Canson XL Watercolor Paper Review

Creating wonderful paintings and drawings takes lots of effort and time. And when an artist wants to use some unusual tools such as watercolor pencils or aquarelle it seems to be a ridiculously easy thing where they should be applied. But not so fast, as almost everyone has doubts and knows very little about each paper types’ features and properties.

Thus, in order to figure out what type of paper will be appropriate for your requirements, the Canson XL Watercolor paper review should reveal all the features and explain their performance in terms of quality and resistance against water.

Design Features

Canson XL Watercolor paper is considered to be student-grade paper; it’s cold pressed, which means that paper has to have texture with tooth. However, Canson XL has a hardly toothy surface. This doesn’t mean that it looks like hot-pressed, which usually has no tooth at all, but the texture is slightly flattened. In addition, it won’t make users confused as to which side is the front and which one is the reverse.

The sheets are held on a glue spine, and this allows them to detach easily. However, this way of attaching makes sheets quite unsafe, since if a user decides to store it in a bag with other things, it may detach unintentionally. Taking pad out of the bag and putting it back in numerous times will destroy the glue spine, thus the sheets will be a mess – this will cause their damage.

The sheets fold nicely and no unexpected crease lines occur. By the way, the pad consists of 30 pieces, which feel quite firm and weighty despite their real weight being 140 lbs. Their size is 11*15 inches which is pretty big. Also this paper is available in other sizes.

Quality of Use

Don’t forget that Canson XL is a student-grade paper, which means it’s made of wood pulp and doesn’t exhibit cotton paper characteristics. In accordance, it has a variety of features which are not desirable and it shows some effects which also haven’t been seen with cotton made paper.

If you apply the lifting color technique, the paper shows quite good results; however, due to a large amount of water, there might appear some paper residue and the color might not come off as nicely as expected, instead leaving some blended stains.

Canson also handles water blending, and it gives beautiful shades of main colors. The same happens with the wet-in-wet technique, as the colors spread well. However, at first, when the user decides to drop color on the water, the color blots will branch, and this effect is called “cauliflower” – as it resembles the branches of this vegetable.

This sample is designed for mixed media, too, so be sure that other tools which apply color or any liquid substance will also work nicely on these surfaces. Speaking about watercolor markers, they do blend nicely with water or just by marker applicator. They also look good when they get dry, and colors stay quite saturated while the stain is in exact shape.

And of course, watercolors pencils perform nicely as well. They leave saturated colors, and the blending is pretty cool.

One more valuable feature which concerns any water-related tool is that none of the techniques hasn’t shown the feather effect, which is really disturbing for artists and sometimes can even destroy drawings. And destroying paper means wasting materials and time. Thus, nobody wants such circumstances.

Despite all of the good results, Canson XL is not an appropriate option for a large amount of water. Thus there is a tip which would save your art from a disaster. Just stick a sheet with tape, so it won’t get warped if you accidentally apply an unbelievable amount of water.

Pros & Cons

The same as lots of products, Canson XL watercolor paper is no exception to pros and cons. It has its own advantages and disadvantages. This is not an ideal sample but still it is a nice option for those who are keen on art and who do their best to improve their skills in various techniques. Pay attention to all details!

Price Range

There are lots of online and offline stores where you can find Canson XL watercolor paper. All of them will show you different prices, but still it is pretty affordable option. Every student or a kid can use it and not be afraid of spending lots of money. Different stores have various prices for the same set. And where to buy is up to you.

Overall Impression

If everyone who studied a couple dozen years ago had had such a pad of watercolor paper, they would have enjoyed every day of studying their art. Definitely, Canson XL is worth the time and money, even more so as this inspires users to find new solutions and approaches in art. WoWPencils will always inform about new and interesting things which are worth your attention.

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