This week's newsletter talk's about the differences of the Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress compared to the Stonehenge Aqua Hotpress.
Most of my students that are my beginners in my class I have them use coldpress watercolor paper.
Coldpress has a texture to the paper and the paper absorbs the watercolor more then the Hotpress.
With the coldpress you get absorbing watercolors into the paper but that also gives you more soft edges and texture.
The hotpress on the other hand is super slick and it doesn't give the paper a chance for the pigment to absorb as much into the paper, this in turn makes it quite difficult to control a soft edge making you get hard edges and puddling washes.
Scrubbing out is easier on a hot press because the paint is sitting on top of a hard slick paper surface instead of soaking into a coldpress textured absorbing surface.
If you are looking for more vibrant colors then the Hotpress makes your colors look more vibrant because they sit on top of the surface and show pure pigment. When the pigment absorbs into a coldpress paper the colors get weakened because much of the pigment is absorbed into the paper, making it less vibrant.
I don't feel that one paper is better then the other, it just handles differently. there are times I like the look of hard edges with vibrant colors and for that I use Hotpress. Then there are days when I want soft edges and texture so on those days I use Coldpress.
Below you can see the difference in the use of Coldpress compared to the Hotpress
