In this project I did a bit of a deep dive into paper and the Flower Fire set of Super Vision Rock Mica Layered watercolors. I tired out 10 different papers including 100% cotton cold pressed, 25% cotton cold pressed, pulp based cold pressed and hot pressed. I used all 10 colours provided in this watercolour set with a number 6 round, a number 12 cats tongue and a number 4 mop brush. Here are the colors as they appear on Baohong Academy 100% cotton cold pressed paper. As you can see there is granulation in the colous and some include metallic particles. The colors are vibrant, however the cotton paper handles water differently. I put drops of clean water in each of these circles to deliberately create blooms which are barely visible. I put the extra water in to soon and this allowed the paper to absorb the water more evenly and therefore there are no harsh edges or strong blooms.

On these two other 100% cotton papers, you see the same result, however the metallic particles are so dispersed that there is no real sheen to the surface after drying. This is not what I am looking for. So I agree that 100% cotton paper is not the choice for this project.

In these examples, you can see the different effects on hot press (left) and smoother pulp paper (right). In this case there is granulation but it is more subtle and the metallic particles are more evenly distributed on the hot press. With the smoother cold press the metallic particles appeared more concentrated but only within the water drops making it look very splotchy. Again, not the effect I was looking for but worth noting for future projects.

Here as examples of some of the colors mixed together and with some mark making.

 For the fun of it, I did complete this piece on hot press and I controlled some of the shimmer by pulsing into the edges with more pigment after letting the first layer sit a few minutes. I added neocolor 1 metallic wax pastel on top.

In this sample on cold pressed pulp paper, you can see more granulation as well as the sheen of the metallic particles. The mark making is done with violet and Phtalocyanine green metallic neocolor 1 wax pastels. I wish the violet had a pinker tone to compliment the other metallics.

In this sample on cold pressed pulp paper, you can see the granulation and separation of the bluey purple metallic particles. This also has the violet neocolor 1 wax pastel for the marks.

Here are the two large pieces I completed.  I chose to do the repetitive pattern.  I used color 319 in both pieces with a teal Arteza roller ball pen for the mark making. I used the mop brush for one and the cats tongue for the other. I prefer the first one with the mop brush which grouped the metallic particles together nicer. I tried tilting the page so you could see the sheen of the gold metallic that is already in this color. You can see it best in the bottom right corner. The second piece uses the cats tongue brush and also includes some gold posca pen for marks.

 Sorry for the long post, but I though the exploration worth sharing.