Bouquet In Blue. 6 x 9 in. watercolor & pen on Bee Paper. 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

I learned first hand, one of the qualities of this paper. Then found a YouTube video that demonstrated the same trait. Bee paper grabs the paint.

I’m not sure if I have used this paper before. I have a pack that I could swear was marked clearance. I thought because they were going to stop carrying it. But I found it is still for sale on the Michaels website. This paper is an odd size, 6 x 9 inches.  It is:

• 140lb/300gsm
• 25 sheets
• 100% cotton
• Acid free and archival
• Cold press surface
• Internally and externally sized

So it grabs the paint. What does that mean? Once you lay the color down, you can’t move it. On a high quality paper, you can go back into an area with water to soften edges, or move the pigment. I did this intentionally, but for example, the bottom right and top left of the table have hard edges. As opposed to smooth blends.

Having said that, I found this paper allowed me to blend smoothly. More so than I would usually want. You can see this throughout the piece. The  background is two colors, and it is very hard to see where one begins and the other ends. I was working very quickly, and I am sure that helped.

The area where I discovered the difficulty was in the flowers. The front facing blooms. I added Burnt Sienna over the Cad. Yellow to mimic a two-toned petal. I wanted the second color to soften and spread along the entire length of the petal. Instead I ended up with a petal that was half yellow and half sienna. Chunky Monkey.

I was so intent on smoothing the petals, I forgot to scan the “before”. It took several attempts. And though I did manage to get a few smooth transitions, it is clearly visible that those blooms are darker. The side view buds are clean Cad. Yellow.

There is a texture to this paper. This video shows you better than I can explain.  The grain did not show up in my painting or the scan. Very surprising that the paint did not settle and highlight it. I opened the scan up at 300 ppi  in Photoshop, and still could not see it.

I was in a hurry to paint and I did not tape down the paper. I worked very wet and the paper only curled a bit on the top and bottom edges. Not bad at all. Terrific actually!

I found that I really enjoyed this size. It’s  not too big, and not too small. It’s juuusst right.  Ha ha. I was very comfortable with it. Blah, blah,blah. That is my long-winded way of saying I am surprising pleased with this paper! I am very happy with this piece.

Bee Paper sells a variety of products including journals. mixed media and pastel paper. I’d really like to try one of their journals.

Enjoy!