Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper Review

Saunders Waterford watercolor paper from St Cuthberts Mill is a professional-grade paper. It is endorsed by the Royal Watercolour Society, mould-made, and 100% cotton.

I had used the cold pressed version many years ago, but was thrilled to try all three surfaces for this review.

I received one block of:

Cold-press (aka Not) 7” x 10”
Hot-press (aka Satin) 12” x 9”
Rough 12” x 9”

Saunders Waterford Specs

Weight: 300 gsm (140 lb)
No. Of Sheets: 20
Content: 100% Cotton
Surface Sizing: Gelatine, internal and external
Characteristics: Mould made, acid free, archival
Good for Watercolor, gouache, acrylic, pastel, pen & ink, pencil & charcoal

These blocks come in the following sizes:

10 x 7 in / 260 x 180 mm
12 x 9 in / 310 x 230 mm
14 x 10 in / 360 x 260 mm
16 x 12 in / 410 x 310 mm
20 x 14 in / 510 x 360 mm

The paper is also available in sheets, rolls, and pads, and also comes in a High White color.

Saunders Waterford – Look & Feel

The Paper

Saunders Waterford comes in three surfaces — the usual cold press (Not), hot press (Satin) and rough. It’s a mould-made paper, meaning that it’s created by machine but resembles hand-made paper.

It is also acid free, archival, and has both internal and external sizing to give the paper extra strength, and even absorbency.

The difference is that the texture on all of these is even without the knots or unexpected blotches you often get with hand-made. The paper is soft, but stiff — the kind of paper that would bend rather than wrinkle, but would resist bending.

There is always some color shift, where colors are lighter once dry, but it was better than average on all three surfaces.

The cold press surface was about the medium average for cold press. Enough tooth so that you see some texture in the finished painting, but smooth enough to allow fine detail.

The hot press is smooth but does have some tooth. As expected with hot press, the colors stayed brighter, and I was able to get both extra fine detail and see effects such as blossoms more easily.

The rough texture was on the light side of rough. The texture still showed well in the finished work, but allowed a good amount of sharp detail.

I’ll talk more about the way the paper handles when I get to the examples.

The Block

A paper block has sheets that are glued on all four sides, except for an opening on top, about an inch and half wide.

The block has a heavy paper covering with information about St Cuthberts Mill, and one bit of instruction for which I give Kudos to St Cuthberts Mill.

You are told how to remove the paper from the block. This is the first time I’ve seen such instructions and they’ve been sorely needed. Just for that reason, I’d recommend this paper for someone using a block for the first time.

There is also cover sheet attached for protection, that also allows you to practice the paper removal before you try it on a finished painting.

The glue is black, so you can immediately see the opening, and it cuts easily.

Tip; The glue keeps the sheets underneath safe from most spills and enthusiastic painting styles, but paint could get under the opening. I place a piece of tape over it while painting. I also run a damp paper towel or cloth over the glued areas to remove any paint once I remove a painting. That way I don’t accidentally pick it left-over paint and get it on the next painting.

Example Set One – Using Saunders Waterford

For my first set of examples, I drew shapes with masking fluid and cut masking tapes into other shapes. All three surfaces handled them equally well, no tearing on removal. Paint covered these areas as if the masking had never been there.

I painted on the block using an extreme amount of water — standing puddles. All three surfaces puffed up slightly, but flattened as soon as the paper dried. I overworked this set in places, rewetting, lifting color and repainting several times in one spot, to see how the paper would handle the abuse.

Color lifting was moderate. I could lighten color, but didn’t get anywhere near white. It would not be easy to accidentally remove color. I was able to repaint over the areas with no trouble and there was no pilling. The color wasn’t as bright as fresh but that would be true with any paper.

Paint flows well, but hard edges form easily and are almost impossible to soften once dried.

Cold Press

The flow on the cold press surface was great, lots of movement. Granulating paints performed well, and color stayed bright.

The worst overworking was done in the middle — the yellow puffy bushes on both the far right and the far left. You can compare the yellows just in front of them to see the difference between one layer of fresh paint, and one that has been scrubbed and repainted.

Those overworked areas had color lifted and were repainted at least 5 times. They have a soft, diffused look. A lesser paper might have left little pills of torn paper, refused to take any more color, or just turned into ugly mud. I tend to use this look too much, but it’s great for soft tufts of woolly hair or a faint gleam.

Look at the five-leaf flower left front. It wasn’t overworked, but I was glazing and made a poor color choice. There is more than one way to create mud!

Hot Press

See the area at the middle top where the color left little streaks? That’s the kind of thing that can happen with hot press. Many people love these effects. Conversely, others like hot press for the fine detail and control. It’s all in the amount of water. I was more about the effects in this test.

As expected for hot press, the dried colors were more intense than on the cold press or rough.

I was hardest on this paper because hot press is the most delicate of the surfaces, but I didn’t get any pilling, mud or places where I couldn’t add any more color.

Rough

Overall, I went easier on this rough surface than with the other paintings. Having fussed so much with the other two, I wanted to show what color would be like if you just used one layer and let it be. Not that I didn’t test this paper as hard, but I kept most of the overworking in one area — that round tree upper left.

The flow was excellent. Granulating colors really granulated so you get some lovely textures. Despite the rougher texture I was able to get good detail.

As with the other surfaces, the area I scrubbed, lifting color and painting over several times left duller color. There was no pilling, and the paper continued to accept more color.

Example Set Two – Using Saunders Waterford

For my second set of colors, I took a sheet off the block before painting so I could see how much it would curl or dimple if not glued down. Kind of defeats the purpose of a block, but some of you might want to buy this paper in a pad or single sheets. There was a slight *curl to all three surfaces during the initial wash and the finished work isn’t quite as flat as it is off the block. There was no *dimpling or *waffling.

I used both wet-into-wet techniques and wet-into-dry as well as dry-brushing. But I started out with much less water.

What I concentrated on was glazing — painting a thin layer of paint, letting it dry, then painting over it, repeat as needed. I wanted to see if I would end up accidentally lifting color instead of adding — nope, that didn’t happen.

Several glazes were applied, up to seven in some places on each painting. I wanted to see if the paper would stop taking color — nope, that didn’t happen.

I was very impressed by the glazing capabilities of the paper (impressed with myself too, that I didn’t make mud by choosing the wrong colors to layer).

*Curl — the curls upward, usually at one or more corners.

*Dimpling — small spots of the paper sink, so it looks as though the paper has hills and valleys.

*Waffling — an area of the paper sinks, similar to dimpling, but in a long wave, usually from edge to edge.