HAHNEMUHLE VS LANAQUARELLE PAPER

For students who work in watercolor, I thought I'd share my recent experience with two professional watercolor papers.

Many of you know I created a YouTube video comparing several of the top professional watercolor paper. These tests used 140lb cold-pressed versions of each paper. I paint on 300lb and so was anxious to try the best performers in that weight. Also, my go-to paper was Winsor & Newton, but since producing the video, Winsor & Newton changed their paper and I’ve heard the new line is not very good. I needed a replacement.

So, I’ve been working professionally with Lanaquarelle and Hahnemuhle papers recently - large format, 300lb, and cold-pressed. Here is what I experienced.

Lanaquarelle was a very nice but soft paper to work with. It’s lightly sized so it absorbed the paint rather quickly, but because it’s a well made paper the paint absorbed evenly. It also doesn’t warp very much. One test I wish I had included in the YouTube video is masking fluid, because I discovered that Lanaquarelle was soft enough and unsized enough to pull the top layer of paper off when I removed my Winsor & Newton masking fluid. Also, even though the paper passed the tape test in the video, my artist masking tape roughed up the surface a bit when removed. An easy fix for this was to rub a piece of scrap watercolor paper over the roughed-up edge to smooth it out. I will continue to use this paper and really loved working with it, but I will only use it for pieces that don’t require masking fluid or scrubbing.

If I need to use masking fluid, I will go for the Hahnemuhle Leonardo paper (a heavier version of Cezanne). This was another nice paper, although quite different from the Lanaquarelle. It has more sizing and thus takes longer to absorb the paint. This paper does warp more than Lanaquarelle but returns to flat when dry. My masking fluid didn’t pull up any paper and paint application was pretty even. It also tolerated scrubbing/lifting better than Lanaquarelle - again, because of the surface sizing.

One thing to note: the Hahnemuhle paper isn’t embossed or watermarked as far as I can tell, so determining the front/paintable side of the paper required testing. I used scrap paper to test paint application on each side of the paper making it easy to determine which side I prefer. The smoother side was clearly the intended paintable side. This is something you may need to do when you run into unmarked paper.

I hope this is helpful to you all. They’re both professional grade papers so they are a bit pricey. The Lanaquarelle is the cheaper of the two. You can watch my comparison video on my YouTube Channel: Jill Poyerd Fine Art. https://youtu.be/DZhswCAM32Q

Happy Holidays to you all! - Jill

Jill Poyerd

Professional Fine Artist & Educator

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