Choosing paper that holds a gouache wash

6 min read · written in the studio

Gouache puts more water on a sheet than people expect, then asks the sheet to stay flat while a second opaque layer goes over the top. Thin paper does neither.

Weight is the first number to read

Grams per square metre tells you how much fibre is in the sheet. More fibre means more water absorbed before the sheet starts to cockle, and more body to survive lifting a mistake off with a damp brush. Our pads run at 180 and 200 gsm, which is the band where gouache stops fighting the paper.

Below about one hundred and fifty, a wet wash pulls the sheet into ridges that never fully flatten, and the second layer pools in the valleys. You can tape the edges down to work around it, but at that point the heavier pad was the cheaper answer.

Sheets you will actually get through

Pads look generous until you start a working week. A daily sketchbook habit eats twenty sheets a month without trying. Buying one heavy pad and one pocket book usually beats buying two of the same thing.

The heaviest stock in the range
Pad	Sheets	Weight
Spiral Bound Gouache Paper Pad 5.9 inch by 8.3 inch, 40 Sheets	40	200 gsm
Mix Media Paper Pad 9 by 12 inch (180g/m2) 40 Sheets Mix Paper Pad	40	180 gsm
Mix Media Paper Pad 9 by 12 inch (180g/m2) 90 Sheets Mix Paper Pad	90	180 gsm
Gouache Pad 7 by 10 inch (98lb/160g) 50 Sheets Mix Paper Pad	50	Mixed media stock
Gouache Pad 8.5 by 8.5 inch (98lb/160g) 50 Sheets Mix Paper Pad	50	Mixed media stock
Art Pocket Sketchbook, 4.72 by 4.72 inch Portable Hardcover Sketch Pad	Bound	Mixed media stock

Surface and lift

A cold press surface has enough tooth to hold pigment where you put it, which is what you want under a flat opaque coat. Smoother stock reads better under line work and lettering but shows every brush hesitation in a large flat area.

Sizing is the part nobody mentions. It is the treatment that stops the sheet drinking a wash straight into the fibre. Well sized paper lets you lift a shape back out with a damp brush an hour later. Poorly sized paper takes the pigment and keeps it.

Sketchbooks are a different job

A pocket book has to survive a bag, so the cover matters as much as the stock. We keep the sketchbooks hardbound for that reason. Expect to work slightly drier in a bound book than on a pad: a sheet glued along one edge has nowhere to expand, and a soaking wash will ripple it even at a decent weight.