Your ARCHES® Aquarelle paper: block or pad?
If you paint with watercolours, you know that ARCHES® Aquarelle paper is the best choice. But do you favour blocks glued on all four sides or pads glued on just one side?
Generally, you will begin by choosing the ideal surface texture for your technique or desired effect. Cold pressed paper is the most versatile, while hot pressed is better suited to mixed media work, and rough will give you texture and depth.
Once you have decided what surface texture is best for your technique, you will need to choose the weight. The weight most often used is 300 gsm because it can absorb a lot of water, which means the pigments will be evenly distributed.
Here are a few hints that will enable you to choose the format best suited to your needs:
Block
A watercolour block will contain 10 to 20 sheets of paper bound together by glue on all four sides to keep them tight and flat. When you open an ARCHES® Aquarelle block, you will find a sheet of black paper; this is there to protect the top sheet of watercolour paper. This protective sheet should be carefully removed with a thin blade when you are ready to start painting. Some artists use this black sheet to make a card, an origami model or a mixed media artwork… making sure nothing goes to waste!
ARCHES® Aquarelle blocks are therefore ready to use. That makes them ultra-practical whether you paint at home, in a studio or outdoors! The paper remains flat when wetted, with hardly any warping or buckling and is left in place until the painting is finished and dry. It can then be removed from the block to be displayed or framed.
ARCHES® Aquarelle blocks are available in 300 gsm and 640 gsm.
Pad
Pads are glued on one side only: practical, because you can have several sheets in the same format without having to cut the paper to size. The sheets are held together and protected by a cover so there is no risk of damaging them. Once detached from the pad they can be stretched on a board using gummed brown paper tape or masking tape.
ARCHES® Aquarelle pads are available in 185 gsm and 300 gsm.
