition to what type of paper you might prefer for your next project
13:36
If you like this video, please be sure to give it a like and to subscribe to my channel. I'll hit that like button
13:40
You know what to do so that you can see more videos from me to you in the future
13:45
Also ignore all these bits of tape that are on my ceiling at the moment. We are in a reconnaissance portion of my art studio
13:54
Some paintings did fall down. It's okay though, it will be fixed. So don't come at me, okay
13:59
So remember to just have fun with your art, love yourself in the process
14:03
and remember to just be kind. This is your girl, Amanda, the Buzzed Artist and I will see you all next time
14:09
Bye
#Art & Craft Supplies
#Crafts
#House Painting & Finishing
#Painting